Directing his remarks to the Gambian population in Thursday’s TRRC session, lead counsel, Essa Faal said it was illegal for individuals to approach witnesses with a view to tampering with evidence that could otherwise aid the commission’s work.
Counsel Faal’s warning came in light of claims by retired army corporal Alhagie Kanyi that he was called by Yankuba Touray, a former member of the military junta, apparently goading him to disregard the work or relevance of the TRRC which is investigating the catalogue of crimes thought to have been committed between 1994 and 2017 when Yahya Jammeh was in power after staging a successful coup.
In a three-hour, whistle-stop testimony, Kanyi had confessed to the killing of nine alleged coup suspects and a civilian minister but accused Touray and Fatoumatta Jahumpa-Ceesay, a former National Assembly Speaker and an estranged ally of ex-president Jammeh of attempting to talk him into giving scant regard to the commission.
Counsel Faal was cross-examining Kanyi over his role in the murders he admitted to have participated following an abortive coup in 1994 and the clobbering to death of Ousman Koro Sesay, a civilian serving the then military government in 1996.
According to Kanyi, he had joined in the act as the young minister was beaten to death by several serving members of the military junta including Touray in whose house the crime is thought to have taken place.
The commission whose next sitting is on March 11, will hear testimonies about crimes, violence and human rights violations from 22nd July 1994 to January 2017 with a view to documenting an accurate historical record of such atrocities.
The thematic areas that the TRRC will be investigating include crackdowns on journalists, extrajudicial killing of soldiers, forced disappearances, the mass killing of West African migrants, former president Jammeh’s controversial HIV/AIDS treatment and a 2009 witch hunt targeting alleged wizards and witches.
Although devoid of the authrotiy of a court of law, the TRRC is mandated to recommend reparations for victims, shed light on the whereabouts of the disappeared and advise the government over the prosecution of perpetrators of Jammeh-era crimes.
The TRRC’s ‘Never Again’ slogan seeks to imbue on Gambians a shared responsibility toward avoiding the atrocities of their country’s troubled past under Mr. Jammeh.