Middle East & Africa | Bringing Jammeh to justice

The Gambia grapples with the legacy of its former dictator

A new truth commission hopes to expose past crimes

|BANJUL

WHEN JENEBA heard that Yahya Jammeh, then president of the Gambia, had found a cure for AIDS, she tossed away her medicines and signed up for his treatment programme. Every morning she and hundreds of others went to his private clinic. The president, dressed in white and often waving a Koran, would massage creams into her face. Nurses gave her a foul-tasting concoction. Soon patients began disappearing from their hospital beds. “We all suffered from terrible sickness and diarrhoea,” says Jeneba (not her real name). “At least 20 of my friends died that way.”

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Mr Jammeh committed less bizarre crimes. His henchmen, known as “the junglers”, routinely killed and tortured those who spoke out against the regime. But the big man lost an election in 2016 and, after trying to hold on to power, was forced out by the country’s neighbours. Now Gambians are coming to grips with his 22-year rule. An 11-member Truth, Reparations and Reconciliation Commission (TRRC) was launched in October, tasked with laying bare the old regime’s crimes, recommending prosecutions and paying compensation to victims. With a mandate lasting two years, its staff is already travelling up and down the country, which has over 2m people, collecting testimonies.

The TRRC faces big difficulties. Its executive secretary, Baba Jallow, says that, even with cash coming from the UN and Qatar, it will struggle to pay reparations to all deserving victims. Another issue is the Gambia’s understaffed and ill-equipped judiciary, which is meant to hear cases recommended by the TRRC. The courts are already overloaded. They do not have audio-visual equipment, which would allow witnesses living abroad to testify.

Still, Mr Jallow hopes to change the way Gambians view their government. The word for president in the country’s three main tribal languages translates as “king”, he says. Mr Jammeh’s face still adorns banknotes. Until last year, most Gambians lived their entire lives under his dictatorship. So the TRRC has launched a “Never Again” campaign to teach young people about democracy and prevent a repeat. It also wants to put Mr Jammeh on trial. But the odds are against that happening, at least in the short term. He lives in Equatorial Guinea under the protection of that country’s dictator, Teodoro Obiang.

The Gambia’s new and inexperienced president, Adama Barrow, has raised hopes in the country. But as the TRRC moves ahead with its business, some worry about Mr Barrow’s judgment. He has the power to pardon criminals—and, for reasons that are unclear, recently tried to use it to free a Norwegian paedophile convicted of abusing six children in the Gambia. (The pardon was withdrawn after a public outcry.) “His government is still groping in the dark and working things out on a day-to-day basis,” says Demba Jawo, a former communications minister.

Jeneba, meanwhile, is struggling. During her ordeal at Mr Jammeh’s clinic, her husband left her. She is bringing up four children alone. One has HIV. She does not have much to say about the TRRC—but she wants to live long enough to see Mr Jammeh punished for his crimes.

Correction (November 19th 2018): We previously stated that Baba Jallow was the chairman of the TRRC. He is actually its executive secretary. This has been amended.

This article appeared in the Middle East & Africa section of the print edition under the headline "Bringing Jammeh to justice"

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