Torture by Police, Forced Disappearance & Other Ill Treatment In the early years of the 21st Century, 2000 to
2025 gvnet.com/torture/Gambia.htm
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CAUTION: The following links
have been culled from the web to illuminate the situation in the Gambia. Some of these links may lead to websites that
present allegations that are unsubstantiated or even false. No attempt
has been made to validate their authenticity or to verify their content. HOW TO USE THIS WEBPAGE Students If you are looking for
material to use in a term-paper, you are advised to scan the postings on this
page and others to see which aspects of Torture by Authorities are of
particular interest to you. You might
be interested in exploring the moral justification for inflicting pain or
inhumane or degrading treatment or punishment in order to obtain critical
information that may save countless lives, or to elicit a confession for a
criminal act, or to punish someone to teach him a lesson outside of the
courtroom. Perhaps your paper might
focus on some of the methods of torture, like fear, extreme temperatures,
starvation, thirst, sleep deprivation, suffocation, or immersion in freezing
water. On the other hand, you might
choose to write about the people acting in an official capacity who
perpetrate such cruelty. There is a
lot to the subject of Torture by Authorities.
Scan other countries as well as this one. Draw comparisons between activity in
adjacent countries and/or regions.
Meanwhile, check out some of the Term-Paper
resources that are available on-line. ***
ARCHIVES *** Army Sergeant Badjie admits to killing, torture Adama Makasuba,
The Voice, 25 July 2019 www.voicegambia.com/2019/07/25/army-sergeant-badjie-admits-to-killing-torture/ [accessed 31 July
2019] Witness Badjie confessed his involvement in the killing of the
2012 nine inmates and witnessing other killings which he claimed of not
taking part. Meanwhile, he
admitted to the Truth Commission that he participated in the torture of Imam
Baba Leigh and Ba Kawsu Fofana
while they were detained by the former regime. “When Nuha Badjie interrogated him
(Baba Leigh)…Nuha called us to beat him, then we
took sticks and pipes and started to him. I knew that it was
wrong but in the army when your senior gives you command you only obey,” he
said. 2020 Country Reports
on Human Rights Practices: The Gambia U.S. Dept of State Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and
Labor, 30 March 2021 http://www.state.gov/reports/2020-country-reports-on-human-rights-practices/gambia/
[accessed 19 July
2021] TORTURE AND OTHER
CRUEL, INHUMAN, OR DEGRADING TREATMENT OR PUNISHMENT There was one
report of inhuman and degrading treatment by a police officer of a detainee
during the year. The incident was investigated and the officer sanctioned. PRISON AND DETENTION
CENTER CONDITIONS Overcrowding was a
problem, particularly in the remand wing of the state central prison, Mile 2
Prison in Banjul, where detainees were held pending trial. According to the
NGO World Prison Brief, authorities in 2019 held 691 prisoners in facilities
designed for 650. Food quality and access to potable water, sanitation,
ventilation, lighting, and medical care remained inadequate. There were
credible reports teenagers as young as age 15 were held with adults in
pretrial detention facilities. ARREST PROCEDURES
AND TREATMENT OF DETAINEES Pretrial Detention:
Backlogs and inefficiency in the justice system resulted in lengthy pretrial
detentions. Many inmates in the remand wing of Mile 2 Prison awaited trail,
in some instances for several years. Freedom House
Country Report 2018 Edition freedomhouse.org/country/gambia/freedom-world/2018 [accessed 12 May
2020] F3. IS THERE PROTECTION FROM THE ILLEGITIMATE
USE OF PHYSICAL FORCE AND FREEDOM FROM WAR AND INSURGENCIES? The use of
illegitimate physical force by security agents has been less frequent under
the new Barrow administration. The ex-head and deputy of the National
Intelligence Agency were arrested in February 2017 on charges of torture and
other human rights violations allegedly committed during the Jammeh regime. However, serious
challenges persist. There are few safeguards to prevent people accused of
committing human rights abuses from holding positions of authority within the
criminal justice and prison systems. Prison conditions are harsh and
unsanitary. UN: Torture Regular
And Prevalent In Gambia PK Jarju, Jellofnews, 7 March 2015 www.jollofnews.com/index.php/national-news/human-rights/690-un-torture-regular-and-prevalent-in-gambia [accessed 6 April
2015] jollofnews.com/2015/03/07/un-torture-regular-and-prevalent-in-gambia/ [accessed 24 August
2016] In his report to
the 28th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva,
Special Rapporteur Juan E. Méndez alleges systemic use of torture such as
punching, slapping and blows with objects such as canes or batons and burns
by the security officers, particularly agents of the feared National
Intelligence Agency (NIA) based on witness testimonies and other evidence
gathered over the course of a visit to the Gambia from 3 to 7 November 2014. Mr Mendez added that
he “found the testimonies truthful and consistent with other testimonies
regarding the practices and methods used and substantiated this with physical
evidence presented by a number of cases which were consistent with their
testimonies of beatings by fists or blunt instruments and the injuries showed
treatment that amounts to torture (or is consistent with allegations of
torture).” He added: “The
nature of the torture is brutal and includes very severe beatings with hard
objects or electrical wires; electrocution (including to the genital area),
asphyxiation by placing a plastic bag over the head and filling it with
water, cigarette burns, tying up with ropes, burning with hot liquid and an
account by one victim of having to dig his own grave believing he would be
buried alive. These methods of torture
generally occurred over a period of days or even weeks, usually either at NIA
headquarters or in other unofficial places of detention.” Gambia must stop
wave of homophobic arrests and torture Amnesty
International, 18 November 2014 www.amnesty.org/en/news/gambia-must-stop-wave-homophobic-arrests-and-torture-2014-11-18 [accessed 4 December
2014] Since 7 November,
the country’s National Intelligence Agency (NIA) and the Presidential Guards
have been carrying out a homophobic operation resulting in the arrests of
five men, including a 17-year-old boy, and three women. All those arrested
were taken and detained at the NIA headquarters in Banjul, the capital, and
were told they were under investigation for “homosexuality” but have not been
formally charged. They were subjected to torture and ill-treatment to force
them to confess their so called “crimes” and to reveal information about
other individuals perceived to be gay or lesbian. As a means to
obtain information the NIA have been using methods such as beatings, sensory
deprivation and the threat of rape. The detainees were told that if they did
not “confess,” a device would forced
into their anus or vagina to “test” their sexual orientation. U.N. says Gambia
blocks investigators probing torture and killings Stephanie Nebehay, Reuters, Geneva, 7 November 2014 www.reuters.com/article/2014/11/07/us-gambia-un-rights-idUSKBN0IR1ZS20141107?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews [accessed 29
November 2014] Gambia has blocked
United Nations human rights investigators from completing an investigation
into torture and killings during the first ever visit to the West African
country by U.N. experts, the world body said on Friday. Christof Heyns and Juan Méndez, the independent U.N. investigators
respectively for illegal killings and for torture, heard many allegations of
extrajudicial executions of government opponents, journalists and activists
and also of the widespread use of torture during their Nov. 3-7 visit, it
said. Jammeh has in the past
drawn international condemnation by subjecting political opponents to
torture, forcing them to confess to sedition on television and executing
prisoners in 2012. At a U.N. General Assembly, he stirred outrage by
attacking gay rights as a threat to humanity. The veteran
investigators, from South Africa and the United States, said they had been
forbidden access to the security wing of the Banjul prison where death row
prisoners are held. Gambia postpones UN
torture rapporteur visit, puts EU aid at risk Misha Hussain,
Thomson Reuters Foundation, Dakar, 12 Aug 2014 www.trust.org/item/20140812154240-kqium [accessed 12 August
2014] Gambia has
postponed at the last minute a week-long visit by two U.N. experts on torture
and extrajudicial killings, a move they said was ‘extremely worrying’ and
cast doubt on the country’s commitment
to a better human rights record. Jammeh has drawn
international condemnation by subjecting political opponents to torture,
forcing them to confess to sedition on television and executing prisoners in
2012. “We find it
extremely worrying that a major undertaking dealing with issues such as
unlawful killings and torture can be cancelled without explanation, just as
it is about to start,” the U.N. rapporteurs said in a statement issued by the
UN Human Rights Agency (OHCHR) in Geneva. AMNESTY
INTERNATIONAL From an old article -- URL not available Article was
published sometime prior to 2015 ENFORCED
DISAPPEARANCES On 3 December, two
NIA officers arrested Imam Baba Leigh, a prominent Muslim cleric and human
rights activist. Imam Leigh publicly condemned the execution of nine inmates
at Mile II prison in August when he called the executions “un-Islamic” and
urged the government to return the bodies to the families for proper burial.
Subsequently, Imam Leigh was not brought before a court, his detention was
not acknowledged by the NIA, and his family and lawyer remained unaware of
his fate and whereabouts. As such, he was subjected to enforced disappearance
and was at risk of torture and other ill-treatment. At the end of the year,
Amnesty International believed he was held by state agents and considered him
a prisoner of conscience. PRISON CONDITIONS Poor sanitation,
illness, lack of medical care, overcrowding, extreme heat and malnutrition
plagued Gambia’s prisons. External monitors were not allowed access. Lack of
equipment such as fire extinguishers put prisoners’ safety at risk. Prisoners on death
row were not allowed visits by family or friends. Food in prisons was of poor
quality but only remand prisoners were allowed food from outside.
Rehabilitation programmes were non-existent. In October, it was
reported that four inmates had died from illness, including two death row
prisoners, Abba Hydara and Guinea-Bissau national Sulayman Ceesay; further information was not available.
According to sources, inmate Amadou Faal, known as Njagga, was
severely beaten in October by a prison officer. He suffered the loss of his
eye but was denied medical care for several days. The prison officer was not
disciplined or charged. Search … AMNESTY
INTERNATIONAL For current
articles:: Search Amnesty International
Website www.amnesty.org/en/search/?q=gambia+torture&ref=&year=&lang=en&adv=1&sort=relevance [accessed 1 January 1, 2019] Scroll
Down ***
EARLIER EDITIONS OF SOME OF THE ABOVE *** Human Rights
Reports » 2005 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61571.htm [accessed 28 January
2013] 2009-2017.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61571.htm [accessed 4 July
2019] TORTURE
AND OTHER CRUEL, INHUMAN, OR DEGRADING TREATMENT OR PUNISHMENT – The law
prohibits such practices; however, there were reports that security forces,
notably soldiers acting outside official controls, beat persons and
mistreated civilians. The Indemnity Act
continued to prevent victims from seeking redress in some cases. The army
requested that victims file formal complaints so that cases could be
investigated; however, there were no known prosecutions in civil courts of
soldiers accused of beating or otherwise mistreating individuals during the
year. Freedom House
Country Report - Political Rights: 5 Civil Liberties: 4 Status: Partly Free 2009 Edition www.freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world/2009/gambia [accessed 28 January
2013] LONG URL
ç 2009 Country Reports begin on Page 21 [accessed 12 May
2020] In March 2006,
officials announced that they had foiled an attempted coup, leading to the
arrest of dozens of people, including senior intelligence and defense
personnel. The disappearance of five of the detainees raised concerns about
torture. Impunity for the
country’s security forces is a problem. A 1995 decree, still in effect,
allows the NIA to “search, arrest, or detain any person, or seize, impound,
or search any vessel, equipment, plant, or property without a warrant” in the
name of “state security.” In such cases, the right to seek a writ of habeas
corpus is suspended. The National Assembly passed a law in 2001 giving
amnesty “for any fact, matter or omission to act, or things done or purported
to have been done during any unlawful assembly, public disturbance, riotous
situation or period of public emergency.” Torture of prisoners, including
political prisoners, has been reported. All
material used herein reproduced under the fair use exception of 17 USC § 107
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ARTICLES. Cite this
webpage as: Patt, Prof. Martin, "Torture by Police, Forced Disappearance
& Other Ill Treatment in the early years of the 21st Century- The
Gambia", http://gvnet.com/torture/Gambia.htm, [accessed <date>] |
