*Why we need a truth and reconciliation commission*

By Baba Galleh Jallow

It is hard to contemplate but should by no means be dismissed out of hand
that wherever he is, Yahya Jammeh is nursing hopes of making some kind of
triumphant return to The Gambia. He must be scheming and plotting and
exploring just how he could use whatever financial muscle and local human
capital he has to return to Banjul, even to State House so he can teach
Gambians a lesson they would never forget. Some of us would think that this
is too far-fetched to merit serious consideration. But in my humble
opinion, it is not at all farfetched that Jammeh is certainly dreaming of
making a return to Banjul sooner rather than later. Whether he does so or
not depends on how our political situation evolves over the next three
years and the extent to which the real Jammeh is brought out into the open
for all to see and recognize.

Of course, Jammeh cannot possibly return to The Gambia without some
spectacular developments of a political kind. In the few short weeks since
he was forced into exile, enough grime about him has come out to get him
arrested as soon as he steps foot in The Gambia. And as time goes on, the
very minions he used to commit his crimes are going to pile more and more
grime upon his head. Every single crime the NIA, the Jungulars and others
have ever committed will all be heaped on his head; and for good reasons
too. Under tyrannical regimes like Jammeh’s almost no civil servant or
employee of the government dares do anything without explicit nods from the
head of state. The NIA had a term for it, “orders from above.” Anytime I
was picked up by the NIA, I made sure to ask why innocent people were being
harassed and arrested for absolutely no good reason. The NIA agents would
always retort that they were “acting on orders from above.” Of course,
things had gotten so bad in Gambia in the final years of the Jammeh regime
that people took it upon themselves to torture or kill other people or
commit terrible crimes in a bid to please the despot. And so ultimately,
they could say they were acting on orders from above; that Jammeh ordered
or sanctioned whatever crime they committed. The bottom line is that within
a very short time, Jammeh would be accused of committing so many horrible
crimes that he would immediately be seized should he decide to step foot on
Gambian soil. In his sick mind, Jammeh could perhaps be dreaming of
engineering another military coup by his remaining minions in the army. He
would be dreaming that they could seize power and invite him back home.
This is another illusory pipedream if for the simple reason that ECOWAS and
the United Nations will no longer tolerate such military lawlessness in The
Gambia.  And they especially would not stand by and watch Jammeh come back
to power in Banjul.

The almost impossible scenario of Jammeh coming back to Gambia should not
however lead to a sense of deja vu on the part of our current government.
In a less democratic environment, the APRC which Jammeh still owns and
sponsors would have been banned and prevented from seeking any public
office in the land. That has not happened in The Gambia and we can
reasonably believe that since Jammeh is pulling the party’s purse strings,
he must be doing everything he can to make sure that the party remains a
force to reckon with in Gambian politics. The opposition parties were able
to win the December 2016 elections only because they pooled their resources
and filed a single candidate. If that coalition crumbles, there is nothing
to prevent the APRC from strengthening its position, possibly filing a
candidate for president in the next presidential elections, and even
winning the presidency again. And in the event that an APRC candidate for
president wins, what would prevent him from granting Jammeh a total pardon
and welcoming him back to the Gambia as an honored guest and “father of the
nation” as he liked to be called? One hopes that this never happens; but in
order to prevent it, the coalition must make it their deliberate
responsibility to remain strong and avoid the kind of fracturing that could
give a simple majority to the APRC or the APRC in coalition with another
party in any subsequent election. For that would mean they could welcome
Jammeh back to The Gambia and grant him full amnesty from all the crimes he
has committed against the Gambian people. And who could do anything about
it in such a scenario? It would be legitimate political action unless the
laws of the land explicitly forbid it. And since laws and constitutions
could be amended, there really is nothing to stop it in the final analysis.

Making it impossible for Jammeh to come back to The Gambia or the APRC from
coming to power ever again requires practical realpolitik from Barrow’s
coalition government. Appropriate and rigorous enquiries into the
activities of the ousted despot, his enablers and his party must be started
immediately, and findings of any and all wrong doing must be vigorously and
consistently publicized and discussed on national media. Jammeh’s crimes
are so horrendous that when they are exposed and laid bare for all to see,
even some of his most die-hard supporters might think twice about ever
associating themselves with him or his party. The much touted truth and
reconciliation commission needs to be established without delay, its
deliberations opened to the public and streamed live on public and social
media. No detail should be so gruesome or outrageous to merit censorship
and both victims and perpetrators must be encouraged to just say it as it
is, exactly how it happened. The public must not be shielded from anything
at all that happened under Jammeh’s brutal watch. The large amount of
hidden history created by Jammeh and his brutal regime of thugs and killers
must be unearthed and meticulously recorded for both current and future
generations. People who know things about Koro Ceesay’s brutal murder, the
November 11, 1994 incident at Yundum barracks, the April 2000 student
massacres, the deaths in custody of Sadibou Haidara and Daba Marena among
others, the shooting deaths of Deyda Hydara and Lt. Almamo Manneh, the
disappearances of Chief Ebrima Manneh and so many others must all be made
matters of public knowledge. Gambians must be made to understand the nature
of the brutal crimes and grave sins the man who pretended to be the
greatest Muslim in the world was committing right under their noses.

In essence, the coalition government must not only strive to remain strong
and united, it must consider it a matter of top national priority and long
term security to expose Jammeh for what he is. It is not unreasonable to
suggest that until December 9, 2016 when he started showing his true
colors, many Gambians believed Jammeh to be the pious sheikh and defender
of the faith that he pretended to be. His habit of invoking Allah’s name at
the beginning of every speech, making endless references to the All Mighty
Allah, carrying around what many people believed to be a copy of the Holy
Quran and prayer beads, and dressing as an Imam even under the hottest of
temperatures had the effect of stamping an image of him in the minds of
many Gambians as a true man of God. Exposing his brutal crimes and his
nauseating corruption through a truth and reconciliation commission will
help shatter whatever remains of that illusory image and lay his character
bare for all to see. Jammeh needs to be known for who and what he is by
each and every single Gambian both alive and unborn. His religious
hypocrisy and political jingoism need to be exposed for what they were, not
only through credible narratives of his evil deeds, but by full physical
exposure in national and international media.

We call upon the Barrow administration to immediately establish a truth and
reconciliation commission or other commission of inquiry that will set in
motion the process that will bring out the real Jammeh for all Gambians and
the world to see and understand. If the coalition government does not act
quickly and decisively, Gambians may yet witness the day when Yahya Jammeh
will step proudly off a plane on to Gambian soil, walk on a red carpet and
brag about how he told them he feared nothing but the All Mighty Allah. And
if our political culture does not undergo radical transformation in terms
of mass political enlightenment and empowerment, what would prevent Jammeh
from seeking and winning the presidency again, especially if our political
parties are fractured and engaged in endless bickering that projects an
image of them as totally unequal to the task of running our country?


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