Note: As readers may recall, I applauded President Barrow’s earlier decision to retain Yahya Jammeh’s Chief of Defence Staff Lt. General Ousman Bargie. Many readers were of a different opinion to mine and, sadly, the story below of torture against a young man which the CDS himself accepts to be true, proves me wrong. It simply is not tenable in a democratic and civilised society for a Chief of Defence Staff who behaves this way to remain a single day in post. I apologise to the readers and accept that he must go – at once: Or is CDS now in-charge???
Gambia’s Chief of Defence Staff Tortures Boy!
Momodou Bah Was Tortured In A New Gambia Where New President Barrow Promised Rule Of Law
Sam Phatey, SNBC, Gambia, February 6, 2017
(FOROYAA version below mentioned-NOT CDS)
Momodou Bah, 19, works is a commercial van apprentice along the Serrekunda-Brikama dual highway. He yelled at the driver of an SUV along Kombo Sillah Drive to shut the door to his vehicle to allow the flow of traffic.
The door of the SUV had been flanked open obstructing traffic.
Suddenly, the same SUV crossed in front them and blocked the road, bringing the traffic to a complete stop.
The Gambia’s army chief, Lt. Gen. Ousman Bargie disembarked from the SUV, waving his pistol from side to side, accusing Bah of being rude and cursing at him.
The pleading of at least a dozen passengers fell on deaf ears and Bah realizing how much trouble he was in took off running for his life. Bah may have been safe for a moment but not his boss, Muhammed Touray who was arrested by General Bargie.
Touray would only be released if Bah turns himself in. He did a few hours later and both spent the night sleeping on a cardboard in a jail inside a military barracks and Bah could only be released on the orders of General Bargie.
“I slept the night the night with my boss in the same cell and the next day, the CDS released my boss but ordered I remain in custody,” said Momodou Bah.
Bah was taken into custody at a military barracks not far from the British Embassy and he never stood a chance of coming out without being a torture victim.
Momodou Bah was at the Fajara Barracks where he was tortured. Cold water was poured all over his body and flogged, leaving him seriously wounded.
The Fajara Barracks is home to the Gambia’s Republican National Guard, a battalion some of whose officers were part of former President Yahya Jammeh’s hit squad, the Jungulars.
It was evening and the military base that also host West African regional troops were retiring into the quietness of the night. Bargie came to release Bah who was brought out from his cell and taken to a different room.
Military men surrounded him and started pouring cold water all over him before stretching him on a table.
Some held his legs and others his hands. Bargie entered and gave orders to those standing to flog him. The men were armed with pipes, “strong pipes,” recalled Bah and started hitting him all across his body, especially on his legs since he ran. At some point, the military general himself took a pipe from one of the men and started hitting him.
Bah was bleeding. His wounds were so deep and blood clothed around them. The pictures of the scar-like wounds are so visible and troubling to publish.
“I admit beating him and ordering my boys to pour cold water on him to teach him a lesson,” Bargie told Gambian journalist Yankuba Jallow.
Bargie denied brandishing his pistol in public and defended the torturing of the young man.
“He insulted my mother and we are Africans. We do not accept that here. We have children’s rights but we also have our tradition and culture,” he said.
Human rights abuses by the Gambia’s army is in part responsible for the deployment of West African troops to stabilize the political tension in the country. The country’s new President Adama Barrow has vowed to bring an end to rights violations, especially torture and arbitrary detentions by security forces.
While some security chiefs lost their jobs, President Barrow has kept Bargie has his military chief. His latest action, however, may throw the Commander-in-Chief’s decision into question.
Forced disappearances, arbitrary detention, torture, and other human rights violations by Gambian soldiers under former dictator Yahya Jammeh went unpunished. An indemnity law protects them from prosecution.
UN special rapporteurs, who in 2014 gained access to the country for the first time, concluded that “torture is a consistent practice” by authorities and “avoiding arrest is a necessary preoccupation” for ordinary Gambians.
Barrow had pledged that “rule of law will be the order of the day” in this new Gambia, so far the security forces continue to act with impunity, including Military Chief Lt. Gen. Ousman Bargie, who has found comical fame in the wake of political change.
(Reporting by Yusupha Jallow; Writing by Sam Phatey; Additional Reporting from Foroyaa Newspaper; Editing by Sainey MK Marenah)
F OROYAA VERSION:
Question of the Day:
Why is Foroyaa Imposing Self-Censorship In This Story And In The Process MIS-Educating The People?!
APPRENTICE FLOGGED AT FAJARA BARRACKS
FOROYAA February 3, 2017
By Yankuba Jallow
Modou Bah, a 19 year old apprentice of a commercial van, has accused a senior military officer of flogging him at Fajara Barracks and inflicting severe injuries on him before his release last week.
The 19 year old who was unable to walk properly when he visited Foroyaa last week, explains that his driver was driving their van with some passengers on board the vehicle when he had a dispute with this senior officer.
He said subsequently the apprentice was arrested and detained at Fajara Military Barracks on the orders of this officer.
Bah who was accompanied by four men including the driver due to his condition, narrated how he was tortured. The apprentice said he was undressed and ice water poured on him while he was under a mango tree and from there the officer ordered for his continued detention and decreed for no one to release him without his approval.
“On Wednesday, January 25, 2017, around 7pm, the officer came and ordered for my release but before he did so, he treated me badly,” said Bah. Bah told Foroyaa that the officer flogged him while he was laid on a table and inflicting injuries on him.
The officer maintains that he gave him ‘a good hiding to teach him a lesson’ because a 19 year old (the apprentice) insulted a 49 year old (the officer) which is unacceptable in our culture and tradition. The apprentice denied insulting him.
Bah’s driver, Muhammed Touray told this reporter that the boy received treatment at the Serrekunda General Hospital in Kanifing through a police medical report from the Kanifing Police Station. The Kanifing Police Station transferred the case to Tallinding Police Station which has jurisdiction to handle the case.
Ends
Shouldn’t his general-juju-neck help anyone rate the self-integrity, intelligence and professionality of such a man? He might be badly hooked on highly dangerous substances that are not at his easy disposal now, coupled with his evident illiteracy and lack of military sophistication. Or, who knows.. he is back at doing something he has been doing for more than a decade…..TORTURE.
Why didn’t he call the police to do their job as the notorious X nia(arrest disappear people without trace), are already disbanded.. An army’s arrest and detention of a civilian in a military base should be tried as treason and kidnapping, or however Dida himself modifies the legal implications..It should warrant the imprisonment and subsequent discharge of the officer/s found guilty of such a crimes.
Who, is it wise for barrow to keep, and who not, is the coalition government of Barrow’s job with the looming freedom of expression of opinions and criticism over their heads, hoping the rightful impeachment of presidents too, be billed and enacted into law as soon as possible.
Anyone who thinks the army doesn’t need a complete restructuring must be very mistaken to think so! They should be brought down from roof to foundation if one would like to put everything in its right position within the army again, including who is needed and who not in the apparatus. I am thinking that this new government should try to bring up the issue of a compulsory one and a half year military training for all high school leavers with the required physical fitness. Among the latter, those who think they have a carrier in the military would stay and the rest who wouldn’t, already have their military education to ready, to serve better in other civil sectors of the society. The army should try to encourage the recruitment of university graduates as well. This is the easiest way in my opinion, that can help civilise a re-established Gambia army that will learn and understand the relationship between an army of a country, and a government which also includes 100%, the oppositions. This army must be thought to understand that their duty is not needed by the civilian population except in a situations of natural disaster or an external threat that is out to bring the national flag down. This however, doesn’t mean that they(military personel), should show the least emotion when a Gambian inside the Gambia, or any resident, tears the Gambia flag apart in demonstration, a kind of situation the laws of the Gambia had made provisions for, that shouldn’t in anyway take a soldier to execute.
Bourne: Calm Down, Come up for Some Air least you Hyperventilate from Blind Rage.
Hold on to your Horses or Donkeys! You are already judging the man guilty and sentenced all by yourself. How “informed” and “educated” a jurist you are? Another thing, insults and hyperbole only make you appear and infact, sound Not Credible and a bit Unhinged. Don’t Trip over yourself with Venum and Self-Rightiousness. That only adds to making you appear and infact, sound like a Zealot. Calm down, Like “The Wallers”, Said in a Raggae Rhythm, “Simmer Down, Control Your Temper, Simner Down, “Why don’t you, Why don’t you, Simmer Down…. Cause the Battle Will Be Harder”…
Halake: Calm Down, Come up for Some Air least you Hyperventilate from Blind Rage.
Hold on to your Horses or Donkeys! You are already judging the man guilty and sentenced all by yourself. How “informed” and “educated” a jurist you are? Another thing, insults and hyperbole only make you appear and infact, sound Not Credible and a bit Unhinged. Don’t Trip over yourself with Venum and Self-Rightiousness. That only adds to making you appear and infact, sound like a Zealot. Calm down, Like “The Wallers”, Said in a Raggae Rhythm, “Simmer Down, Control Your Temper, Simner Down, “Why don’t you, Why don’t you, Simmer Down…. Cause the Battle Will Be Harder”…