By Lamin Cham
A group of Gambians based in both the Gambia and the Diaspora, called April 10, 11 Memorial Foundation announced it will commemorate the mass shooting of Gambian students by security forces exactly 17 years ago.
A statement from the group said for the first time since the incident, proper commemorative events will be staged to remind the people of that horrific day and behavior of Gambian security forces under the command of former President Yayha Jammeh’s government. The event starts this morning with a parade from GTTI in Jeshwang to Westfield at 8: 30 am to be followed by a musical tribute at Westfield 6:30 PM.
Tomorrow Tuesday, the commemoration continues with a symposium titled “NEVER AGAIN” at The Gambia Tourism and Hospitality Institute at 9:00am and a football match– at West Field park at 4:00PM “With the new Gambia, we would be grateful if the Gambian people help us give the victims, survivors and their families the fitting honour they deserve by joining us to chant the voice of prayers, truth and justice for all that were wrongly persecuted,” a statement from the Group concluded.
On April 10 and 11 in 2000, some 14 protesting students were gunned down by security forces when they took to the streets protesting against the beating of a student who had reported a rape case against a member of the fire service personnel. The government through a statement blamed the students for starting the shooting and exonerated the ‘killers’ of all blame. No one believed the government version and human rights campaigners accused the Jammeh administration of the cold blooded murder of innocent students.
