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The Gambia Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission (TRRC) will study how at least 56 West African citizens, including 44 Ghanaians, died in 2005 when it resumes public hearings on October 12 in Banjul.
The TRRC took a two-week break this year following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.
TRRC Executive Secretary Baba Galleh Jallow explained in a statement: “The decision to resume the public hearings was made after careful consultation and consideration of the COVID-19 situation in the country.
“The TRRC is also aware of the palpable desire of the Gambian public for the hearings to resume.”
The families of West African migrants who were killed and 11 human rights organizations around the world have been lobbying for the past 15 years to find out what happened to the victims who were allegedly killed by members of the Gambian security forces who They acted under the orders of then President Yahya Jammeh.
“A credible international investigation is needed if we are ever to get to the bottom of the 2005 massacre of migrants from West Africa and create the conditions to bring those responsible to justice,” said Emeline Escafit, legal adviser at TRIAL International.
“So far, the information has come out in spurts and piles, year after year, from different sources.”
On July 22, 2005, the Gambian security forces arrested the migrants on suspicion of involvement in an attempted coup after their ship, bound for Europe, landed in the Gambia.
Over the next 10 days, the migrants – 44 Ghanaians, nine Nigerians, two Togolese and nationals of Côte d’Ivoire and Senegal, plus one Gambian – were killed in the Gambia or brought across the border into Senegal, shot and thrown their bodies in wells.
“I have been fighting for 15 years for truth and justice for my colleagues who were killed,” said Martin Kyere from Ghana, who jumped into the forest from a moving truck carrying other detained migrants who were killed shortly after.
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When Mr. Kyere returned to Ghana, he began to reunite the families of the victims.
“African leaders say that migrants should be treated with dignity, but for us, honoring their memory means justice, not lies and cover-ups.”
Groups seeking justice for Ghanaian victims include Africa Legal Aid (AFLA), based in The Hague, and the Office of the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative in Africa, which was established by the Gambia Task Force in 2007.
During the 17th Assembly of States Parties (ASP) of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in 2018, AFLA convened a side event to bring Jammeh to justice.
Mr. Kyere, one of the three Ghanaian survivors of the 2005 massacres, was invited to the AFLA meeting where he asked why there had been no justice for migrants from West Africa.
“In Ghana, we have circuit courts, we have superior courts, we have the Court of Appeals and we have the Supreme Court,” he said.
“In Africa, we have the ECOWAS Court and the African Court, so why can’t there be justice for the victims of Jammeh?”
A campaign group, Jammeh2JusticeGhana, launched in Accra in 2018, called for the prosecution of Jammeh.
“Taking Jammeh to trial in Ghana would be just a first step in ensuring that the former Gambian strongman does not escape the wings of justice,” said Evelyn Ankumah, executive director of AFLA.
During the launch, the event president, Judge Emile Short, the first chairman of the Ghana Human Rights and Administrative Justice Commission, and former ad litem judge of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, highlighted the judicial options available to Mr. Jammeh to be prosecuted by the government of Ghana.
Noting that Mr. Jammeh’s extradition to Ghana would be required, Judge Short opined: “Given the evidence that has been collected and the seriousness of the crimes, which have been demonstrated by those who have testified, I believe that momentum can be assembled to guarantee international support for a request for the extradition of Yahya Jammeh to Ghana to face trial ”.
In December 2019, President Nana Akufo-Addo told the media that, having heard the confessions of the Junglers, members of Jammeh’s death squad, the Gambian government should “instigate the trials” of people who they had been named.
The Gambian government said it was awaiting the TRRC’s recommendations, expected in 2021, before deciding which Jammeh-era crimes to prosecute.
The Commission’s initial plan was to end the public hearings this month.
“However, as a result of two public hearing suspensions due to the COVID-19 situation, that is clearly not possible,” said TRRC’s Jallow.
“As it is, the hearings can continue until the first quarter of 2021.”
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