IPI Calls on Jammeh to Find Hydara's Killers

By Naomi Hunt, Press Freedom Advisor for Africa & the Middle East

VIENNA, 16 December 2009: Today marks the fifth anniversary of the brutal murder of Deyda Hydara, editor and co-founder of the Point daily newspaper in Gambia. Hydara was fatally shot by unknown attackers on 16 December 2004. The murderers remain at large.

Disturbingly, Gambian President Yahya Jammeh seems uninterested in pursuing the murderers. In June this year, he told reporters that his government "has for long been accused by the international community and so-called human rights organizations for the murder of Deyda Hydara, but we have no stake in this issue." Referring to the online version of the Point, he added, "And up to now one of these stupid websites carries "Who Killed Deyda Hydara"? Let them go and ask Deyda who killed him."

When the Gambia Press Union (GPU) issued a statement in response to President Jammeh's June comments, six journalists including the Point's editor-in-chief, Pap Saine, were charged and eventually found guilty of six counts of seditious publication and criminal defamation, and sentenced to two years in prison. They were later pardoned by the president at the start of the holy month of Ramadan. At the time, IPI welcomed their release but noted that the courts should have rejected the case out of hand rather than relying on the "arbitrary mercy" of the president.

In a statement issued today, the GPU remained defiant: "To those who brutally murdered Deyda Hydara, you have failed miserably in your evil design to silence the voice of truth. Your criminal act has in fact turned his voice into a universal voice of truth and a universal voice of condemnation of evil and injustice."

According to information gathered for the IPI Justice Denied campaign, which highlights this and other cases of impunity, Hydara was killed as he made his way home from work this evening five years ago. The journalist was driving his colleagues Isatou Jagne and Niansarang Jobe home from a celebration of the Point's 13th anniversary. When they reached Sankung Sillah Street, a man in the passenger seat of a passing car shot at Hydara, who was killed instantly by bullets fired into his head and chest. His colleagues were wounded in the attack: Jagne was hit in the ankle, and Jobe in the knee.

Jagne, who managed to scramble from the car before it landed in a ditch, sought help from police officers at a nearby station. She and her colleague were taken to the police station and, after refusing to issue statements, were brought to a Banjul hospital. They flew to Dakar, Senegal for medical treatment and, fearing for their safety, have since refused to disclose their location.

It is widely believed that Hydara was murdered in connection with his work. In his last published article for The Point, he announced plans to challenge two controversial laws that had been introduced two days earlier: the Criminal Code (Amendment) Bill 2004, which imposes prison sentences for press offences such as defamation and sedition; and the Newspaper (Amendment) Bill 2004, which requires expensive operating licenses and obligates newspaper owners to register their homes as security for the payment of any fines.

The "Green Boys," an officially disbanded youth group from the radical wing of the ruling Alliance for Patriotic Reorientation and Construction (APRC), are suspected of involvement in the killing. The group was tied to threats made against Alagi Yorro Jallow, founding editor of the Independent, who was forced to flee the country for fear of his life after Hydara's murder. Hydara had reportedly received an anonymous letter some months before his death, threatening to "teach a very good lesson" to President Jammeh's critics.

"On this sad anniversary, IPI calls on President Yahya Jammeh to ensure that the murderers of Deyda Hydara are finally pursued and brought to justice," said IPI Director David Dadge. "The press freedom situation in the Gambia is bleak, but Deyda Hydara remains a symbol for other brave Gambian journalists who try to do their job by reporting the news and revealing the truth."

The Gambian authorities have notoriously little respect for press freedom. Pap Saine, surviving editor and co-founder of the Point, has faced numerous frivolous and expensive law suits in the past. Another journalist, Chief Ebrima Manneh, was arrested by National Intelligence Agency (NIA) operatives in 2006 and has not been heard from since; the Gambian government has ignored an ECOWAS Community Court order to disclose his whereabouts and release him from prison. The Court is also hearing a case brought on behalf of former Independent editor-in-chief Musa Saidykhan, who claims he was tortured during his detention by the NIA in 2006.

GPU -UK calls for more Int'l pressure on Banjul

United Kingdom branch of Gambia Press Union GPU is hereby calling for urgent intervention by United Nations and other International organizations to put pressure on government of The Gambia to seriously investigate the murders of prominent Gambian journalists.

Deyda Hydara and Omar Barrow have both been murdered by agents of Gambia Government and nothing done about their killing for many years now. Omar Barrow serving as journalist and Red Cross Volunteer was gunned down during April 2000 student demonstration in Gambian that consumed the lives of more than dozen young students. Deyda Hydara, co-proprietor and Managing Editor of The Point Newspaper was stalked by secret agents of Gambia Government and brutally gunned down near a Police Station in Kanifing District of urban Gambia, Five years today on 16 December 1994. Eye-witness accounts indicated that he was shot at from a car without number plates.



Two members of Hydara's staff, Ida Jagne-Joof and Nyansarang Jobe, who were in his vehicle at the time both sustained varying degrees of injuries as a direct consequence of bullets directly released on their moving vehicle. In the case of Ms Jobe, a bullet was lodged somewhere in her legs and later extracted by surgeons at a hospital in the capital city of neighbouring Senegal, Dakar.



We extend our call to have international organizations bear on Gambian authorities put an end to persistent reign of terror against journalists, human rights activists and innocent civilians in the West African state. Mr. Hydara's death is among a trail of murders and arson attacks by brutal groups of criminals, who use vehicles without number plates at night targeting unsuspecting preys in their perpetual reign of terror against journalists, human rights activists and innocent civilians. Since Hydaras murder, 5 years ago there has been total lack of progress in the investigation into his death despite widespread condemnation by journalists, media organizations, human rights groups and other concerned groups for justice, locally and rule of law elsewhere around the globe.

Initial reaction of the Gambian government was to pretend that the murder of Mr Hydara was nothing more than a routine criminal activity. It was only after intensive pressure that the government of Gambia took calls for an immediate investigation into this seriously most ghastly crime. Four months after Hydara's assassination on April 29th 2005, the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) released a purported 'confidential' report, said to 'acquaint the Government of The

Gambia and other interested parties with outcome of investigation so far'. The report which could best be read as a smear campaign veered towards maligning the good name of Mr Hydara, his family and colleagues was full of logical disjunctions, contradictions, harebrained reasoning. In the look of it this report fell short of standards as one that could very well have been written by high school juniors called into investigate the fatal shooting of a high school senior.

Five years on, government of the Gambia appears not bring the matter anywhere near closure.

With no suspects been brought to justice and Gambia government being very jumpy about any mention or call for an effective investigation, barely 5 months ago seven (7) Gambian journalists were illegally arrested and sent to prison for merely calling on the government to investigate Mr Hydara’s murder properly and

bring the perpetrators to justice. Their call for the President of the Gambia Yahya Jammeh to desist from making statements of ridicule about Hydara's murder was regarded as a crime against the state. Though the journalists were later purportedly pardoned by junta leader Yahya Jammeh, the President of the

Gambia Press Union, Ndey Tapha Sosseh is being prevented from returning to the country for fear of persecution by state agents who continue to harass and intimidate media practitioners daring to ask the legitimate question: 'who killed Hydara?'.



As the custodian of the instruments of human rights, the United Nations has a duty to ensure that human rights are not just respected but secured everywhere no matter the size of any given country. It cannot and should not rest while injustice and the abuse of these rights continue. It is in view of the above that The Gambia Press Union branch of United Kingdom, a non partisan body of

Gambian journalists residing in the United Kingdom, is urging the United Nations to put pressure on the government of The Gambia to ensure that media practitioners, human rights activists as well as innocent civilians are protected against state organized invasion of citizen’s rights in Gambia.



Trail of some of the atrocities can be summed as follows:

• 10th April 2000 – Journalist Omar Barrow shot dead at the entrance to the Red Cross headquarters

• 10th & 11th April 2000 – Student demonstrators massacred

• 8th August 2001 – Arson attack on Radio 1 FM radio station. Its proprietor, George Christensen who escaped with burns.

• 10th August 2001 – Arson attack on the home of a member of staff of Radio 1 FM

• 26th December 2003 – Leading barrister, Ousman Sillah was shot and seriously injured

• 13th April 2004 – Arson attack on the press house of The Independent newspaper, burnt down and the paper's printing machine damaged beyond repairs.

• 16th December 2004 – Leading newspaper editor and journalist, Deyda Hydara was assasinated

• July 2006 – Journalist Ebrima 'Chief' Manneh kidnapped by state agents (NIA)

• June/July 2009 – 7 journalists of The Gambia Press Union sent to prison for criticizing President Jammeh over insensitive remarks he made about the unsolved murder case of veteran journalist Deyda Hydara.

We are extremely disturbed by the fact that in all the above mentioned

cases any investigation promised by the police only to end up with excuses, such as 'witnesses have not been forth coming.' As a result, such crimes end up being swept under the carpet. Such a trend is inimical to peace and security, and constitutes a threat to democracy and the rule of law in Gambia.

We trust that you will utilize the full weight of your good office within the best outfit of protocol to salvage Gambia media and civil society from the horrors of state inflicted injustices and threats since the junta seized power more than 15 years in a coup that placed Yahya Jammeh in a self imposing life-president seat all the time since.



Signed:



Sarjo Bayang

President

Gambia Press Union (UK)

Murder Most Foul: The Killing of Deyda Hydara

By Baba Galleh Jallow

December 17, 2004. Deyda Hydara, 58, Editor and co-founder of The Point newspaper has been brutally murdered. Deyda was gunned down last night, around 11:00pm, as he drove home from his office.

It was the thirteenth anniversary of The Point and Deyda and his colleagues had spent the day celebrating. But for Deyda, the meal he had that day was his last. Among the guests at his office, chatting and talking, showing teeth hiding streams of hot blood, or just waiting nearby outside his office, were some men who knew that Deyda would not see the light of the day tomorrow.

As he drove home, an unmarked taxi cab overtook him, drove adjacent him, and a man in the front passenger seat pumped two bullets into an unwary Deyda’s head and one into his chest. He lost control of the car, which swerved into a ditch. He died on the spot. His passengers, two young ladies, members of his staff he had offered a ride home, suffered gunshot wounds to the legs. The killers sped past the spot where Deyda slumped over his steering wheel, his skull shattered, his chest punctured, drenched in his own innocent blood. Deyda, who could not even hurt a fly. Deyda, who stammered and smoked and was ever so cheerful even when engaged in heated debate over matters of principle. Deyda was also the Gambia correspondent for Reporters Without Borders and the French news agency AFP.

Who killed Deyda Hydara? Who wanted Deyda dead? What could be the motive for such cold-blooded murder of a 58-year old journalist who had spent all his life trying to make ends meet and who ran a small bi-weekly tabloid just mildly critical of the state? Clearly, as long as this regime remains in power, we will never get an answer to these questions. Investigations will be touted in the media for a while and then all would be silence. Deyda’s last shroud would be like the shroud of silence that still covers the gruesome murder and incineration of Finance minister Ousman Koro Ceesay. Deyda’s last shroud would be like the shroud of silence that surrounds the murder by security forces of twelve students and one radio journalist on April 10/11 2000. Deyda’s shroud will be like the shroud surrounding the killing by security forces of Lt. Almamo Manneh, of an unknown number of alleged coup plotters on the bloody night of November 11, 1994. I am certain that Deyda’s murderer will never be brought to book as long as the current regime is in power.

Deyda was an uncompromising champion of press freedom and respect for human rights. Over the past year, he had been at the forefront of the Gambia Press Union’s fight against the promulgation of the media commission that had more powers than the Supreme Court of the land. That law was repealed only to be replaced by an even more draconian piece of non-legislation that gave the state power to jail journalists for a minimum of six months without the option of a fine for publishing ‘untruths’. This new bill also increases the fee for the registration of a newspaper from a whopping hundred thousand dalasi (about $5,000) to an unbelievable five hundred thousand dalasi. Again, Deyda was at the forefront of the press union’s fight against this draconian bill. Clearly, the state had gotten tired of seeing Deyda oppose any piece of unjust legislation in this country. And if that indeed is the case, as many of us believe it is, then Deyda’s murderer will never be brought to justice as long as the current regime is in power, which could be for God knows how long.

Deyda’s murder is a very good indicator of where we are as a nation. It is a good indicator that yes, we were not mistaken in our accusations of the authorities that there is absolutely no security for the powerless in today’s Gambia. How could anyone claim the existence of security in a country in which journalists could be murdered with impunity, media houses set on fire with impunity, and police and soldier-brutality perpetrated against innocent civilians with impunity? Deyda's murder is a good indicator that in today’s Gambia, the murder of government critics can be committed with blatant impunity and no one would ever be arrested for it. Why? Because the police are afraid to ask too many questions. Because the NIA can look only so far. Because the police, the NIA and everyone else find themselves emasculated and reduced to pretending that what they see is really not what they see, and what they know is really not what they know. They all know, or at least suspect very strongly that they know, who killed Deyda Hydara. But they are blind and dumb to the truth because the truth is too ugly to contemplate.

Deyda’s murder is an act of terrorism. It is a good indicator that terrorism does not have to be male, Arab, skinny, with an eagle nose and long flowing beard; that terrorism could also be black, African, Gambian, with a head like a square piece of dead wood. Deyda’s murder is calculated to terrorize not only the Gambian media, but all Gambians. It is calculated to stun and petrify the people, to say to everyone that this is what happens to people who engage in activities like those Deyda engaged in. It is a calculated attempt to repeat the message that was sent out to the Gambian people on April 10 and 11, 2000, when 12 innocent school children and one radio journalist were murdered by security forces in broad daylight and no one was prosecuted for the murders. The message that whoever dares make too much unpleasant noise in The Gambia will go six feet deep, and nothing will come out of it.

But Deyda’s murder also represents a victory for the forces of truth and justice in The Gambia. Death, Foucault argues, is the ultimate defiance to state power; it is the point at which naked power is rendered totally impotent. By his death Deyda has dealt a devastating blow to the forces of evil in our country. He has exposed the shameful cowardice of those who, because they have the guns, feel that they can commit any crime and get away with it. He has, by his death, grown larger than life in the global imagination and focused the world’s attention on this small corner of the world where, for over ten years now, a small group of tyrants have lorded it over the people and broken every law in the book with ruthless impunity. If Deyda’s murderers were hoping to stop him from exposing their evil deeds, the ironic result is that by his death, Deyda has turned the full light of international attention on his killers. They have achieved the exact opposite of what, in their sick and jaundiced imaginations, they had set out to achieve. Not only are the world’s curious searchlights now fully focused on The Gambia, they will remain focused on The Gambia until the truth about Deyda is known and the culprits brought to justice in one way or the other. There is no doubt that one day, someone will stand in front of the world and say with total certainty, this is Deyda’s murderer. That day will come, and when it comes, those who feel that they can commit such despicable crimes with impunity shall be condemned to eternal damnation.

(culled from Mandela’s Other Children: The Diary of an African Journalist)

FIVE YEARS ON DEYDA HYDARA'S KILLER(S) STILL AT LARGE

On the occasion of the fifth anniversary of the murder of our colleague, mentor, friend and brother journalist Deyda Hydara, on December 16, 2004, the Coalition for human rights in The Gambia once again denounces the fact that the perpetrators of this heinous crime are yet to be brought to book.

Today, we wish to honour the memory of Deyda Hydara and to register our stance against the overt or covert condoning of any form of impunity by the Government of The Gambia.

We are outraged that after five years, apart from a National Intelligence Agency Published “confidential report” in 2005, two GPU/National Security Council Meetings (2004/2008), the recent jailing of six journalists including three senior members of the Gambia Press Union over comments by President Yahya Jammeh on the Deyda Hydara murder, the perpetrators are still unidentified and the investigations into the case stalled.

Today, the Coalition wishes to call the public’s attention to the fact that the perpetrators of this heinous crime have not yet been brought to book. They roam our streets freely lurking behind dark shadows.

We express our utmost disappointment and concern that the State institutions responsible for the protection of life and property in this country have to date woefully failed to find the culprits. Instead, they would speedily and heartlessly detain and imprison innocent journalists who question the motives for the murder of Deyda Hydara and the apparent failure of the authorities to show commitment in investigating other atrocities against the private media and journalists.

Regrettably, we are obliged to draw the attention of the Gambia Government and the State Security Apparatus’ to the fact that unless and until the State re-commences the investigations into the murder of Deyda Hydara and that this time around it leaves no stone unturned to trace the perpetrators of this dastardly act; the media fraternity will have no faith and confidence in the ability of the security forces and the government to put an end to IMPUNITY and crimes against the media and media practitioners. We have observed a similar trend in our society at large. Such a scenario is inimical to national peace and security.

The Coalition for Human Rights in The Gambia sincerely hopes that at the end of five years, the Gambia Government will take stock and that in an effort to pave the way for an end to impunity and to demonstrate its commitment to the protection of the life, liberty and limb of every Gambian without discrimination against media professionals by:

• Publicly stepping up efforts into investigations of the murder of Deyda Hydara in particular and on all pending cases relating to the assaults on journalists and media houses;
• Stopping the unwarranted and unnecessary arrests, detention and show trials of journalists and media workers;
• Reopening all arbitrarily closed media houses and allowing them to operate without fear of reprisals;
• Seriously consider repealing obnoxious media laws in particular the Newspaper Amendment Act 2004, the Criminal Code Amendment Act 2005, the Newspaper Registration Act 2005 and the Communications Bill 2009.

To those who brutally murdered Deyda Hydara, you have failed miserably in your evil design to silence the voice of truth. Your criminal act has in fact turned his voice into a universal voice of truth and a universal voice of condemnation of evil and injustice.

We rejoice in the fact that Deyda Hydara will always be remembered as a courageous, steadfast and committed journalist. One who ascribed to the singular pursuit of truth, justice, transparency and accountability. He died a hero and a martyr to the cause of a free press for The Gambia.

For more information, contact :
Coalition for Human Rights in The Gambia
Tél : 33 867 95 87
Mail : coalitiongambie@gmail.com
Organizations :
-Amnesty International, Section Sénégal
-Article 19
-Réseau Interafricain pour les Femmes, Médias Genre et développement (FAMEDEV),
-Fédération Internationale des Journalistes (FIJ),
-Gambia Press Union (GPU),
-Organisation Nationale des Droits de l’Homme (ONDH),
- Rencontre Africaine pour le Défense des droits de l’Homme (RADDHO),
-Radio Alternative Voice for Gambians (AVG),
-Réseau Presse et Parlement du Sénégal (REPPAS),
-Syndicat des Professionnels de l’Information et de la Communication du Sénégal (SYNPICS),
-Union des Journalistes d’Afrique de l’Ouest (UJAO)/West African Journalists Association