Dr. Isatou Njie Saidy on Thursday appeared before Gambia’s Truth Reconciliation and Reparations Commission (TRRC) where she accepted responsibility for the killing of at least 14 students by security forces during a demonstration 19 years ago.
Appearing before the TRRC for the first time to testify on several events during her 20 years as the country’s second in command, the former VP apologised to Gambians for the deadly shootings.
Njie-Saidy was VP from 1997 until December 2016.
In the year 2000, Gambian students across the country went on a nationwide demonstration to seek justice for the torture and subsequent killing of their colleague Ebrima Barry in the town of Brikamaba, West Coast Region and the alleged rape of a thirteen-year old schoolgirl allegedly by a uniformed paramilitary (intervention police) officer at the Independence Stadium, where an annual inter-schools sports competition was taking place.
A doctor‘s examination confirmed that the girl was raped, prompting GAMSU to pressed for answers from the state authorities.
Testifying over he role in containing the ensuing demonstration, Njie-Saidy said until the day of the protest she had not been aware of any problem between the students and the security forces.
She was questioned as to who gave the orders for the killings of the 14 students in April 10/11, 2000, she denied any wrongdoing, saying she never received any orders from the former president to shoot and kill students.
“The president never delegated powers regarding national security and defense to anyone in government” she emphasised as Faal pressed her to accept full responsiblity for the government’s high-handed response to the demonstration given that she was the acting commander in chief in the absence of the former president who was away in Cuba attending a conference of the non-aligned movement at the time.
Part of the her testimonies also touched on the various other urging matters such as: the killings of the Ghanaians and other West Africans, Jammeh’s controversial HIV/Aids treatments, the maltreatment of Gambian journalists, enforced disappearances of citizens and the illegal termination and dismissals of public and civil servants.
However, most of her responses to questions from the lead counsel Essa Faal were either “I don’t know, I am not aware of it or I have no idea’.
This prompted Counsel Faal to suggest that her responses depicted a massive governance failure considering the position she held for almost twenty years, becoming Gambia’s longest serving VP.
DB/as/APA