afrol News - Gambia leader awaits indictment

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Ghana | Gambia
Politics | Society | Human rights | Media
Gambia leader awaits indictment

afrol News, 12 November - The Accra-based Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) believed that there are enough reasons for the Gambian President Yahya Jammeh to be tried at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague for committing grave violations of human rights.

The foundation made reference to the July 2005 gruesome murder of some 50 West African nations [including 44 Ghanaians] by Gambian security forces after they were arrested on board a vessel to Europe.

The decision was taken at the end of a two-day meeting organised by the regional body in Accra.

Professor Kwame Karikari, who heads the MWFA, harped on his organisation's seriousness in addressing media repression in The Gambia.

Mr Karikari said his organisation is ready to deploy several other means of pressurising President Yahya Jammeh and members of his government and families.

The campaign will include a boycott of tourist, travel and visa ban, cessation of foreign assistance to the military and law enforcement agencies.

The anti-Gambia campaign will also take the form of protests and rallies in the country's diplomatic missions in West Africa.

Major sub-regional and international meetings and human rights days [African and International] will be used to protest against Jammeh. And according to Mr Karikai, these activities will be implemented through various established networks, regional and international human rights organisations.

Apart from urging the Ghanaian President, John Kufuor, who holds the African Union Chairmanship to mount pressure on the Gambian leader to respect the rights of Gambians and other nationals, Kwame said there are also plans to mobilise support from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) parliament, authority of the heads of state and Court of Justice.

Since the cool-blooded murder of the West African nationals whose efforts to sail through Europe landed them in The Gambia on 23 July 2005. Their mass murder resulted after they were accused of trying to overthrow the Gambian government.

The government's failure to investigate the murders has strained its relations with Ghana whose human rights organisations insisted that justice must take its course.