- The parliament of The Gambia on Tuesday ratified the UN Convention against torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, claiming that the country had never applied these practices and that it had not been ratified earlier "by omission." On the same day, however, Reporters sans Frontières released photos of a Gambian journalist who had been severely tortured by national security forces only last month.
Approving the ratification, the Gambian Attorney-General and Secretary of State for Justice, Tijan Hydara, said The Gambia was being a consistent major player in the international arena and a front runner of the ideals of the UN, 'The Point' reported. Mr Hydara stated that The Gambia had "never lagged behind" in lending support to such laudable instruments as this convention, adding that the country's 1997 constitution provided for good measure that "No person shall be subjected to torture or inhuman or degrading punishment or other treatment."
According to the Attorney-General, The Gambia had not ratified the UN Convention against torture, "more by omission than by commission." Mr Hydara observed that since The Gambia recognised that torture, and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment is improper, the act would not be practised in this country.
The timing of the ratification however could not have been worse, as it came on the same day that evidence of the cruelest torture committed in The Gambia was presented by the Paris-based press freedom organisation Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). The group published photos of a Gambian journalist - showing marks, scars and open wounds all over his body - following heavy torture by the National Guard while in recent detention, and without having been presented with any charges.
The identity of the Gambian journalist and the circumstances of his imprisonment were kept secret by RSF to safeguard his personal security, but are known to both the press freedom group and to afrol News. The National Guard of The Gambia is an elite corps that is under President Yahya Jammeh's direct orders and has its headquarters next to the presidential building.
"The publication of these photos is an appeal for help," RSF said in a statement. "The Gambia is sinking into violence and despotism. Some political detainees are clearly being brutally treated by the Gambian National Guard. The international community, including the leading African democracies, can no longer remain silent. We believe that the Jammeh government is not fit to host the African Union summit, and that the African Commission on Human and People's Rights (ACHPR) should leave Banjul," the group added.
Under the rule of President Jammeh - who came to power in a 1994 military coup - The Gambia has slowly developed into West Africa's most repressive dictatorship. Political assassinations, systematic gagging of the press and the opposition and what seems to be a widespread use of torture increasingly characterise the Jammeh regime. RSF, afrol News and African editors now fear for the life of two Gambian journalists, who are still in detention.
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