Gambia has been under a dictatorship for over 21 years during the period when citizens and non-citizens alike have been subjected to extra-judicial executions, torturing, maiming, assassinating, forced disappearances including involuntary exiling opponents - both real and perceived - with no end in sight.
We welcome the State Department's recent Press Statement that insisted on the release of political prisoners, including the radio journalist who has been abducted for the second time in a month, and tortured, on both occasions at the hands of the notorious National Intelligence Agency. But The United States must do more.
The radio journalist that was referenced in the State Department's Statement has been produced by the authorities but he has been accused of sedition for sending images by email to friends that depict the Gambian dictator with a gun in one hand and a cell in the other. In The Gambia, depicting the president in unfavorable light constitutes a seditious act.
Gambians have continued to be denied their fundamental rights and freedoms to live in dignity since the army seized power in 1994. The human rights environment continues to deteriorate with no sign of improvement. Ordinary Gambians are still been arrested and held for years without charge.
We support the numerous human rights organizations such as Human Rights Campaign and Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights in urging the U.S. Department of State to impose travel ban on senior officials of the dictatorship in The Gambia.
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