By Waceke Njoroge
Mary Wasike
Although President Adama Barrow’s win in the December 4 elections was greeted with jubilation by his supporters, who welcomed it as an expression of approval for his policies, and denial by some of his opponents who rejected the poll results, the victims of the brutal regime of his predecessor, Yahya Jammeh, seemed destined to remain in suspense for the foreseeable future, unsure about what will happen to their quest for justice.
This sentiment came out strongly in the president’s tone during a press conference he called on December 7, after he had been officially declared the winner, with 53 per cent of the vote.
“We have to be patient and we have to take our time… I told people to be patient. Let’s find out what happened first then that will dictate what we will do next,” he said several times as he answered journalists’ questions.
He sought to assure victims that justice would be done, saying, “But one thing we want to assure is that there will be justice, and reconciliation, reparation. It will all happen…We just want to assure the Gambian people that there will be justice, no doubt on that.”
However, it was not clear what form the justice would take. A keen observer would not help but notice that the firm assurance of justice that was evident during his first days in office was now considerably tempered. Although he insisted that the Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission (TRRC) was his “project”, one of his legacies, he was even more emphatic that it was not really up to him what happens to its final recommendations.
“But this project or any other project, you have to follow a process. The process is the report submitted to me; We will look at the report and we make sure we make it public after one month. We make sure after one month it is public so that me and you, we all know what’s in the report. And not more than six months we should come with a white paper. This white paper it will come to the cabinet. The cabinet will discuss it. It’s not cabinet alone, we will have a technical team that will guide us and advise us. After they advise basically what we agree on it will be on the white paper. That white paper will dictate what we have accept and what we didn’t accept. This is the process,” Barrow took pains to explain.
Asked directly if he would prosecute Jammeh for human rights abuse if the report recommended it, he did not commit to any action. Instead he said: “If you say, ‘would you prosecute’. It is not me per se. It will depend on what is the recommendation. It will also depend on my team, my technical team, we will look at it. There is a process you look at. We will have to look at the report and at the recommendation with my cabinet, the minister of Justice, the technicians and advisers. Cabinet will sit around the table. Cabinet is just like parliament, it debates. Sometime we disagree and sometimes we vote to make sure we have common ground.”
During his first campaign, Barrow had promised to ensure that those responsible for the human rights violations perpetrated during Jammeh’s rule are held accountable for their actions, but concern has been growing after his first few years in office as his narrative changed to emphasise reconciliation and reparation.
He started on an encouraging note for the victims, setting up the Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission to investigate Jammeh-era human rights abuses. He promised justice for the victims and accountability for the culprits. Initial misgivings about his waning commitment became full-blown as the elections approached and he started getting cosy with the former dictator’s political party, Alliance for Patriotic Reorientation and Construction (APRC), which got into a cooperation deal with his National People’s Party to help him win a second term.
Now that this has happened, it is not certain to what degree President Barrow will implement the TRRC recommendations, which have not been made public, although he has received the report. Hard to ignore will be the fact that he is likely to want to keep his end of an alleged deal with APRC to help get him elected. Unconfirmed reports that emerged at the time of the cooperation indicated that the price Jammeh’s party had demanded and obtained was an undertaking that the former dictator would receive an unconditional pardon that would allow him to return home and live a life befitting a former head of state. And this despite the fact that Jammeh disowned the alliance and supported another candidate in the election,
Observers noted that Barrow avoided making violations, the victims, and accountability a large part of his campaign. It is telling that the TRRC report was delayed two times, allegedly because it was not ready. Then just a few days before the elections, it was suddenly announced that Barrow would receive the report. This made it impossible to release it before the vote, thereby avoiding making it a part of the election campaign debate as the law allows him to keep it to himself for a month despite the fact that it had been eagerly expected by the whole country.
Only time will tell whether Barrow will choose to be part of The Gambia’s fight for truth and justice by ensuring that the report is fairly implemented, as victims, and human rights defenders have suggested, or be part of a system that lets impunity and lack of accountability reign supreme.
The Gambia went to the polls on December 4, 2021 to elect the president. It was the first time the tiny West African country was conducting elections in a democratic manner since the departure of the dictator in 2017.
Barrow, the incumbent president, ran against five other opponents, among them the former TRRC Lead Counsel Essa Faal. The others were Ousainou Darboe, Mama Kandeh, Ousman Jammeh, and Halifa Sallah.
The opposition parties have challenged the results before the local and international media, questioning their authenticity.
The TRRC was mandated to look into violations committed during Jammeh’s regime. It heard testimony from nearly 400 people from January 2019 to May 2021. Witnesses spoke about cases of state-sanctioned torture, rape, and murder at the hands of security agents, particularly members of Jammeh’s death squad, the Junglers.
The nationals of several West African countries, including Ghana, Nigeria, Togo, Ivory Coast, Sierra Leone, Senegal, and Mali, also fell victim and were unlawfully killed. At the TRRC hearings, some Junglers admitted participating in the 2005 execution of 56 West African migrants, including 44 Ghanaians, allegedly on Jammeh’s orders.
The world will be watching to see what Barrow’s win at the elections will mean for transitional justice and accountability for the atrocity crimes of members of the former regime, some of whom are now allies in his government.
