One of the world’s leading human rights agency, Amnesty
International said it is deeply
concerned about President Yahya Jammeh’s recent instructions to the security
forces to “shoot first and ask questions later” in an attempt to rid the
country of “armed robbers”.
“I
said shoot and ask questions later because we are not going to tolerate this
nonsense,” Jammeh told members of the National Security Council, chaired by the
Vice President, Dr. Isatou Njie-Saidy on May 22, 2012 at State House in Banjul.
But
Amnesty is calling on the Gambian President to immediately announce that the
use of lethal force is only allowed when strictly unavoidable in order to
protect life.
“The
President must ensure that the security forces carry out their duties in
compliance with the Gambia’s international human rights obligations and
international standards on the use of force and firearms,” it said in a May 31
statement.
The
Gambian leader did not made clear whether his order include “shoot to kill or
not to kill”, when he spoke at the security meeting meant to “clean the country
of criminals”, which he called “Operation Bulldozer”.
“…you handle that because the fact that they
are armed is no longer a police matter, if you arrest them, hand them over to
the police to prosecute them, but as I said shoot and ask questions later
because we are not going to tolerate this nonsense,” he told the Chief of
Defence Staff, Lt. Gen. Massaneh Kinteh.
In a wider context, “Operation Bulldozer” will
also allow the security to crackdown on all criminals, including suspected “drug dealers, pedophiles, homosexuals,
murderers, drug traffickers, human traffickers, internet fraud (419).”
The Operation will see the creation of
permanent task force to begin its mandate on 28 May 2012, however, as of
Thursday, Amnesty said the Operation has not yet been implemented, according to
the Inspector General of Police, Yankuba Sonko.
The
organization is concerned that such orders to shoot “armed robbers” is a
violation of the Gambia’s international human rights obligations.
‘Even
if they are accompanied by instructions restricting when police may shoot
to kill, it may give the police the message that it is acceptable to
use lethal force as a first resort,” it said. “In any case, the use of firearms
should be regarded as potentially lethal in all circumstances, and firing at a
suspect, regardless of where an officer aims, can result in death.”
Lethal
force must only ever be used as a last resort to protect life and only
when less extreme measures are inadequate, the agency added, warning that
President Jammeh’s proposed hard-handed crackdown on criminal activity will
lead to human rights violations.
By Modou S. Joof
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