Courtesy: Maafanta.com. Haruna.
The Fatou Bensouda theatre:
My contribution to the debate:
Moses dembele, Budapest.
First of all we all are proud of Fatou. Against all odds particularly as a woman and coming from a small country like the
Gambia, she will inspire many people to work hard and achieve their set goals. It is healthy that we are able to debate
about issues involving one of ours. I have never met the woman. She is a public figure and no doubts at all will be
popular in many quarters and unpopular in others. Her role as the chief ICC prosecutor comes with a lot of challenges
and she should expect to be in the spotlight at all times. Fatou is entitled to her personal opinion. However, my
objections are:
Firstly, Fatou had in the past worked directly under Yaya jammeh. She had wined and dined with the dictator. Without
any shadow of doubt, Fatou knows yaya jammeh very well. She could catalogue her knowledge of Yaya’s crime against
his own people. Can you foresee a scenario where fatou is called in as witness when yaya is condemned to the dock by
the very institution fatou is head of? She was yaya’s justice minister and surely must have something to say in the event
the dictator is brought to justice. The interview with al jazeera was not the right platform to vent any potential prejudice;
hence perhaps Fatou was economical with information. She should have been very honest in the interview and say to
the journalist, look there is a conflict of interest in the matter but there will surely be opportunity to discuss the Gambian
issue in a different forum. Remember she is a lawyer and this breed of people are very clever when it comes to getting
themselves off the hook.
Secondly, do we know the role Fatou’s previous employer (Yaya Jammeh) played in lobbying for her when she applied
for the job of chief ICC prosecutor? To expect that she would suddenly wash Yaya’s dirty linen in public is a far fetched
and unrealistic expectation. If individuals, organizations or groups of people want to bring Yaya and his cronies to book
there are processes, procedures and institutions including Fatou and her institutions that must be involved and followed.
There was a Diaspora meeting in Banjul a while back and who was there as one of the guest speaker? Fatou. We live in
a world jammed with all sorts of social networks. Fatou may be divorced from the jammeh regime on paper but it is quiet
possible they remain friends and as a result will continue to protect each others interests. Unless Yaya becomes a
subject of an ICC investigation, Fatou has no comments to make. There are many notable Gambian lawyers who if they
jonit-worked effectively can lay the legal basis and procedures to bring the dictator and his cronies under the spotlight of
the ICC. Fatou will then if she is still the chief ICC prosecutor must bring her roles and functions into play. My advice is,
lets use the traditional approach which is to allow her to sit down properly, make her feel comfortable and then bombard
her with our cry for help. Obviously Maafanta felt disappointed that she did not seize the Aljazeera interview as an
opportunity to talk straight.
Fatou’s deliberate attempt to be economical with information in the interview demonstrates perhaps Yaya’s
psychological grip over people no matter who they are and where they are. One day hopefully whether or not she likes it
Fatou B must comment over Yaya jammeh and his cronies. The debate triggered by Maafanta is a manifestation of the
sort of Gambia we are all aspiring to achieve. Good job done Maafanta and God bless.
¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤
To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface
at: http://listserv.icors.org/archives/gambia-l.html
To Search in the Gambia-L archives, go to: http://listserv.icors.org/SCRIPTS/WA-ICORS.EXE?S1=gambia-l
To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to:
[log in to unmask]
¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤