President Jammeh's Agricultural Mobilization Faulted
http://allafrica.com/stories/200307140533.html

The Independent (Banjul)
NEWS
July 14, 2003
Posted to the web July 14, 2003
Banjul

The situation surrounding an edict from President Jammeh, banning all
football activities in the countryside during the rainy season to mobilise
the youths to the farms and boost agricultural production has been likened
to forced labour.

In a disparaging statement issued to the press last week the Coalition of
Human Rights Defenders (The Gambia) condemned the president for what it saw
as his attempt to force people to take up farming against their will,
arguing that such a crass tactic could only be tantamount to forced labour,
which is a flagrant violation of the country's constutition and contravenes
international human rights standards. The coalition was reacting to reports
that youths in Gunjur village in the Lower River Division were fined D2,
500 or in default three months imprisonment by a district tribunal for not
heeding instructions from government authorities to cease all nawettan
footballing activities and take up farming. Chief Seyfo Fafanding Kinteh
last week handed down the punitive sentence on the youths, saying they were
defying a presidential order not to play football in the rainy season.

Reacting just a day after the verdict, the Coalition of Human Rights
Defenders reminded the president and his government that The Gambia must be
governed by the rule of law through the democratic process and that any
circumstance to circumvent this process will only lead to the conclusion
that the country is effectively under a dictatorship.

Although the coalition believes that the ultimate goal for President
Jammeh's anti-nawettan declarations may be honourable, the means with which
his administration expects to draw young people to the farms are unorthodox
and without legal basis and therefore could only infringe upon their basic
rights of association and freedom of choice. " We believe that there is no
basis in law for such pronouncements or indeed any that may encourage the
violation of human rights no matter what the ultimate goal may be" the
coalition statement outlined. It indicated that if such tendencies were
allowed to take root, The Gambia would effectively be a dictatorship
characterised by forced labour.

"We call upon the government of The Gambia to take all appropriate measures
to redress this situation in Gunjur village and to take all steps to ensure
that the fundamental rights of all Gambians are respected at all times" the
statement pointed out.

Meanwhile the Commissioner of the Lower River Suwareh Jabai instructed the
police commissioner in the area to make sure that no footballing activities
take place there in the span of the rainy season. He told reminded chiefs
of their responsibility to uphold President Jammeh's declaration that no
football tournaments should be held while the rainy season lasts.




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