Ghanaian Victims Petition The Gambia's Justice Minister

Ghanaian Victims petition the Gambia’s Ministry of Justice (c) Yusef Taylor

By Yusef Taylor, @FlexDan_YT

Ghanaian Victims petitioned The Gambia’s Minister of Justice during a public lecture on the Transitional Justice process on 3rd May 2024. The petition titled “The Cry of the Ghanaian Victims of the 2005 Gambia Killing”, includes concerns and five demands for The Gambia Government signed by 36 people. Present to receive the petition was the Special Advisor on Transitional Justice to the Minister of Justice, Ms Ida Persson who shared some words in response.

The Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission (TRRC) investigated human rights violations which occurred from 1994 to 2017 under the leadership of former President Yahya Jammeh. One of the most brutal and heinous human rights violations was the killing of some 54 West Africans and their Gambian Agent Lamin Tunkara. The TRRC revealed that after some 67 West African Migrants arrived in The Gambia on 22nd July 2005 they were apprehended at Barra and detained in Banjul. The group were labelled as mercenaries and moved to various locations where orders from President Jammeh led to their death.

The TRRC exposed how “dead bodies were discovered in a forest at the Tanji Bird Reserve towards Tanji Village”. More dead bodies were also found at Ghana Town where some Ghanaians settled in The Gambia. However, this did not stop Security Officers from hatching a plan to destroy and fabricate evidence contained in the Police Diaries and misleading the UN/ECOWAS Investigation Team sent to The Gambia to investigate the issue.

According to the TRRC, Ghana’s current President Nana Akufo Addo was the Ghanaian Foreign Minister at the time and met with former President Jammeh on the matter which forced the Gambia to commence an investigation that “was blighted with falsehoods, cover-ups, and destruction of evidence”.

The TRRC recommended for the prosecution of some 14 people including former President Yahya Jammeh, former Interior Minister Ousman Sonko currently facing trial in Switzerland, Sanna Manjang and many others and this was accepted by the Government’s White Paper. The Government also agreed to pay reparations of D32.4 million to the 54 victims.

The main concern noted in the petition states that: “strangely, we have not received any information or communication concerning the progress and procedures on the implementation of the TRRC report either is the Ghana Government communication with us although we have communicated severally to them”.

Five reliefs have been included in the petition demanding; “1. That the government of the Gambia should communicate with us, the Ghanaian victims any information concerning the TRRC report implementation, 2. That the government of Gambia should prosecute Yahya Jammeh and the Junglers for the unlawful disappearance and killing of the victims, 3. That the government of the Gambia should pay the reparations recommended by the TRRC to all the West African Migrants, 4. That the government of Gambia should exhume the dead bodies and give them to the families for proper burial and 5. That the government of the Gambia should provide psychological counselling services to the family members”.

During the presentation of the petition, Mr Emmanuel Oduro Mensah who addressed the audience via Zoom highlighted that “our government who is supposed to represent us to serve our interest as a nation as citizens. We’re also not hearing anything from the [Ghanian] Government that maybe the Gambia Government has communicated to us, a, b or c. And so therefore this is information you need to hear. We’re not hearing anything from our government as well”.

Mr Mensah continued to explain how the Ghanaian Victims “are now in a dilemma. So based on that we wrote a petition to the Minister of Justice of the Gambia, seeking or drawing their attention that we are not hearing anything from the government of The Gambia. We are using this opportunity to plead with them that they are doing well but we the Ghanaian Victims, they should extend their good works to us”.

In responding to the petition Ms Persson urged the Ghanaian victims to keep working with Gambian Civil Society Organisations such as the Women’s Association for Victims Empowerment (WAVE) and the Alliance of Victim-Led Organisations (AVLO). She reassured all victims that they were working expeditiously to select the commissioners of the Reparations Commission. She welcomed the Petition and promised to share it with the Justice Minister.

The presentation occurred at a public lecture on Transitional Justice organised by WAVE in partnership with the Ministry of Justice and the African Center for Legal Research and Training supported by the Fund for Global Human Rights.