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Momodou
Denmark
11735 Posts |
 Posted - 20 Oct 2012 : 09:59:08
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Gambia’s Prisons Rates Worst in the World
Daily News: Published on Friday, October 19, 2012
 Dr. Amadou Scattred Janneh (ASJ),a former minister in Jammeh’s cabinet who until the visit of the Rev. Jesse Jackson was serving a life term jail sentence. In an exclusive interview with the Daily News (DN) spoke about his experiences in the prison, at Cabinet and also made a general assessment of the human rights status of The Gambia. He described the Gambian Prisons as one of the worst in the world. To follow this and many other comments go on and read the full interview bellow.
DN: Could you describe to our audience how you feel when you step outside of the mile 2 prisons that fateful day of your freedom?
ASJ: I was very elated, to say the least. It fell on my 50th birthday. As I left Mile II Prison I began to have mixed feelings. No one wants to spend an extra second in jail, but I felt sad that many others, particularly Modou Keita and Ebrima Jallow, were left behind.
DN: you have been in Gambian prison for a little over a year. What was it like to be a prisoner in the Gambia prisons? Conditions, sizes of the cells, food and so on
ASJ: The Gambia has perhaps one of the worst prison systems in the world. People are just warehoused with no ultimate objective of rehabilitation. No wonder the government goes to great lengths to keep the Red Cross and independent monitors from visiting the facilities. Most of the 1,000 prisoners are within the Main Yard, packed like sardines in very tight cells and under unsanitary conditions. Consequently, the facility has a high death-rate, with many of the victims dying of tuberculosis, malaria, hypertension, and cancer.
Another shocking aspect of Mile II Prison is the high number of inmates convicted and jailed despite being mentally disabled. The overall situation is appalling.
DN: you were sent to jail for the printing and distribution of some few hundreds of T-shirts, what is your assessment of that whole saga?
ASJ: The ordeal merely confirmed what we printed on the T-shirts, namely that the Gambian regime is a dictatorship. Such dispensations attempt to exercise total control over most spheres of human activity. And President Jammeh has a record of intolerance and repression. He believes he knows what is best for both the state and individual citizens and has routinely used public resources to enforce his will.
Jammeh is practically The Gambia's ruling party, chief medical practitioner, chief Imam, leading entrepreneur, chief agriculturalist, chief prosecutor, chief judge, and chief executioner. Pointing out these facts through printing and distributing T-shirts was deemed a treasonous offense.
My imprisonment underscored the repressive character of the government. The experience has, however, only strengthened my resolve to strive even harder to uproot dictatorship in The Gambia.
DN: No soon as you were free you are like on some sort of an international tour; recently you were in Ivory Coast, what’s your mission?
ASJ: I attended the 25th anniversary celebrations of the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights (ACHPR) in Yamoussoukro as head of the Coalition for Change - The Gambia (CCG). It was an excellent opportunity to help shed light on Yahya Jammeh's obnoxious human rights record.
DN: you were on different positions with the Justice Minister of the Gambia, what were the differences; can you share with our audience?
AJ: Well, the Justice Minister painted a very inaccurate and distorted picture of human rights in The Gambia. He claimed that the Government did not violate rights and that it has fully complied with decisions of the ACHPR. I absolutely could not understand how anyone could depict such a picture of Jammeh's reign with a straight face in front of a large and distinguished audience.
When given the chance to speak immediately after Mr. Jobarteh, I described my own saga and the inhumane treatment meted out to suspects and prisoners on a regular basis. I also referred to the fact that Minister Jobarteh was one of the officials (with Njogu Bah and Pa Harry Jammeh) who supervised my expulsion from the country. Tamsir Jasseh and I were driven under armed escort from Mile II to Banjul International Airport and given one-way tickets to leave with Rev. Jesse Jackson for the United States. Mr. Jobarteh denied his role, but there are many photos online to buttress my point.
I also supported a resolution advanced by civil society organizations across Africa to move the headquarters of the ACHPR from Banjul in view of Jammeh's total disregard for its core values and decisions.
DN: you have worked under the APRC regime as a cabinet minister, share your thoughts with our audience, what was it like?
ASJ: Deliberations were merely masquerades for President Jammeh. Regardless of the strength of one's advice to him, he does what he wants. This includes the hiring and firing of personnel at all levels of government and beyond. His decision making process is autocratic and unpredictable.
DN: Do you share the same views with Sedia Bayo, if yes why?
ASJ: I don't know much about him, except that he too wants to see Jammeh's dictatorship toppled.
DN: you are also a journalist by qualification, what is you rating of the Gambian’s press freedom as compared to some of our closest neighbors?
ASJ: The Gambia has one of the worst ratings on press freedom. Violent, and sometimes deadly, attacks on journalists and media houses are hallmarks of the Jammeh administration. The Gambia is one of the few countries where defamation (libel and slander) is a criminal offense.
DN: you were quoted in some international new channels saying you were expelled from Gambia and not pardon, can you elaborate on that?
ASJ: Yes, I was expelled, not pardoned as the government announced. First of all, the conduct I engaged in is a form of expression protected by the Gambian constitution and all international human rights instruments. I was illegally jailed, and there was no crime to be pardoned for.
Secondly, you don't forgive a citizen for crimes committed and then expel him from his country without the opportunity to even pack some belongings or to properly bid farewell to family members.
DN: what is the way forward for Gambian oppositions within and outside?
ASJ: We must harness our resources and sincerely dedicate ourselves to ridding the Gambia of dictatorship. We cannot continue to live and die in fear. CCG is determined to work with all groups and individuals towards our common goals. I am certain that the struggle is just beginning, but the end is in sight.
Source: Daily News
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