2000-04-19
GAMBIA: GAMBIAN OPPOSITION SCEPTICAL OF RIOT DEATHS PROBE.

BANJUL, April 19 (Reuters) - A Gambian opposition party leader said on Wednesday
he did not trust the government to hold a full inquiry into the deaths of 12
people during student riots last week.
President Yahya Jammeh promised on Sunday that "no stone will be left unturned"
in trying to find out how the 12 died.
But Hamat Bah, leader of the National Reconciliation Party (NRP), said Gambians
had heard it all before. He gave the example of the lack of adequate explanation
for the suspicious death of finance minister Ousman Koro Ceesay in June 1995.
"We know that they (the government) are very good at misleading the people.
We've heard it many a time. They fabricate stories against people and get away
with it," Bah said, vowing to get to the truth this time.
Riots erupted on April 10 and 11 over the alleged torture and murder of a
student by fire fighters.
Students said the government had not responded adequately to the death of Ebrima
Barry, a school pupil from Brikama, 32 km (20 miles) south of Banjul. Police
sources said six members of the local fire service had been arrested in March
and charged.
The president of the Gambia Students Union (GAMSU), Omar Joof, four other GAMSU
members and several schoolchildren are still in custody after being arrested
during the riots.
Ousman Jammeh, who is in charge of the inquest into the deaths, said on
Wednesday that one of the 12 had still not been identified.
Jammeh, stressing that he was a coroner whose job was simply to establish the
cause of death, said he would submit his report on May 15.
One of the 12 killed was a reporter for Senegalese radio station Sud FM, Omar
Barrow, who was also a Red Cross volunteer.

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