Abubacarr Saidykhan/Photo:Facebook |
Senegalese
authorities have “threatened” to expel Gambian freelance journalist, Abubacarr
Saidykhan on Monday, if he continue to be opposed to the Gambian regime,
according to reports.
Saidykhan
has been living in the Senegalese capital Dakar in self-imposed exile since
fleeing The Gambia in October 2012 over reported “death threats”
leveled against him by unidentified men believed to be state security agents.
Prior
to his flight, freelance journalist Saidykhan was arrested and detained in
September 2012 by the Banjul Bureau of the International Police Agency,
INTERPOL, after he and a colleague journalist, Baboucarr Ceesay, had applied
for a police permit to peacefully demonstrate against President Yahya Jammeh’s execution of nine death row
inmates by firing squad.
Reports
indicated that two senior officials of the President Macky Sall-led Government
met Saidykhan recently over the fate of his asylum application – and told him
“Senegal will not allow any Gambian fugitive in Senegal to continue to be
actively involved in opposition to the authorities in The Gambia”.
Saidykhan
has admitted to keeping contact and shares information with other Gambian
dissidents outside Senegal – when he was asked by the
two officials, a man and a woman, of the Senegal National Commission for
Eligibility, according to reports.
Sall’s
Government has adopted an “unannounced policy of expelling foreign dissidents”
who have seek refuge in the West African country which have earned a certain
degree of respect for its democratic principles over the years.
However, in recent times, the country has taken what has been
described as a “democratic u-turn” by expelling African refugees to countries
where their safety and security is not guaranteed.
In May, the second expulsion was handed to a Chadian journalist and
blogger, Makaila Nguebla. His deportation to Guinea
Conakry was condemned in
the “strongest terms” by a Network of Journalists and Bloggers in Senegal.
Senegalese authorities had
accused Nguebla of having links to a “destabilisation plot” in his home
country, allegations he denied when he spoke to Radio France International,
RFI. Nguebla has since moved to France.
The first expulsion was targeted at Gambian dissident Kukoi Samba Sanyang who was deported to Bamako, the Malian
capital in April in the middle of an armed conflict in that country.
He died in June at the age of
61 after he was briefly admitted at a hospital in Mali. His
health has deteriorated at the time, and was buried at a Dakar neighbourhood of
Yoff.
Kukoi, who led a rebellion in
The Gambia in 1981 at the age of 29, had protested against his arrested and
deportation to the troubled West African country of Mali.
From Bamako, Kukoi told Zik FM in Dakar that
he was only in Senegal to seek medical attention, according to reports.
“I told them I was in the Netherlands, Ghana, Burkina Faso, Mali and then Senegal respectively
where I have been residing for 9 months seeking medical attention,” Kukoi was quoted
to have said in April.
Sall’s Government came under
heavy criticism from human rights defenders who condemned both expulsions.
Writing under the headline “Senegal's Democratic Tradition
Takes Worrisome Turn” Global Voices’ Contributor Anna Gueye said: “Senegal has a solid tradition of democracy and protection of freedom
of expression and human rights. But recent months have seen the West African
nation's reputation as a stronghold for democracy in Africa seriously damaged
with the evictions of a Chadian journalist and Gambian dissident, both
opponents of the governments in their home countries”.A VERSION OF THIS ENTRY FIRST APPEARED HERE
Written by Modou S. Joof
Follow on Facebook: The-North-Bank-Evening-Standard
No comments:
Post a Comment
The views expressed in this section are the authors' own. It does not represent The North Bank Evening Standard (TNBES)'s editorial policy. Also, TNBES is not responsible for content on external links.