Forum against violations in the Gambia scheduled for July 22

Accra, July 21, GNA - The Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA), in collaboration with Amnesty International, Ghana, Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, and Human Rights Advocacy Centre, would organised a forum and procession to protest against violations in the Gambia in Accra on Thursday July 22.

July 22 is the anniversary of Gambian President Yahya Jammeh's coup d'etat in 1994.

A statement issued in Accra on Wednesday and signed by Professor Kwame Karikari, Executive Director of MFWA, said the forum was part of the global campaign to be held simultaneously in some countries.

"Several people are expected to attend from Ghana-based civil society organizations, members of the diplomatic corps, students, religious bodies and people from all walks of life," it added.

The forum would also be an opportunity to further raise the outstanding issues surrounding the murder of 44 Ghanaians in the Gambia in 2005.

The statement said a High Court in Banjul, Gambia on July 15, sentenced eight top security officials in the country to death for another alleged attempt to overthrow the Government of President Jammeh in 2009.

"For the past 16 years that President Jammeh has been in power, more than seven foiled coups have been reported by the regime," it said.

The statement said currently in the Gambia, all public protests had ceased, lawyers were reluctant to take up human rights cases for fear of reprisals.

It said families of victims of human rights violations were also afraid to speak and many individuals had been tortured or ill-treated, disappeared, or in exile, while some had died in custody or shortly after release.

Two people, Chief Ebrima Manneh, a reporter of the pro-government Daily Observer Newspaper and Kanyiba Kanyie, a supporter of the main opposition party in the Gambia, the United Democratic Party (UDP) have disappeared mysteriously since their arrests by state security in 2006.

The authorities have barred opposition parties from holding public gatherings and Femi Peters, the campaign manager of UDP, has been sentenced to a year's mandatory sentence in hard labour for holding a public rally "without permission".

In 2005, these human rights violations culminated in the suspension of the Gambia from the Millennium Challenge Compact by the US Government. The Millennium Challenge Corporation cited sharp deterioration in press freedom, political rights and anti-corruption efforts as reasons for the suspension.