By Haddy Touray
The victims of the April 10-11 2000 student protest are calling on the government of the Gambia led by President AdamaBarrow to establish an interim reparations commission that will expedite the reparation process for victims with immediate needs.
They made this disclosure in an exclusive interview with The Voice, where they highlighted that many victims are finding it difficult to foot the bills of their children’s school fees, and medical fees as well as providing necessities for their families.
“I must affirm that I lost confidence in the whole reparation process as the process of establishing the reparations commission is very slow while victims continue to suffer in pain and agony. Personally, I’m suffering with my family as we continue to patiently wait for our compensation from the government since the completion of the work of the Truth Reconciliation and Reparations Commission (TRRC),” BintaManneh, a rape victim of April 2000, student protest, said.
She added: “Right now, I am finding it difficult to put food on the table for my family let alone pay the school fees of my children going to school. It was my husband who used to take care of the needs of my family but he’s no longer working which is causing unbearable suffering to my family.”
According to her, the only support rendered to her was D19,000from the TRRC in 2019, and since then no other support has come from the government. She argued that the continuous dragging of the reparations commission is taking a great toll on the lives and livelihoods of the victims of the former regime of Yahya Jammeh.
“It’s very unfortunate that the government still cannot compensate the victims who are dying one by one due to lack of medical and psychological support from the government. Many other victims are wallowing in agony and lack the means to provide medical and schooling needs for their families, some of whom have died while others risk dropping out from school due entirely to the government’s slow pace of reparations settlement,” Abdou Karim Jammeh a victim told The Voice.
He added: “It’s sad and disheartening to note that people like Binta Manneh, are still suffering and crying for help to pay their children’s school fees, this is very unacceptable and a betrayal to the plight of the victims of April 10/11. For me, I don’t think the Government is concerned about the continuous suffering of the victims because if they do they would have followed the footsteps of the TRRC and established an interim reparations commission that will address the immediate needs of the victims.”
According to him, when TRRC instituted an interim reparations commission many victims including himself were able to benefit from overseas treatment and financial support for their families, arguing that the Government should also institute a similar interim reparations commission that will identify all victims especially those in really needs and intervene accordingly to address their problem without which more victims will die sooner or later.
Yusuf Tailor aka Flex Dan, a journalist and leading advocate for the victims of the former regime ascertained that the government through the Ministry of Justice is on the verge of setting up the reparations commission that will handle the plights of victims of the former regime. He affirmed that it may take a year or more before the Victims Reparations Commission comes to a full-fledged operation and addresses the many concerns of the victims.
Tailor agreed with the victims that the government should come up with an interim reparations commission that would address the needs of the victims.
He added that some need one form of support or another, observing that the Interim Reparations Commission will be able to identify and address those victims who need urgent actions for their plights.
