Why is Jammeh suddenly acting nice towards former American Ambassador Joseph Stafford

Former Ambassador now Charge d'Affairs Stafford and Jammeh

When the former Ambassador to The Gambia, Joseph Stafford, currently serving as Charge d'Affairs, tour of duty came to an end and he tried to beg leave of the president of his Host country as dictated by diplomatic protocol, Jammeh refused to receive him.  He settled for Gambia's vice president. That was 2005.

Fast forward to almost a decade to the day, in 2015, the same Joseph Stafford, now retired and taken out of retirement to hold the fort while a substantive Ambassador is going through the confirmation process,  is now being royally received at State House by one of Africa's most corrupt and brutal leader to earn his country -The Gambia - The North Korea of Africa.

Why the sudden change in attitude towards the United States by a country with one of the worst human rights record in Africa, if not the world, and where anti-American and anti-Western rhetoric flourishes because the U.S. and the E.U's constant poor assessment of the country's deteriorating human rights environment.

Both the United States Department of State and the European Union's External Relations Department have regularly cited human rights violations that culminated in the EU's 17 - point demand to the government of Yaya Jammeh to address the severe deficiencies in its prison facilities which are congested, filthy and act as torture chambers.  The judiciary came under heavy criticism as well from the EU for its lack of due process and acting in cahoots with the executive branch in the execution of its judicial functions which calls for fundamental changes.

The security services, especially the notorious National Intelligence Agency (NIA) and the police, also came under fire from not only the EU by also from the United Nation's Human Rights Commission who accused the authorities in Banjul of "arresting first and then investigating" thus denying the accused the constitutional guarantee of not detaining anyone beyond 72 hours without charge.

As a result of these, and other violations involving the rights of members of the LGBT community in the Gambia who are constantly and personally threatened by the Gambian dictator, the EU suspended disbursement of much-needed development assistance funds amounting to approximately $ 36 million.  The resultant effect of such an action is the worsening of the country's balance of payment, further plunging the economy into a free fall.

The regime needs money to prevent total collapse of the economy.  The International Monetary Fund stepped in after the regime promised to follow prudent fiscal policy that the Fund had been recommending for a very long time.  Limiting domestic borrowing to 1% of GDP that the Fund was promised is probably already violated given the established pattern of domestic borrowing the regime has grown used to.

The United States became visibly active on the diplomatic only after the violent treatment of the LGBT community in The Gambia following rampant arrests, detentions and tortures of those identified as gays or lesbians by informers of the regime.  It was only after the LGBT communities in the United States started raising concerns and demanding action from the Obama Administration that they have all being removed from detention and subsequently charged with "aggravated homosexuality", discharged and released by the courts - courts that that instructions from Jammeh rather than dispensing justice independent of the executive.

The Gambian dictator is clearly under tremendous pressure from several sources, the least of which is the United States and thus the imperative to  go on a diplomatic charm offensive.  Ambassador Joseph Stafford, someone I am proud to call a friend, and who was refused audience with and by Jammeh, is now being decorated by the very same Jammeh.

If I were Jammeh, I'd probably be acting nice to America, and to my friend as well, to avert being slapped with a travel ban to add to my woes. We hope America will not buy the bail of goods the dictator is trying to sell.  We hope the same applies to the European Union as well with regards to the blocked funds.  Yaya Jammeh is a menace to Gambian society, to the regional peace and an unreliable partner to both the United States and western European countries.

GAMBIA: The regime is still not releasing the official list of "pardoned" prisoners

Jammeh going to the polls

Following the release of the "pardoned" prisoners and the demands from the public and opponents of the regime for an official list, with names, addresses and other personal details, the regime is still dragging its feet on the issue.

To simply say to Gambians and the world that 229 prisoners have been pardoned by the Benevolent Leader is clearly not enough as we have shown in our previous posts.  You can find them here and here.

It is only reasonable to provide Gambians with details of each and every prisoner released under the scheme so that the list can be checked against every single prisoner "pardoned" to ensure proper and accurate accounting of every human life under the regime of Yaya Jammeh.

To refuse this simple request would mean that Gambians will never know how many prisoners have actually been released and their actual identities.  What would prevent the regime from claiming, a month or a year from now that prisoner X has been released when in actual fact the contrary is the case.

As we have seen in the case of the Gambian journalist Chief Ebrima Manneh, who was arrested by security agents from his Daily Observer offices and has never been seen since.  yet, the regime is claiming to this day that the journalist is not in their custody, and in fact, he's been sited in America or or other undisclosed country when Chief Manneh has been tortured to death and his body disposed of.

In the absence of the list, Gambians and the international community cannot verify current and subsequent claims by a regime notorious for putting out false claims, regarding the number of prisoners affected and their whereabouts.

We must hold the regime to account for every prisoner that is in their custody as well as those released to ensure that Jammeh will not claim that prisoners have been released when he has murdered them.  We must continue to be vigilant. Otherwise a lot of Gambian lives will be lost between now and October 2016 when Jammeh's current term comes to a close.

Petition to impose a travel ban on senior officials of the Jammeh dictatorship

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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NOTE :  If you support this initiative, please go to www.change.org and sign the petition. THANK YOU.     

Journalist charged with sedition

Alhagie Abdoulie Ceesay, Radio Journalist

The regime of Yaya Jammeh has charged radio journalist, Alhagie Abdoulie Ceesay with sedition, after he was abducted and held at the notorious National Intelligence Agency’s custody on July 17^th until he was arraigned in court on Tuesday. 

This is the journalist’s second abduction at the hands of a regime that is highly intolerant of criticism.  During his first abduction, the journalist was held in custody for eleven days, tortured and then dumped by security agents a few miles from his residence near the Banjul International Airport.

Even before the ink is dry on the so-called prisoner pardon scheme and the exact numbers of the released are known, than Yaya Jammeh is at his old tricks again of intimidating, harassing and jailing ordinary Gambians, and on his way to filling our prisons again with fudged and imagined charges against law abiding citizens.

When the United States demanded the release of the twice-abducted radio journalist in a press release acknowledging the prisoner release, he was suddenly charged with sedition.  Initially, the concocted charge was that the journalist encouraged Gambians not to attend the 50th Independence Anniversary celebrations back in February which resulted in a low turn-out. 

Realizing that that would be a ridiculous charge to defend even in a dictatorship and with the U.S. breathing down Jammeh's neck,  it was quickly changed to the ludicrous tale that he sent a photo via email to two females depicting Jammeh holding a gun on one hand and a cell phone on the other.  According to the regime, this constitute spreading hatred towards the dictator and thus seditious. 

The prosecution will now recruit two witnesses – most likely total strangers to the journalist – who will testify against a journalist they have never met before.  So many innocent Gambians and non-Gambians alike have been farmed in this that they find themselves locked up in Mile II for a decade or more.

The first time Alhagie Abdoulie Ceesay was abducted, he was tortured that required medical attention.  His second abduction lasted over two weeks, and the reason he's been sent to Mile II is most likely because he has been tortured again.  The hope is that his prison stay will allow time for his wounds to heel. 

It is the same scenario that plays out every time because the caliber of people employed by this regime is so low, they are less imaginative than third graders.  All they are good at is torturing the innocent and incarcerating the enemy - real and imagined - on trump-up charges and paying witnesses to testify against the accused.  

FREE ALHAGIE ABDOULIE CEESAY 

Has Jammeh bankrupted Social Security?

Edward Graham, MD - SSHFC

Disturbing news coming out of Banjul is that the finances of the Social Security and Housing Finance Corporation (SSHFC) are in such a precarious state that the Corporation has been unable, lately, to raise funds to pay contractors to complete works on the estates they sold plots to.

We have been critical of SSHFC in the past because of the risky investments it has been engaged in at the urging of the Gambian dictator who has financial interests in them, including the public transport sector, putting the Pension Fund at risk at the detriment of the thousands of private sector pensioners.  We have warned that such exposure that the Managing Director is subjecting the corporation that threatens both the organization and the economy as a whole.

The finances of SSHFC are reported to have been dwindled to D 100 million from D 600 million.  It is also being reported that the Office of he President - read Yaya Jammeh - is withdrawing about D 5 million per month.  The assault on the finances of this public corporation by Jammeh and his cronies appears to have intensified now that the Gambia Ports Authority, GAMTEL and NAWEC are financially insolvent, thanks to a level of corruption never seen before.

You will recall that the two ferries - 'Kansala' and 'Aljamdu' - where purchased from a Greek company named Gallia Holdings Ltd that was in a joint venture deal with Yaya Jammeh.  Curiously, the company is registered in the Marshall Islands, an offshore business destination.  The deal went sour when the two ferries arrived amidst a huge fanfare only to be deemed being of the wrong design.  Consequently, they have since been moored at the Banjul port awaiting possible legal litigation. 

Sources close to the regime are accusing Jammeh of working with foreign banks to siphon off Social Security funds/bonds days before they mature which has accrued losses to the corporation that runs into the millions of dollars.  The timing of the withdrawals by Jammeh is determined by information provided to him by insiders strategically planted in commercial banks with details of SSHFC investments portfolio.  Staff of the State House are then instructed to withdraw funds from the corporation's accounts abroad.

When we say that what we have in Banjul is a criminal syndicate headed by Jammeh who uses civil servants to act criminally, we are not engaging in a smear campaign or hyperbole but calling it as it is.   Every effort must, therefore, be made to get rid of the cancer in Gambia's body politic that is metastasizing.

Political prisoners and their trials: The case of Ballo Kanteh, Sulayman Sarr and others

The notorious Mile II prisons

This blog post is by a guest writer who prefers anonymity.  The writer has brought it to our attention that the blog post is based, in large part, on the reporting of FOROYAA newspaper (2005 edition)

We allowed this contribution because we hope it will help shed light on a vexing issue of the state of the judiciary in The Gambia where the dictatorship has successfully blurred the boundaries between the judiciary and the executive branches of government in 21 years at the detriment of those who seek justice.

We hope this will be a first in a series of articles about the Gambian judiciary and how it has been corrupted by the Jammeh regime.

Sidi Sanneh
----------------------------------

It was like a bolt in the blue when murder and treason convicts brazenly told the Supreme Court that their appeals were torn by a prison warden and that they filed their appeals several years ago contrary to the information on their appeals. The appellants wasted no time in exposing certain things which they felt are abnormal.

The Farafenni attackers namely, Sulayman Sarr, Alieu Bah and Omar Dampha together with Lamin Fatty, a murder convict, clarified issues when they told the Supreme Court that they had filed their appeals several years ago. Sulayman Sarr, Ballo Kanteh and Omar Dampha were convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment after they were found guilty of committing treason. Readers could recall that Sarr, Kanteh and Dampha were arrested and tried at the High Court after they were indicted for attacking Farafenni Military barracks and killing some soldiers.

However, during Monday’s sitting of the court, some of the inmates at Mile Two Central Prisons claimed that they had filed appeals immediately after they were convicted. But the information on their appeals have it that they appealed recently, and as a result, the court had to strike out their appeals because it found out that the appeals were incompetent and were made beyond the time limit set for appeals. It must be noted that most of the prisoners who were in the dock were illiterates who do not know how the courts operate. They (Prisoners) spoke local languages. However, Lamin Fatty an ex-police officer who was convicted for committing murder said his appeal was torn by a prison warder at the prisons reception.

When his case was called, Chief Justice Brobbey asked him when he filed his appeal. In his reply, the appellant said he filed his appeal in 1993. At this point, Chief Justice Brobbey told him that the information on his appeal have it that he filed his appeal in 2005. But Mr. Fatty was quick to explain the circumstances surrounding his appeal.

In his explanation, Mr. Fatty said he was convicted and sentenced to a period of three years on 17th February 1992. He said he filed an appeal at the court of appeal and was sentenced to life imprisonment.

He said he did file an appeal at the Privy Council because the Supreme Court was not constituted at the time. In his narration, Mr. Fatty said his Lawyer at the time Edu Gomez came to the prisons and told him that from here to London was expensive and his Family could not afford it. According to him, he had left everything in the hands of God and hoped a moment would come when he could pursue his case in court.

Going further, Mr. Fatty said the authorities at the prisons did inform him in the year 2004 that a Supreme Court now exists in the Gambia. He said he filed an appeal at the Supreme Court last year. He pointed out that the said appeal was torn by a prison warden who told him that the document was old and dirty and that the appeal should be on new piece of paper. He said the appeal dated 2005 was the one prepared by the prison authorities after the other one was destroyed.

The chief Justice at this juncture told the appellant that the his appeal is out of time, because the information before the court have it that  the appeal was filed in 2005.The court concluded the matter by striking out the case .However ,the appellant was advised by the court to file a notice and seek for an extension. The court also advised the appellant to state in his appeal why he has not been able to make his appeal on time.

When he entered the dock, Sulayman Sarr told the court that he was sentenced in the year 1997.At this stage the Chief Justice told the appellant that the information on his appeal have it that he filed his appeal in 2005.However this was contested by Sulayman Sarr. In his argument, Sarr told the court that he filed his appeal shortly after he was convicted in 1997.Going further, Sarr said he and his colleagues were freed by the court of Appeal, but the state rearrested them and filed an appeal at the Privy Council. Continuing his explanation, Sarr said they were waiting for the outcome of the case at the Privy Council all these years. He pointed out that they were not wearing convict uniforms all these years, noting it was march last year that they were informed by the Director General of Prisons that they should wear convict uniforms. At this stage, the Chief Justice asked Sulayman Sarr to tell the court who convicted him. In his reply, Sarr told the court that he was convicted by DPP Agim, the crowded court room burst into laughter when Sarr made this accusation.

DPP Agim stood and threw light on the issue. According to him, Sarr and his colleagues were sentenced to death in the year 1997. He said the death sentence passed by the High Court was later commuted to life imprisonment by the Court of Appeal.  He said the state later filed an appeal at the Privy Council and challenged the decision of the Court of Appeal. He pointed out that the state later abandoned the appeal it filed at the Privy Council. DPP indicated that the Director General of Prisons approached him sometime march last year and asked him about the fate of  Sarr and his Co/convicts..

The DPP said he read the judgment delivered by the Court of Appeal and later informed the Prison boss that Sarr, Ballo Kanteh and Omar Dampha are convicted by the Court. The Court asked the DPP whether the Appellants were informed that the state had abandoned the appeal it filed at the Privy Council.  In his reply, the DPP pointed out that he came to the Gambia three years after the appellants
were convicted. According to DPP Agim, the appellants did misconstrue the State\s application at the Privy Council to mean that they have been acquitted by Court of Appeal.

‘You can apply for an extension of time. The records have shown that you appealed in 2005 you have some points in your favour. You can go back and put your house in order’. The Court told the appellant.

The case was later struck out by the court. Ballo Kanteh and Omar Dampha also held the view that they were freed by the court but they were later rearrested by the state. The DPP later told the court that the explanation he gave regarding Sulayman Sarr applies to the case of Ballo Kanteh and Omar Dampha. The court later decided to strike out the appeals by both Kanteh and Dampha, The court held the view that the appeals filed by the appellants are out of time.

GAMBIA: The Dubai of Africa

Alhagie Professor Doctor Yaya Abul-aziz Jamus Junkung Jammeh, Balili Mansa, Nasurudeen, president of Gambia and Admiralty of the State of Nebraska has been promising Gambians that he will transform the country into the Dubai of Africa.

21-years in office, this is what Gambians get instead.  A drainage system that is both an embarrassment and a disgrace.  When rains come, the entire urban districts of the Greater Banjul area, including the capital city float in water mixed with the affluent from the sewage system threatening the health of ordinary Gambians.

All of this is happening to Gambians while Jammeh and his few cronies continue to amass wealth through elaborate corruption schemes at the expense of the rest of Gambian society.

It is time to put an end to this madness by calling for Jammeh to vacate State House at the end of his current term which ends in 2016.   If Jammeh and his group of incompetent APRC apparatchiks cannot lift The Gambia from this hell hole to the new level of progress many African countries like Sierra Leone, Liberia, Angola and Mozambique - all post-conflict countries - are experiencing, it is time to relieve him and his bunch of equally corrupt minions of their duties.  They have failed Gambia.  They have failed Africa.  

IT IS TIME FOR CHANGE