The former deputy chairman of Gambia’s erstwhile military junta has apologized to the nation after owning up to a series of egregious human rights violations including physical torture and executions between July 1994 and January 1995.
Appearing before the Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission on Wednesday Sanna Sabally accepted responsibility for abuses meted out to then police commander Ebrima Chongan and several other security officers who were arrested over suspicion of planning to stage a coup.
The then gaunt lieutenant who played a central role in executing the 22nd July 1994 coup which brought Yahya Jammeh to power was the vice chairman of the Armed Forces Provisional Ruling Council (AFPRC) that resulted from the successful insurrection.
Gambians were seeing him for the first time in public for over 16 years.
Now looking plump and confident in a flowing traditional dress, the bespectacled Sabally also accepted accusations of torture and that his convoy may have fired at and beat people who had crossed path with his speeding convoy which were usually heavily armed.
When the TRRC’s Lead Counsel Essa Faal put to him that one such victim was Alo Bah, a female roadside seller who claimed she was shot by members of his convoy in 1995, Sabally said the incident if it happened was deeply regrettable and he was therefore apologising to the aggrieved party for what happened.
“If i have the opportunity to apologise in front of the people i have wronged in the past….i am ery sorry Gambians, I am very sorry” Sabally said at the prompting of Counsel Faal.
Prior to his testimony, Sabally’s name had surfaced severally during the testimonies of successive witnesses to the TRRC who gave graphic details of his alleged involvement in cases of egregious violations including torture and executions linked to a foiled coup in November 1994.
Sabally who eventually fell out with coup leader Yahya Jammeh and was arrested and convicted for staging his own coup was living in exile in Germany before reports last month suggested he had resurfaced in neighbouring Senegal.
AS/APA