"We can tell you if we don't want elections, in the next one thousand years there will

  be no elections. And those who want elections, we'll make sure that you go six feet

  deep and there's nothing anybody can do about it." -( 1995 - Yahya Jammeh, Gambian President)
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This article ran in The Metro Herald and other newspapers in November 1995:
Reformatted and Reproduced by BF Ceesay AllGambian.Net
March 11, 2005


Is the Gambia Ruled by a Madman?


Richard E. Sincere, Jr.

Captain Yahya Jammeh, who has ruled the Republic of the Gambia in West Africa as a military dictator since July 1994, may have slipped over the edge. Previously dismissed as merely incompetent and paranoid, Jammeh is now demonstrating a clear hostility toward humanity. Though his regime has long had a dismal record concerning human rights -- after the military coup led by Jammeh, political parties were banned and the Gambia's democratic constitution was suspended -- Jammeh's rhetoric is now catching up to his actions.

At a rally in the capital city of Banjul on October 28, Jammeh attacked the principles of democracy and human rights and told the crowd (many of whom were there under threat of arrest or death): "We can tell you if we don't want elections, in the next one thousand years there will be no elections. And those who want elections, we'll make sure that you go six feet deep and there's nothing anybody can do about it."

Jammeh's breathless rant included a bizarre word game played on the phrase "human rights." He took each letter in the phrase as the initial for a phrase of his own, coming up with this absurd text: Yahya Jammeh, president of the Republic of The Gambia

Were the stakes not so high for the suffering people of the Gambia, Jammeh's words and actions would be comic. They strike many observers as something straight out of the Marx Brothers' Duck Soup or Woody Allen's movie, Bananas. But this is not some movie comedy. It's the real world, and real people are being hurt.

Amnesty International has drawn our attention to just how this is happening. In an Urgent Action memorandum dated October 23, Amnesty's International Secretariat listed the names of several well-known Gambians who have been arrested, including several former Cabinet ministers and prominent business leaders. Most of these people had been active in the politically vibrant atmosphere that defined the years that Sir Dawda Jawara was president. (President Jawara was Africa's longest-serving, democratically-elected leader when he was deposed by Jammeh's thugs last year.)

Amnesty writes: "At least 40 people, arrested since 12 October 1995, are being held incommunicado in various places in or near the Gambian capital, Banjul. Amnesty International is concerned for their well-being while held incommunicado, as such detention does not provide them with legal safeguards against torture, ill-treatment, and medical neglect. Furthermore, the organization believes they may be prisoners of conscience, arrested solely for the non-violent expression of their political opinions."

The tragedy of the Gambia is that, for 30 years, it was a model of both political and economic development for Africa. Its political system was known for its fairness, openness, and freedom. President Jawara had been -- indeed, still is, from his home in exile -- the continent's leader in the struggle to protect individual rights and human freedom. Banjul became the headquarters of the Organization for African Unity's human rights committee, and it still is the home of the West African branch of the International Society for Human Rights. In fact, in a letter to the Times of London, Glenn Calderwood, the Secretary- General of that organization's British Section, writes:

"For the past six to eight weeks [writing on 30 October], ordinary Gambian citizens and political leaders have taken to the streets to clamor for an end to the repressive military regime of Captain Jammeh. They have been demanding a return to democracy (including petitioning the British High Commission). There have been dozens, if not hundreds, of arrests and allegations of torture in prisons. The law courts have officially admitted that 'there are no human rights in The Gambia' any more -- this from Africa's erstwhile role model of a free society and liberal democracy!"

The Gambian junta deserves condemnation in the strongest terms from the U.S. Department of State, from the White House, and from the Congress. Our Ambassador to the United Nations should call for a resolution of condemnation from the world body, which just celebrated its 50th anniversary with pomp and glamor -- even while poor people languish painfully in Gambian prisons.

Amnesty International urges concerned citizens worldwide to write to Captain Jammeh and demand that he respect human rights. Letters should be addressed to: His Excellency Captain Yahya Jammeh Chairman of the Armed Forces Provisional Ruling Council State House Banjul Republic of The Gambia Faxes: 011-220-227-034 Perhaps President Clinton could send a letter today. If not him, than each of us should do so. Let's send a message to the madman in the Gambia!

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

Long-time Africa observer Richard Sincere is author of The Politics of Sentiment: Churches and Foreign Investment in South Africa and other works.


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