By Tabora Bojang
A former Gambia national army soldier Abdoulie Darboe yesterday told the TRRC that one of the best known killers of the November 11, 1994 era, one Alagie Kanyi, is still in the system serving as an immigration official in LRR.
Darboe, a November 11 survivor who spent time in detention after the failed coup, said the presence of such people in the system defeats the purpose of reconciliation. The witness is among several who have mentioned Mr Kanyi’s alleged role in the killing of GNA soldiers in the wake of the bloody event.
After a lengthy testimony detailing the harrowing incident of the event, Darboe told the commission to recommend that perpetrators of these heinous crimes be brought to justice.
“We have suffered and we are still suffering and the perpetrators of these crimes are still driving in their luxury cars and serving in the Barrow government. We say we have changed Yahya Jammeh’s government but the same people in Jammeh’s government are still in this new government,” Darboe said.
He explained that as a victim he has lost total confidence in the Barrow administration for its retention and protection of the perpetrators of crimes in the former regime while victims including himself are leaking their wounds.
“Seeing Lang Tombong Tamba or Momodou Badgie as security adviser and Alagie Kanyi as divisional commissioner for Immigration is very sad. What will be our fate as victims after suffering for the past 22 years, we continue to suffer even under a new regime,” he lamented.
Darboe said he as a person would never accept even a ministerial position in the Barrow government while the people behind all the atrocities continue to serve in the government in the same positions they used and abused to commit violations against innocent Gambians.
Explaining his ordeal Darboe said as a young soldier when he was released from detention, he found his family in a very terrible situation with his mother already confused and worried because he was the bread winner.
“I had to restart my life with a hardship that surpassed what I suffered at Mile 2. I went back to my hometown and became a UDP village chairperson after the 1997 parliamentary election,” Darboe said.
He recalled an ambush by a group of unknown men who told him that he was responsible for the APRC loss of support in Jarra East.
“They attempted to kill me but I fortunately recognised one of them who warned me that if I did not leave the UDP I will lose my life,” Darboe said.
