President Jammeh pledged to have all death row inmates executed by mid-September. Photo | BBC | |
Gambia’s
president vow to kill death row inmates by September 2012 has been met with
widespread international condemnation.
Speaking on the
occasion of the Muslim Feast (Eid-el-Fitr) August 19, Yahya Jammeh announced
his government would “execute all those sentenced to death” for killing their
fellow human beings.
One of the most
respectable international human rights groups, Amnesty International, which has
a keen interest on rights violations in the Gambia said: “President Jammeh’s
reported comments that people sentenced to death will be executed by September
must not be acted on, and must be retracted.
“President
Jammeh’s comments are deeply troubling and will undoubtedly cause severe
anguish to those on the death row and their families,” Amnesty International Africa
Director Audrey Gaughran said.
“Any attempt to
carry out this threat would be both deeply shocking and a major setback for
human rights in Gambia,” Gaughran added.
More than 40
death row inmates, including women are currently held in the tiny West African
country’s prisons.
Amnesty fears if
the executions are carried out, it will mark an end to a 27-year period without
executions. The last execution in the country dates as far back as 1985.
In a statement,
Amnesty said it currently classify Gambia as abolitionist in practice, and
therefore as one of 141 country’s (more than two thirds of states) worldwide
which have abolished the death penalty either in law or practice.
The Gambian
leader, whose stand to execute death sentences is based on the increase murder
cases in the country, said “I gave four years for people to stop the brutal
killing of their fellow human beings and instead of people heeding to my
warning, they continue to commit heinous crimes. It is going too far and I am
going to put a stop to it.
“I will set an
example on all those who have been condemned,” he warned, adding “I don’t want
any religious leader to come and beg for clemency.”
However, an
outspoken religious leader used the occasion of the Eid to call on the
president to be forgiving. “We all expect that the president will use this
occasion to release those in prison so that they can be reunited with their
families,” the Kanifing South Mosque Imam, Baba Leigh told The Standard.
“He should not
say people should not beg him for forgiveness because he is in a position to be
begged... even though it is his discretion to accept or reject the appeals,”
added Imam Leigh who is also a human rights activist. “We all want the Gambia
to continue to be known as a place of peace, unity and friendliness.”
The pan-African
regional grouping, the African Union on Friday called on Jammeh to renounce his
intention to kill all death row inmates.
Last year, the
Gambia replaced the death penalty for life imprisonment for drug-related
offences.
Reacting to that
development, the Executive Director of the African Centre for Democracy and
Human Rights Studies (ACDHRS), Mrs. Hannah Foster told me: “The right to life
is sacred. No one should take a life that you do not give.”
Written by Modou S. Joof
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