By Tabora Bojang
The adviser of the Gambia Center for Victims of Human Rights Violations under Jammeh has said that the Center, in partnership with other wider coalition of human rights campaign groups, are working on a wide range of activities for victims and are ready to work as long as it takes to bring Yahya Jammeh and his accomplices to face justice for the atrocities they have committed.
Dr. Amadou Scattered Janneh was speaking in his native town of Gunjur during the recent nationwide tour funded by UNICEF meant to sensitize young people on their rights and the roles they can play in the transitional justice process.
Dr Janneh, a former information and communication minister who was charged and sentenced to life imprisonment for treason and later granted pardon, said the victims center and other groups are part of broader movement called “The Jammeh to justice campaign” and the whole objective is to bring him to justice.
He said they are hopeful that bringing him and his accomplices to book is not going to take nearly as long as it occurred in former Chad dictator Hissène Habré’s case.
“We have international organisations and some folks who are involved in Habre’s case, learning from their experiences and working on a wide range of strategies. So we think it is a matter of time that we bring Jammeh to justice and we are willing to work as long as it takes to take him and his accomplices behind bars,” he said.
He said the key objective of the center is to bring together as many victims as possible so that they can have one voice and exert influence in not only transitional justice process but in other endeavors with the government and other stakeholders.
“We are concerned about access to health care, psychological counselling and the issue of reparations for our members and having a powerful voice in the TRRC process and also ensuring that perpetrators of heinous crimes are brought to justice,” Dr. Janneh said.
He said the center will continue to pursue the interest and concern of the victims and are grateful on the side of the government to be part of every aspect of the TRRC.
“We are also aware that many people who violated human rights fled to Equatorial Guinea and elsewhere but the search and effort to bring them to justice will not stop simply because they are outside of the country. The same way we are going after Jammeh, we will do the same to go after his accomplices around the world.”
