{"id":74778,"date":"2021-03-11T11:27:41","date_gmt":"2021-03-11T10:27:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/?p=74778"},"modified":"2021-03-11T11:31:46","modified_gmt":"2021-03-11T10:31:46","slug":"gambia-story-government-sanctioned-massacre-cover-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/en\/74778-gambia-story-government-sanctioned-massacre-cover-up.html","title":{"rendered":"Gambia: The story of a government-sanctioned massacre and its cover-up"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

After establishing that the July 2005 massacre of more than 50 West African migrants was perpetrated by state authorities, Gambia\u2019s Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission has exposed the government\u2019s cover-up that followed. No one from the entire security sector of the country was spared.<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

On July 23, 2005, eight bodies who appeared to have been killed by blunt objects, with blood oozing out of their mouths and noses, were found by villagers in Brufut, in a forest near Ghana Town, some 45-minute drive from Banjul, Gambia\u2019s capital city. Who these people were and who killed them at the time was privileged information known to only the top brass of the Gambia\u2019s national intelligence agency, military, police and Yahya Jammeh\u2019s presidential palace. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to evidence now uncovered by the Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission (TRRC), this was a state-sanctioned massacre, followed by a state-manufactured cover-up. More than 50 West African migrants, arrested a day before, had been executed in different locations by Gambia\u2019s security agents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the first persons to arrive at the scene was Gambia\u2019s crime management coordinator Pa Amady Jallow. Jallow was not privy to the facts or circumstances of their death. \u201cI was traumatized and confused as head of crimes in the country. I believed it was a massacre inside the forest,\u201d Jallow told the TRRC on March 1. What the unsuspecting police officer did not know was that his boss, the Inspector General of the Police, all heads of security services and their commander-in-chief, President Yahya Jammeh, had an answer to his new crime puzzle. And they, the government, intended to keep it secret. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Removing the unknowing lead investigator<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

While at the crime scene with the police photographer, Jallow said that Inspector General of the Police Ousman Sonko<\/a> \u2013 who is currently in pre-trial detention in Switzerland \u2013 arrived. \u201cI suspect a foul play and it is barbaric\u201d, Jallow told him. He would reiterate the same statement in an interview with the country\u2019s leading newspaper at the time, the Daily Observer. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jallow noticed that Sonko neither went to see the bodies nor did he ask about them or entered the crime scene. Sonko, in fact, was in the know. (He would become Minister of Internal Affairs the following year and would keep the position for ten years.) As established by previous witnesses before the Commission<\/a>, Gambia\u2019s authorities had the migrants killed. And now they were making sure to frustrate any effort to uncover the truth about the circumstances of their crime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That began with taking the lead investigator off the case. Soon after Jallow had started a preliminary investigation, he got a word that he was transferred to traffic police where he was to serve as a commissioner. \u201cI felt it was a conspiracy against me and immediately I was expecting a sack,\u201d Jallow testified.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Pa
Pa Amady Jallow, the officer was transferred to trafic police in order not to investigate the massacre of migrants. \u00a9 Mustapha K. Darboe<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Only two original recordings of the arrests<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

From there, getting rid of physical evidence began. Baboucarr Bah was the assistant senior officer at the Barra police station, the first place where the migrants had been arrested and detained. Bah was the first to have had an encounter with the migrants and he had written down their names. He and his boss at the Barra police station, Abraham Jawara Demba, both confirmed before the TRRC last week that they arrested and transferred the migrants to the navy base in Banjul, a process which was facilitated by lead investigator of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) Ousman Jallow, Gambian navy and soldiers from the State Guards.    <\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the police station, Bah made two copies of the names of the migrants, one of which was handed over to the TRRC by Ngorr Secka, the then head of operations at the NIA. He recorded 51 names, although evidence before the Commission suggests their number could be up to 67. The police also recorded the names into their diaries. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Knowing the massacre would be investigated, the authorities first decided to deal with these diaries. Last week, the TRRC invited the current Inspector General of Police Mamour Jobe to produce diaries of the police stations where the migrants had been detained. In the diary for Barra station, there was no recording from July 22 to 23 when the migrants were kept there. Records relating to the migrants at Brusubi police, Kairaba police, Navy Headquarters in Banjul and Paramilitary Headquarters in Kanifing had all disappeared.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The investigation has found only two original recordings of the names of the migrants. The one submitted by Secka and another by Lamin Cham, the current Deputy Superintendent of Police, who also appeared before the Commission last week. Back then, Cham was working with the police major crimes unit. The migrants cases had been scattered among different police stations. Cham took care of four of them. And like Secka, he had taken his records home to protect them from being destroyed. Cham\u2019s recorded names also appear in Secka\u2019s longer list.<\/p>\n\n\n

\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t
Recommended reading<\/div>\r\n\t\t\t
\"Yahyah<\/div><\/a>\r\n\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\tGambia: Did Jammeh order the killing of migrants?\r\n\t\t<\/a>\r\n\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\n\n

The missing page in police diaries<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI received a call from [Barra station chief officer] Jawara Demba who said to me that Inspector General Ousman Sonko said [that I should] take [my] diary to him. When I got there [at Sonko\u2019s office], he asked me to open the diary and go to 22 July and I did. He looked at the entries, only that page, and then closed it,\u201d Bah recalled. \u201cHe told me to go and transfer all the entries in this diary to a new diary except the activities concerning these migrants.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 \u201cBut do you know he was asking you to falsify evidence?\u201d asked TRRC lead counsel Essa Faal. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYes, exactly,\u201d replied Bah.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnd did you know that was a crime?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat did you feel when your Inspector General Ousman Sonko was asking you to commit a crime?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI felt very disappointed.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Bah, his boss Jawara Demba, as well as Yankuba Sonko, Gambia\u2019s current Interior Minister \u2013 who was then a senior police officer \u2013 were also complicit in the cover-up. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe diaries were being copied,\u201d said Faal. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYes, counsel,\u201d replied Jawara Demba.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnd it was intended to cover-up the fact that the Ghanaians [had been] arrested in Barra.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAt the time, I did not know that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBut why would anybody copy a diary for nothing?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCounsel, at the time I did not know that.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn fact, the IGP [Ousman Sonko] called you about this issue.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNo, that is not true. The IGP never spoke to me directly.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBaboucarr Bah said he told you [upon his return to Barra station from Sonko\u2019s office] that the diary needed to be changed and entries relating to the arrest of the migrants be removed. And you supervised him.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYes, I supervised him.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAll of you have agreed and removed the entries of the migrants in the diary. That was what happened?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYes, counsel.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnd the details of the migrants were not included in the new diary?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnd what happened to the original diary?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe diary was under the care of Baboucarr Bah. He told me that he was asked to take the diary to Banjul.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnd did he take the diary to the IGP?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYes, he did that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnd then the cover-up became complete?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yankuba Sonko did admit that there was a government cover-up but denied any participation in it. He claimed he had nothing to do with the diaries. He also denied claims by Baboucarr Bah that he told him to take the UN investigators to a bar, got them drunk and gave them women. (In 2008, the United Nations and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) jointly investigated the migrants massacre. The 2009 joint report was never made public but according to the Bulletin of the UN Department of Public Affairs<\/a>, it concluded that the government was not \u201cdirectly or indirectly complicit\u201d in the killings. It blamed rogue elements in Gambia\u2019s security forces \u201cacting on their own\u201d.) \u201cWhat [Baboucarr] Bah said is a lie,\u201d Yankuba Sonko told the TRRC.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The creation of an alter truth<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The government had an unspecified number of migrants killed, it had disappeared police diaries recording their names, misled the UN investigators, frustrated the Ghanaian and Nigerian inquiries. One thing was left to be done: creating their own truth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because there was a problem. And the name of the problem was Martin Kyere. Kyere was one of the Ghanaians migrants arrested but he had managed to escape and he went public about the killing upon his return to Ghana. (It is now known that at least four migrants have survived the massacre, all Ghanaians. Two, including Kyere, testified before the TRRC last week.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jammeh\u2019s government couldn\u2019t afford to have the world believe the story of Kyere. It gave the job of creating an alternative narrative to a team led by Malamin Ceesay, a police commissioner. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSir, I have nothing to hide here,\u201d said Ceesay to Essa Faal on March 8. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSince you have nothing to hide, let\u2019s start with the fundamentals. It was a sham investigation. It was not intended to uncover the truth,\u201d said the lead counsel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWell, unless I explain to you before we reach to the conclusion that it was a sham investigation\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWas it a genuine investigation intended to uncover the truth?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSir, unless I lay down the evidence, then from there we will reach to that\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnswer my question. Was it a genuine investigation? You are a police commissioner and you should know that.\u201d  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt is difficult to tell\u2026\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf you cannot tell whether an investigation was genuine, then it was false. Tell us the truth. Was the investigation intended to uncover the truth or was it designed to cover-up for the government?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think we were trying to cover-up for the government\u2026\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBut isn\u2019t the killing of Ghanaians covered up?\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was a big cover-up\u2026 by the state agents responsible.\u201d  \u201cAnd you were used to put out the falsehood on behalf of the government as the truth independently verified. They used you to get a report out there, suggesting that your findings were true when they were a lie.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Malamin
Malamin Ceesay, the police commissioner who was in charge of providing a false report on the massacre of migrants. \u00a9 Mustapha K. Darboe<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Ceesay stopped, kept quiet for few seconds as the lead counsel waded through his papers. Among Faal\u2019s ammunition was Ceesay\u2019s own investigation report. Ceesay and his colleagues had claimed they could not establish the nationality of the migrants. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is a lie,\u201d said Essa Faal. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYes, that is true\u2026\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cExactly, your report was a lie. At this time, you even had Ghanaians in your custody. If you had intended to identify the remains, you would have taken them to the mortuary to identify the remains.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The report stated that \u201cthere [was] no evidence to support Martin Kyere\u2019s claim that arrests and detentions were made at Barra.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBut this is another blatant lie,\u201d said Faal. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOkay,\u201d replied Ceesay, appearing disoriented now. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnd you all knew it was a lie. The government wanted to disappear all traces of the Ghanaians. That was why this huge lie was made. Be truthful because this is a serious transgression.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis was a panel investigations report. I was not present during the arrest.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAll of you who have signed this document, you have decided to lie. That is the truth, isn\u2019t it?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThese Ghanaians were arrested in Barra and all of you knew that. You knew they were arrested in Barra,\u201d said Faal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYes, I was told.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhy did you sign a report which said they were not?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI agree with you\u2026\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The TRRC lead counsel extracted one lie after another from Ceesay\u2019s report. And at some point, Ceesay was merely nodding. The facts against him were overwhelming and his report\u2019s conclusions were embarrassing. Faal leaned back looking at the witness, now subdued.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHow do you feel that over 50 West African migrants have been killed in this country and you were given the responsibility to investigate it and you came up with this whitewash document?\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI take the full responsibility,\u201d Ceesay replied. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A former Interior Minister partial admission<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In July 2005, Babucarr Jatta, a brother of Malick Jatta, one of Jammeh\u2019s hitmen, was the Interior Minister. He denied participation in the cover-up and claimed he had asked Inspector General Ousman Sonko to investigate but that he didn\u2019t. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe government had a deliberate policy of silence and misinformation when it came to the killing of the Ghanaians,\u201d said counsel Faal. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFrom all indications, yes,\u201d replied Jatta. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYour department [police, immigration and anti-narcotic agency are all under the authority of the Interior Minister] which was supposed to investigate failed completely to [do so].\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNot only that. They made deliberate efforts to destroy and distort documents.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe NIA, the police or [Ministry of Interior]?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAll levels.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt could be\u2026\u201d Jatta admitted half-heartedly.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After establishing that the July 2005 massacre of more than 50 West African migrants was perpetrated by state authorities, Gambia\u2019s Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission has exposed the government\u2019s cover-up that followed. No one from the entire security sector of the country was spared.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":73,"featured_media":74763,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[542],"tags":[],"ji_location":[2509],"class_list":["post-74778","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-truth-commissions","ji_location-gambia"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nGambia: The story of a government-sanctioned massacre and its cover-up - 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\/74778-gambia-story-government-sanctioned-massacre-cover-up.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Gambia: The story of a government-sanctioned massacre and its cover-up\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"After establishing that the July 2005 massacre of more than 50 West African migrants was perpetrated by state authorities, Gambia\u2019s Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission has exposed the government\u2019s cover-up that followed. 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