Opinion | Crisis Of Legitimacy In Our Homeland

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     | Things that we ought to consider as a people seven years post dictatorship |


By Almamy Fanding Taal


We have chosen to engage in meaningless endeavors like repealing FGM and making elaborate procedural maneuvers to put JAMMEH and crimes of his era on trial in the Gambia while  the acolytes and enablers of dictatorship are elevated to the highest echelons of political power? 

At the same time based on the recommendations of the Truth Commission successful prosecution have been made of the Jammeh era crimes outside the Gambia at no cost to public resources. This is a compelling precedent for Jammeh to stand trial in any other state with Unversal Jurisdiction. Charles Taylor of Liberia is serving a life sentence in a UK prison following his conviction for war crimes and crimes against humanity. 

With the myriad challenges facing the judiciary of the country a cost benefit analysis of establishing a hybrid court system for Jammeh era crimes at this critical juncture in our nation’s transition away from dictatorship shows that it will be distracting divisive and incendiary.  Therefore Jammeh standing trial in person in the Gambia benefits no one and will most certainly disturb the peace and stability of the nation.

In my view Rwanda made the best decision coming out of a genocidal war to have all those accused of crimes against humanity to stand trial outside Rwanda in Arusha Tanzania. By all means bring Jammeh to justice but not in The Gambia. And with support from development partners this is both feasible and desirable at this stage of our development.



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The author is a regular contributor to this medium


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Views expressed herein are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of the publisher. Want to be a contributing author? Please email opmail220@gmail.com



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