Dear Editor,
Despite being one of the immoral backers of Israel in its war of genocide and ethnic cleansing against Palestinians, the UK government has summoned the ambassador of Israel to demand answers for the killing of aid workers in Gaza including British citizens. The British took this action because they care about their citizens. Contrast that with The Gambia Government whose citizen, Lamin Touray, was also unnecessarily killed in Germany by the police, yet The Gambia Government does not find it necessary to summon the German ambassador to demand answers. Why?
When a citizen is killed by state institutions in a foreign country what happens is that the government of the victim summons the ambassador of that country. This is because killing of a foreign national by the host state agents is a direct matter of concern in international relations. The police is a part of the state. Hence when the police kill a foreign national especially if that foreigner is shot at his home and not engaged in criminal activity outside or not armed with firearms raises serious concerns. In this case, the Gambian victim only had a knife according to all media reports.
Therefore, it is impossible that more than two police officers could not overcome this man but had to shoot him to death multiple times. The Gambia Government must summon the German ambassador right away to demand answers. We saw in the case of the Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny how Germany summoned the Russian ambassador in Bonn when the man died in prison recently. Yet Navalny is not even a German citizen but a Russian who died in Russia! But because Navalny died under the custody of the Russia state Germany felt obligated to summon the Russian ambassador in the interest of human rights. The Gambian victim, Lamin Touray was certainly not a political figure like Navalny but indeed he was also killed by Germany’s state agents hence the Gambia Government has a duty to bring fundamental human rights concerns to the Germans!
The Gambia Government must not feel unable to confront Germany or any so-called donor and powerful country when it comes to human rights. Germany has both domestic and international obligations by law to protect the right to life and prevent police brutality. Hence if such an incident happened the Gambia should confront any government to demand answers.
The killing of a Gambian by the German police is not an entirely German affair anymore. It is even not a Gambian affair alone. Rather, it is an international affair since the right to life is a non-derogable right in international law. All nations must question Germany as to how several well trained police officers can rain bullets on a single small man with a house knife. If the foreign minister Mamadou Tangara fails to summon the German ambassador to his office immediately, I urge the National Assembly to do their part by summoning Tangara to answer questions. Blatant violations of human rights must not be allowed to prevail with impunity. Gambian lives matter. Black lives matter.
Madi Jobarteh
Kembujeh
