{"id":39072,"date":"2018-10-05T07:11:42","date_gmt":"2018-10-05T05:11:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/39072-truth-commission-meets-with-gambians.html"},"modified":"2018-10-05T07:11:42","modified_gmt":"2018-10-05T05:11:42","slug":"truth-commission-meets-with-gambians","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/en\/39072-truth-commission-meets-with-gambians.html","title":{"rendered":"Truth Commission meets with Gambians"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nearly two years after elections that ended the reign of dictator Yahya Jammeh, a Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission will soon start work in Gambia. Its inauguration is scheduled for October 15. But for the moment, Gambians still have a lot of doubts and questions, which they were able to put to some of the commissioners in public discussions.<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

About 200 people mop their brow under overworked fans in a big hall next to a church. Despite the stifling heat, Gambians have turned out in their best clothes. This meeting taking place on September 22 in the Westfield suburb of Banjul aims to gather people of all religions, ages and ethnic groups. \u00a0<\/p>\n

In an atmosphere of dialogue, people start to speak their questions or thoughts on the Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission which will soon start its investigations. The creation of this commission was one of the first transitional measures announced by the new government that came to power in early 2017. After 22 years of authoritarian rule under Yahya Jammeh, the aim is to shed light on the arbitrary arrests, forced disappearances and murders, so as to understand how the system worked and later be able to turn the page.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to tell the truth\u201d<\/h3>\n

In Westfield, there is a mixture of local languages and English. Several members of the Commission, installed on the rostrum, try to answer the questions: what exactly is the mandate of the Commission? How can it ensure that victims of sexual violence have sufficient trust to come and testify?\u00a0And how can we be sure that truth and justice come out of this Commission?<\/p>\n

\n

Today we the victims want to tell the truth about what happened to us, before thinking about reconciliation. Finally we are going to be able to tell what happened.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Personal stories then start gradually to come out. In the first row, a group of four grandfathers waits patiently to be able to speak. \u201cWe were arrested in 1995 by security forces,\u201d Sainey Faye confided before the meeting began. \u201cIn the premises of the intelligence service, they undressed us, gave us electric shocks and forced us to speak.\u201d This is a story that he has never yet shared in public. \u201cToday we the victims want to tell the truth about what happened to us, before thinking about reconciliation,\u201d he says. \u201cFinally we are going to be able to tell what happened.\u201d<\/p>\n

Testimonies rapidly become tinted with anger. One woman expresses anger that some victims who need medical care are being abandoned. A school director says he is astonished to see that former members of the Jammeh system are still in positions of power.\u00a0<\/p>\n

High expectations<\/h3>\n

The conversation is not easy to manage for the freshly appointed commissioners, but this desire to share and discuss is encouraging, says Adelaide Sosseh, vice-president of the Commission. \u201cWithout your participation, the Commission will not be able to play its role,\u201d she tells the gathering.<\/p>\n

This public meeting also brings awareness that Gambians have very diverse expectations with regard to the role of the Commission. Some hope to get back their confiscated property, others want to see their torturers jailed or think that the process could cure the country of problems like unemployment. After the meeting, commissioner Mustapha Kah has realized that people must be reminded often of what powers the Commission has. \u201cSometimes expectations go beyond our mandate,\u201d he says. \u201cFor example, we can\u2019t create jobs. And we are not a court. One of our main tasks is to investigate what happened and, if necessary, we will sometimes recommend prosecution in the courts.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the back of the room are younger faces under sports caps. Yahya Baldeh, 19, has come with friends. \u00a0\u201cThey say that young people are the future of society,\u201d he says, \u201cso I think I can learn a lot from all this and later change things.\u201d \u00a0Baldeh thinks that his generation should have a significant part in the process.<\/p>\n

A role for the young<\/h3>\n

It is precisely to give them a voice that a youth summit was organized a week later. Some one hundred young people from all over the country meeting in a Banjul hotel were able to express their concerns to members of the Commission.<\/p>\n

But the concerns are similar for all ages. \u201cIn our Gambian culture, problems are dealt with in the community, not in public,\u201d says Muhammed Bah, a participant in the summit. \u201cIn addition, everyone knows everyone here, so it will take a lot of awareness-raising to get people to trust and to talk. If they don\u2019t feel at ease and don\u2019t have trust, they will remain silent or will give false information. We need to make everyone understand that this is not a witch hunt.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

It is difficult to obtain reconciliation when there is no justice and the guilty parties do not pay for their crimes.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

At 19, Fatoumatta Bondi is also very engaged in the discussions and has already studied the subject as a law student. \u201cIn South Africa, thousands of testimonies were gathered,\u201d\u00a0she comments. \u201cAnd yet in the end there were very few prosecutions. \u00a0It is difficult to obtain reconciliation when there is no justice and the guilty parties do not pay for their crimes. So I hope that is not the case here, and that if the Commission recommends prosecutions they will actually happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

These first meetings cannot answer all the questions, but they give an idea of the scale of the Commission\u2019s task. They also allow Gambians to own a bit more a process that has up to now appeared vague and distant to them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nearly two years after elections that ended the reign of dictator Yahya Jammeh, a Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission will soon start work in Gambia. Its inauguration is scheduled for October 15. But for the moment, Gambians still have a lot of doubts and questions, which they were able to put to some of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":64,"featured_media":65029,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[542],"tags":[],"ji_location":[2509],"class_list":["post-39072","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-truth-commissions","ji_location-gambia"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nTruth Commission meets with Gambians - JusticeInfo.net<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/en\/39072-truth-commission-meets-with-gambians.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Truth Commission meets with Gambians\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Nearly two years after elections that ended the reign of dictator Yahya Jammeh, a Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission will soon start work in Gambia. 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