- For seven years now, the mere mention of the 10 and 11 April has been causing upset and disquiet among many Gambians. These were the days when 14 armless students and others were massacred by trigger-happy soldiers for merely taking to the streets to defend their rights.
Most people described the days as the country’s darkest in living memory.
Two things fanned the carnages – alleged rape of a 13-year-old provincial student and the beating to death of a boy student, Ebrima Barry, by fire fighters. When these two incidents were reported by the media, the leaders of the umbrella student body, Gambia Student Union (GAMSU) led by their President Omar Joof, confronted senior government officials, demanding thorough investigations into the cases.
Days had gone by without anything being achieved apart from empty talks, prompting GAMSU leaders to ask for permit to conduct a peaceful march. Before then, a parade exercise was done to allow the raped student minor to identify her rapist soldier. This bore no fruit, as she could not identify anyone. Student leaders accused the authorities of buying time so that the minor lost her memory of the rapist’s face. Doctors had confirmed that she was indeed raped.
The other issue that student leaders took seriously with the authorities was to conduct a post-mortem on Ebrima Barry’s body, which was done. But before the report was made public, the media got the scoop that pathologists confirmed that Mr Barry died of natural cause. The hot news was fired immediately by the Daily Observer. It agitated students to storm the streets of Brikama (30 km from the capital Banjul), the scene of the death and home of Ebrima Barry. Some students had already gone wild.
That was not the end of the story. Student leaders busied themselves with holding series of meetings in which they devised ways and means of seeking justice for their colleague victims. They also wanted the culprits to face the full wrath of the law so that their crime served as deterrent to others.
Little did they know that all their efforts would be carried away by the wind just like chaff? And when all their actions met the rock, student leaders resorted to a peaceful demonstration to signal the government that they meant business. Guess what happened? Soldiers were sent to shot and kill these armless students in the streets of Kanifing and Serekunda, suburbs of Banjul. These inhumane shootings left at least 14 people dead, including Omar Barrow, a journalist and first aider.
News of the carnage soon reached the nook and cranny of the country. It added salts to the injuries of students and youths who teamed up to burn public buildings in protest. Students in the provinces also protested the following day. Again, soldiers fired bullets and killed some of them.
Sadly, a 3-year-old boy was among the victims of the carnage. The victims were rushed to the Royal Victoria Hospital in Banjul where armed soldiers also sealed to prevent people from getting in to identify dead souls.
Disbelief, anger and sadness gripped the entire country because nobody thought a peaceful demonstration by students would turn fatal to such a magnitude, especially in a country where peace and tranquillity was said to be born.
Besides, a broadcast statement by the Vice President, Ms Isatou Njie-Saidy, that shooting emanated from the student demonstrators leaked the wounds of people. Gambians will never forgive this once highly-respected woman for uttering the remark that dented or tattered her credentials for-ever.
With pressures coming left and right, The Gambia government was forced to set up a Coroner’s Inquest to ascertain the cause of the deaths. The Coroner, Ousman Jammeh, heard so many testimonies from people from all walks of life and wrapped up his findings that the killings resulted from gunshot wounds.
Mr Jammeh therefore ordered an inquiry commission to probe the killings. The commission also sat for several months and sent its report to the authorities. One issue that still remains a mystery has been “who ordered the killing?” Though accusing fingers have been pointed and continue to point at some security forces, yet no one was bold enough to come plain on the issue.
And to the greatest disappointment of Gambians, the government tabled a backdated bill before deputies in parliament asking them to indemnify soldiers accused of killing innocent people on 10 and 11 April 2000.
Seven years down the line, students have not been allowed to reflect on the memories of their fallen colleagues perished by soldiers’ bullets. Even those who survived the bullets had been maimed for life. Some are still in hospitals abroad while others lost their priceless parts.
As if the spirits of the fallen students still hunt them, the government deploys intelligence agents to counter any reflection on the day. Agents also arrest and detain any person they suspect of giving helping hands to student to organise the day. One such victim has been Alhagie Nyabally, a teacher and former student leader.
“I had been a victim of arrest and detention shortly before 10 and 11 April celebrations,” Mr Nyabally concurred. He spent 41 days in detention in 2006.
10 and 11 April are unlike the Soweto uprising of 16 June that had been declared the Day of African Child. Left to our students alone, the days would have been declared the Day of Gambian Child. Who dare say that on the Gambian soil? Not in the present system!
The government’s other employed tactic was to weaken GAMSU by creating the National Patriotic Students Association (NAPSA) whose members enjoyed so many privileges, including travel and scholarship opportunities. President Jammeh even nominated NAPSA’s former President, Seedy Njie, to parliament.
Fearing their lives, majority of the GAMSU executive in 2000 fled the country. The main student body is now like a toothless dog, it no longer bites. Its main focus is to bail itself out of being cash-strapped as well as win back the confidence of Gambian students.
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