By Ryan Aliman
Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa

BANJUL, Gambia – Gambia’s President Yahya Jammeh declared that his government vows to execute all prisoners who had been sentenced to death by September.

According to Jammeh, the executions are meant to end the rise of “brutal killings” and “heinous crimes” in the country. “I will set an example on all those who have been condemned,” he proclaimed in a televised meeting with the country’s Muslim elders and religious leaders last Sunday.

Human rights groups report that Gambia has currently sentenced 44 inmates to death, including 2 women, since last year. Crimes that receive the capital punishment as penalty include murder and treason.

Once implemented, the President’s decree will mark the end of an execution-free regime that has been in place for almost 30 years. Gambia last executed a prisoner in 1985. The resumption of the death penalty will also make Gambia the only West African country to inflict capital punishment upon its prisoners. Togo, Burundi, Gabon and Rwanda have abolished the death penalty for all crimes in the last five years.

Known in Gambia as His Excellency, Sheikh Professor Alhaji Dr Yahya Jammeh, the Gambian Leader has already made similar threats several years ago. For instance, in 1995, Jammeh’s government reinstated the death penalty. Almost a decade later, he issued another statement saying that his administration will see to it that all death row inmates will be executed as soon as possible. None of these intended executions, however, have been carried out. Despite this, Human Rights groups such as Amnesty International still consider President Jammeh’s recent announcement “a matter for serious concern”.

“Any attempt to carry out this threat would be both deeply shocking and a major set-back for human rights in Gambia,” said Audrey Gaughran, Amnesty International’s Africa director. “The President’s statement is in stark contracts to the trend, both in West Africa and globally, towards ending the use of the death penalty,” she added.

In his article for Think Africa Press, Journalist Bubacarr Sowe expressed his dismay regarding the President’s administration. He writes that over the past couple of years, President Jammeh has made decisions that run counter to the President’s “promises of transparency, accountability and probity” – promises he made when he led a coup that ended former Gambian President Dawda Jawara’s 30-year rule. “Instead,” Sowe writes, “the administration is, like its predecessor, tainted with evidence of corruption and misappropriation of state resources.”

Notwithstanding the backlash against Jammeh’s regime, the President has maintained a steady number of supporters due to a recent boost in infrastructure projects which include the building of schools and hospitals, a new airport and the Gambia’s first university.

 

For further information, please see:

CNN – Gambia vows to execute all death row inmates by September, sparking outcry – 23 August 2012

AP – Gambia president vows to execute death row inmates – 22 August 2012

All Africa – Gambia: Murder Convicts Will Be Executed President Jammeh Tells Muslim Elders – 21 August 2012

All Africa – Gambia: President Jammeh Must Retract Call for Execution of Death Row Inmates – 21 August 2012

All Africa – Gambia: Yahya Jammeh – 18 Years and Counting – 2 August 2012