By Omar Bah
The newly appointed Executive Secretary of the Truth, Reconciliation and Reparation Commission Baba Galleh Jallow, has said that the commission has received funding from the UNDP and that the recruitment of the commissioners has been transferred to the Ministry of Justice.
“So we expect within the next weeks or so the selection of commissioners around the country will be done. Also we are preparing terms of reference for the recruitment of staff for the secretariat. So that’s where we are now,” he told German international radio DWR yesterday.
Jallow said despite the progress made, people should understand that truth commission processes are very slow and the Gambia is not an exception.
“There are still a lot of things to be done apart from the recruitment, appointment of the commissioners and staff. We still need to set up the offices of the commission and furnish those offices. So there is still a lot to be done,” he added.
He continued: “Precisely I had the impression that the Truth, Reconciliation and Reparation Commission process was going to be very fast when I came in but the reality is truth commission processes are very slow
“The only thing I can tell the victims, Gambians and the international community is that they need to exercise some patience. It is not going to be as fast as people want it to be.”
On whether the Gambia has the needed human resources to handle the process of the TRRC, Mr. Jallow answered in the positive but acknowledged that whether the country has the technical expertise needed is another question.
“But I can tell you there is a lot of international goodwill towards the Gambia and the Ministry of Justice is working very hard to get the kind of technical support needed….But for the people we need to work on this, we do have that,” he concluded.
