TRRC: Ex-student leaders, security officers testify

As the testimonies on the April 2000 student uprising continues, former commander of Kudang Military Barracks, WassaCamara; and LaminCamara, warrant officer, were the ones testifying yesterday, Wednesday, September 25th at the ongoing Truth Reconciliation Reparation Commission (TRRC).

In his testimony, WassaCamara told the Commission that he received a call from the commanding officer Baboucarr Keita that there was a student demonstration going on in the Greater Banjul Area. Subsequently, he received another call from Cherno Barra Touray, the governor of CRR that students were planning to stage a demonstration at Jangjangbureh and they should be on standby. Hurriedly, he met his men in the hall and briefed them about the new development and how they should stabilize the situation, he testified.

On his way to Jangjangbureh, he went with a platoon (15), heavily armed carrying AK47, with 9 vehicles and each soldier carrying 30 magazine rounds.

H went on: “Our purpose there was just to quell the situation and not to intensify it”. He said he told the soldiers not to beat, shoot or kick anybody but that if attacked and stoned at, they could utilize their military training skills to protect themselves.

According to the witness upon his arrival, he saw students going out on the street and he advised them to remain inside but they did not heed to his advice. “ I saw fire being lighted at different parts of the street and found out that students had already burned the police station; Gamtel House was vandalized and the next targets were the market and prison facilities, which I ordered my men to guard and protect”.

Camara further said there were lots of students demonstrating and Armitage High School students were in full participation.  He added that he introduced his troops to a ‘double patrol strategy’ to maneuver effectively in orders to be able to control demonstrators easily and during that time police were nowhere to be seen.

He alleged that students had it in their plan to kidnap and arrest the commissioner. According him, students were arrested and kept beside the school basketball pitch and but denied students had been beaten, kicked or taken to Jangjangbureh prison.

In Brikama Ba, he said he saw students being beaten, kicked and laid on the road while soldiers trampled on them and he stopped the torture by deploying men that were involved but denied his soldiers participated in the torture.

The witness said, he later proceeded to the Alkalo of Brikamaba residence, where he informed him about the behavior of the students, so that the alkalo could go and advise his people to desist from vandalizing public properties and stoning officers; that if they had any issue with the government, they should go and sit down and solve the problem instead.

Next to testify was LaminCamara, Warrant Officer Class 1. He told the Commission that on 10th and11th 2000 incidents he was in the Quick Reaction Forces (QRF )atFarafenni, where he got informed that there was student demonstration in Brikamaba. “We prepared and went with two vehicles. We were about thirty men and all armed with Ak 47”. He, however, claimed that the CO advised them not to use live bullet but blank bullet “and our soldiers were not beating or torturing neither killing”.

The witness, however, admitted that 31 bullets (one magazine and bullet) were missing from one of their men AbdouNjie (NgiriNjie). He went on: “Upon arrival at Brikamaba we alighted; it was around 8 to 9 in the morning. Our Commanding Officer Baboucarr Keita went to the police station and others and I went to the alkalo to appeal to him to talk to his people. Then we went to school and Gamtel were everything was vandalized by students and later our commander told us that two students were killed and others were hospitalized”

Camara did deny the claim that his soldiers from Farafenni were responsible for the killing or arresting of any students. He put the blame on the soldiers from Kudang and Basse, led by WassaCamara and Baldeh.

On Tuesday, September 24th AlagieNayabally, former vice president of GAMSU and Omar Joof, former GAMSU president testified. Giving an account of the incident as they experienced it, they emotionally recollected the untold amount of loss they suffered including torture, seizure of their landed properties and how their families became targets of constant harassment and intimidation.

Earlier on Monday Awa Sanneh, a serving police officer and Alhajie S Darboe, former vice president of Gambia National Student Union (GAMSU) now National Assembly Member for Brikama North also appeared before the commission to narrate their experiences in connection with the April 10/11, 2000 student demonstration.

First to appear was Awa SannehBittaye who said she joined the police in 1997. She said April 10 met her at the Koto police station, where she later heard some disturbances on the corrugated iron roof of the police station, right after they had breakfast and after their morning parade. DembaSey was the commissioner she said.

“When we heard the sound on the roof, EssaBadjie went out to see. He came back running to inform us that the students were coming. A stone hit the glass door of our office, shattered it and injured EssaBadjie’s leg. As he ran to the CID office we saw blood. We wanted to go out but the stones were raining”.

Shen went on: “He asked us to hide under the counter and the men ran out of the office to run away from the stones”.

The witness further said they were three in number in the office at that time. She further testified: “We learned that they were going to demonstrate at the GTTI; we never thought they would come to our end”.

She said they thought they would throw some stones and passing by. “Mengue told me to go out; she ran first and she was stoned and she fell down. I could not call anyone because where we were the telephone was far from me,” she said.

Bittaye lamented that they had no means to defend themselves at that time and thought they would die.

She said she eventually removed her police uniform and pretended to be a student and that’s how she escaped but had to come back to help her colleague Mengue, who was stoned and lied on the ground unconscious.

The police officer said they couldn’t take her colleague to the hospital on the spot because the driver was afraid that students might attack, as they reportedly heard they were burning tires of vehicles. “He agreed to take us to my mother’s house in Latrikunda.”

The witness said she was four months pregnant and had a stillbirth as a result of the stones that hit her stomach.

She also said some of her colleagues sustained injuries.

The second to appear was Alhagie S Darboe who said he was arrested and taken to the PIU and later released.

He also explained that some students were arrested and arraigned in court and later released. He said the president made several attempts to remove Omar Joof as president of GAMSU but didn’t succeed.