Gambia asks U.N. to probe journalists' disappearance

Gambia's President Al Hadji Yahya Jammeh attends the plenary session of the Africa-South America Summit on Margarita Island September 27, 2009. REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Gambian President Yahya Jammeh has asked the United Nations to investigate the disappearance of several journalists in the tiny West African country that rights groups accuse of persecuting media workers, the U.N. rights chief said.

"In response to civil society complaints about the disappearance of a journalist in the Gambia, the president of Gambia asked for the U.N. to come in and investigate," U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said at a conference on Wednesday at Hunter College in New York City. Read More From Source.