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Mathew K. Jallow

June 25, 2009

Madison, WI

Dr. Mohammed Ibn Chambas                                                        

President, ECOWAS Commission                                                  

Abuja, Nigeria

Your Excellency,

Sir, you may have by now been made aware of the latest mass arrest of journalists in The Gambia. This letter of protest, drawing attention to this gross human rights violation in our country, is one of several, addressed to various regional and international organs and copied to your Excellency, over the past few years. Gambians are now comforted by the fact our regional brothers and sisters and the international community have begun taking positions in support of Gambians in their plight. This is indeed a new day to be proud of in Africa. In our region, Media Foundation of West Africa (MFWA) has been the leading advocate in the effort to demand accountability and bring Gambia’s plight to the forefront of regional and international consciousness. And at the international level too, Amnesty International (AI) and the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) among a slew of others, continue to make a case against the abuses in The Gambia, and to bring this awareness to European and the U.S audiences. In the U.S, six powerful Democratic Senators, headed by the indomitable Edward Kennedy, MA; and including Richard (Dick) Durbin, IL; and Russ Fiengold, WI, among others, have taken up our cause and written to Yahya Jammeh expressing their concerns over the disappearance of Daily Observer journalist Mr. Ebrima Chief Manneh. This is more that we could ever hope for. 

The past fifteen years since Yahya Jammeh was handed the reigns of power in Gambia on a silver platter, by a group of naïve young soldiers, The Gambia has never been the same. First, Jammeh began consolidating power by systematically eliminating his fellow coupists by murdering, incarcerating and exiling them. And in the military and security services, Jammeh purged officers belonging to other tribes whom he felt posed a threat to his ambition for absolute power, replacing them with mostly poorly educated members of his own Jola tribesmen; even drawing and recruiting them from the neighboring Senegal region of Western Casamance. With no one left in the military to challenge his climb to absolute power, Jammeh proceeded to assemble and train two groups of assassins; one from the ranks of the military and security services, the other consisting of a group of vulnerable, illiterate and poorly educated civilian youth members of his military political party, the APRC. Jammeh and his paid assassins then went to work, resulting to a spate of summary executions, forced disappearances, tortures, incarcerations and the incessant arrests and detentions of innocent Gambians over the past several years. To date, the whereabouts and the mysterious disappearances of more than a dozen military, security officers and civilians are still unknown and most families are too scared to ask. Those families brave enough to ask, found them selves hitting walls at every turn. Since the Jammeh regime began its assault on Gambians, more than a hundred and fifty people, including forty-five Ghanaians, 2 Togolese and one Senegalese, have been murdered by his agents of death, through summary executions, strangulations and from the tortures suffered while held in in-communicado detention.

While the above narrative provides a broader perspective about the general situation in The Gambia, the specifics relative to the regime’s onslaught on the media are equally disconcerting. Since 1994, more than thirty-five journalists have been forced into exile, and among those who remain, frequent arrests and detentions are the order of the day. The intensity of the intimidation of the media has forced remaining media houses to self-censure; effectively avoiding publishing human-interest stories they believe might offend the regime. The instances of murders, arrests and tortures and even firings of senior civil servants have to be sent to Gambia’s online media operating from the U.S, because the remaining independent media will not publish them. The Gambian journalists who fled the regime of Yahya Jammeh’s eventually regrouped and founded several online papers, which are the primary source of news about The Gambia for Gambians. The country’s once leading independent newspaper, The Daily Observer, now the regime’s mouthpiece, was brought by a close associate of Jammeh’s not long after its founder, Mr. Kenneth Y. Best, a Liberian, was arrested on his way to church, hand-cuffed, bundled in an unmarked state vehicle and sped away to the airport for the flight bound for then war-torn Liberia, leaving his entire family behind. That day marked the beginning of the end of the once vibrant and thriving independent media in The Gambia. The arrest and deportation of Mr. Kenneth Best, was indeed the beginning of what turned out to be the regime’s persistent scourge earth policy towards the media as documented below.

Murdered Journalists.

December 17^th. 2004, Deida Hydara, President and Co-Founder of The Gambia Press Union, Correspond for APF, the Treasurer of the West African Journalist Association (WAJA) and Proprietor and Managing Director of the independent Point Newspaper, was shot at close range shortly after leaving his office around mid-night.

April 10^th. 2000, Omar Barrow, News Editor at SUD-FM Radio was shot while he was covering a students’ demonstration in the Kanifing suburbs of SereKunda.

April 2008, the death of journalist Ebrima Chief Manneh, a news editor and a reporter with the Daily Observer, was confirmed, more than three years after his arrest by agents of the feared National Security Agency (NIA).

Arsons.

August 8^th. 2001, Radio Station 1 FM, was set ablaze around 2 a.m. in the morning, after proprietor George Christensen and his watchman were doused with hazardous chemicals in the hope of incinerating them. The two victims survived the ordeal, but the station was a total loss.

August 10^th. 2001, the home of Alieu Bah, Radio I FM journalist, who moderated debates and discussions between prominent personalities, was set ablaze around 3 a.m. while he, his wife and children were asleep. The family narrowly escaped death, but the house was gutted to the ground.

October 17^th. 2003, The Independent Newspaper premises were set on fire around 3 a.m in the morning when three unidentified masked men stormed the building, assaulted the night watchman and then sprayed him with fire hazard chemical in the hope he would burn to death. But he luckily survived the assault. The premises were destroyed beyond recognition.

April 13^th. 2004, the Kanifing printing facilities of the Independent Newspaper was set on fire around 2 a.m. by six individuals dressed in military fatigue. The printing machinery and other hardware equipment were completely destroyed.

August 15^th. 2004, the home of B.B.C reporter, Ebrima Sillah was set on fire as he slept. He narrowly escaped.

Arrests and Detentions.

September 19^th. 2003, around 6 p.m. Abdoulie Sey, the Editor-in-Chief, The Independent Newspaper was arrested from his office by intelligence agents and held incommunicado. He was released four days later.

September 2005, Musa Saidykhan, Editor-in-Chief, The Independent Newspaper, was detained for interrogation for a brief period of time shortly after returning from a South African journalist conference.

March 27^th. 2006, Musa Saidykhan, Editor-in-Chief, The Independent Newspaper, was arrested again by security agents a few days after publishing an article critical of Yahya Jammeh’s reactions in the wake of an alleged coup attempt on March 21, 2007. Released after three weeks in detention.

March 2006, Madi Ceesay, The Independent General Manager, arrested by the regime’s agents, was released after three weeks of detention.

April 10^th. 2006, Independent reporter, Lamin Fatty was arrested from his home by NIA agents and released after two months in detention and charged with false publication.

April 25^th. 2006, Independent receptionist, Juldeh Sowe, was arrested and released after several hours.

July 7^th. 2006, Daily Observer journalist, Ebrima Chief Manneh, was arrested by NIA officials from the Observer premises, was seen in public once after two years detention, at the Royal Victoria Hospital, sick and emaciated. Manneh has since been confirmed dead.

May 24^th. 2006, following the hacking of the online newspaper, Freedom Newspaper, five journalists whose names appeared on the list of Freedom subscribers were arrested and detained for different lengths of time. After several months everyone was eventually released. They are:

• Musa Sheriff
• Pa Modou Faal
• Lamin Cham
• Sam Obi
• Malick Mboob

September 2006, a Gambia Radio and Television Services reporter, Dodou Sanneh, was arrested and detained, and later fired, rehired and fired again from his job government job.

March 28^th. 2007, Fatou Jaw Manneh, a U.S. based Gambian journalist, was arrested at the airport, her traveling documents seized and charged with sedition. Her Kangaroo trial lasted more than a year. Her heavy fine was paid with donations from family and friends from all around the world.

December 16^th. 2005, Ramatoulie Charreh was ruffed up by police after the participants in a conference she attended, attempted to visit the spot where journalist Deida Hydara was gunned down.

In mid 2006, Njemeh Bah, Point Newspaper reporter, attacked by unknown assailants, was severely beaten.

December 12. 2006, Baron Eloagou, reporter for the Daily Express, was severely beaten by unknown assailants.

December 2006, Abdougafar Olademinji, reporter for the Daily Express, was attacked by unknown assailants and beaten severely.

June 14^th. 2009, seven journalists and members of the Gambia Press Union (GPU), were rounded up from various locations by heavily armed paramilitary agents and detained at NIA headquarters before being transferred to the notorious Mile 2 prison outside Banjul. The group listed below, were granted bail and charged with publishing seditious material.

·         Emil Touray, Secretary General Gambia Press Union

·         Sarata Jabbi Dibba, Vice President, Gambia Press Union

·         Pa Modou Faal, Treasurer, Gambia Press Union

·         Pap Saine, Managing Director, The Point Newspaper

·         Ebou Sawaneh, Editor, The Point Newspaper

·         Sam Sarr, Managing Editor, The Foroyaa Newspaper

·         Abubakr Saidy-Khan, journalist, Foroyaa newspaper.

June 16^th. 2009, Abdulhamid Adiamoh, Publisher of The Today Newspaper, was arrested for false publication and detained at National Intelligence headquarters. Forced to plead guilty or face deportation back to Nigeria, he was fine an extortive amount of money or face six months jail time.

June 22^nd. 2009, Augustime Kanja, a reporter for The Point Newspaper, was arrested and detained by security agents. He was released June 25^th, 2009.

Sir, the above information then tells the story of what the independent media is subjected to and experiencing on a daily basis in The Gambia. Over the past eight months alone, the Point Newspaper Managing Director, Pap Saine, has been dragged into court over false allegations that even the court throw out as unsubstantiated. In addition, the regime takes it to itself to decide which court rulings to obey or simply ignore. On several occasions, the local courts in The Gambia, have ruled that the state had no reason to hold journalists beyond the 72 hours as stipulated by Gambian law, and, therefore, ordered their release, but the regime simply ignored the court and continued to hold journalists for days, weeks, months and even years. In the case of Ebrima Chief Manneh, the ECOWAS court rule in his favor after MFWA brought his case to the ECOWAS court in 2008, again the regime ignored the regional court. Journalist Ebrima Chief Manneh, on whose behalf the six U.S. wrote to Yahya Jammeh, was confirmed dead three months ago; three years after agents arrested him from his place of work at The Daily Observer.

Next week, letter about the massacre of more than forty-five Ghanaian, Togolese, and Senegalese nationals, addressed to African Union President, will be copied your honor among other dignitaries and institutional heads.

Sir, Gambians hope the issues of grave human rights abuses they have been subjected to will no longer be ignored by ECOWAS, African Union and international institutions such as the U.N and Western governments.

Yours Truly

…………………

Mathew K Jallow

Mathew Jallow is founding member and International Coordinator of National Movement for the Restoration of Democracy in The Gambia (NMRDG); Interim President, Gambia Press Association-USA, and Associate Editor, The Gambia Echo Newspaper.

C.C.

• Executive Secretary, African Union, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
• Senegalese Foreign Minister, Dakar, Senegal
• Nigerian Foreign Minister, Abuja, Nigeria
• South African Foreign Minister, Pretoria, South Africa
• Her Excellency, Dr. Susan E. Rice, U.S Ambassador, United Nations, New York
• His Excellency, British Ambassador, United Nations, New York
• His Excellency, Chinese Ambassador, United Nations, New York
• Executive Director, Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA), Accra, Ghana
• Executive Director, Amnesty International, London, United Kingdom
• Executive Director, Committee to Protect Journalists, New York, New York