military and human rights in the Gambia: 1994-1999, The

Journal of Third World Studies, Fall 2002 by Saine, Abdoulaye S

INTRODUCTION

This study evaluates human rights and their protection under the Armed Forces Provisional Ruling Council (AFPRC) and the newly elected Alliance for Patriotic Reorientation and Construction (APRC) Government in Gambia,1 West Africa, from July 22, 1994 to January 1999. It assesses human rights violations during the period of military rule (1994-1996) and after, which culminated in the election of Retired Colonel Yahya Jammeh, as Gambia's second President2 on September 26, 1996. On July 22, 1994 Jammeh led a successful military coup=s against Sir Dawda Jawara who had ruled Gambia since independence in 1965. Military rule (1994-1996) had a traumatizing effect on Gambia's civil society because it engendered an atmosphere of fear, insecurity, suspicion and recrimination,4 which unquestionably marred the transition program to civilian rule. To many observers, AFPRC human rights performance was relatively poor when compared to the record of the deposed president, Sir Dawda Jawara and his ruling Peoples Progressive Party (PPP) government. Jawara ruled Gambia, first, as Prime Minister from 1965 to 1970 and as President from 1970 until his overthrow by the military on July 22, 1994. During his tenure in office, Jawara enjoyed international acclaim for his commitment to multiparty democracy, the rule of law and an open market economy. To his detractors, however, Jawara presided over a corrupts and decaying political system that had lost touch with the aspirations of common Gambians. To supporters of Lieutenant (later Colonel) Jammeh, the AFPRC regime promoted human rights from a socio-economic, "right to development" perspective and provided Gambians, especially the poor, with needed schools, health-clinics and roads. These competing perspectives on human rights and their effects on Gambians and the transition program in particular, deserve careful scrutiny.

While Jammeh's conception of human rights lacks precision and consistency, it appears to have been influenced by Western, African and Islamic perspectives6 and in particular, by President Jerry Rawlings7 of Ghana, whose ideas on human rights borrowed heavily from its Marxist variant. Thus, Jammeh's pronouncements on human rights are often derived or premised on any or all of these perspectives. Apparently, his support of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), a practice common in Gambia, reflects a conservative view of the practice in Gambia and Africa, generally. Similarly, his admiration and emulation of President Rawlings of Ghana have heavily shaped Jammeh's views on "democracy," even though Jammeh has not claimed to be a Marxist.8

Human rights conceptions are frequently reflected in international legal documents. Clearly, the most widely accepted is the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.9 The political/civil and social/economic rights components to the Declaration and their ratification by a growing number of member states of the United Nations indicate increasing acceptance of their centrality for human rights protection everywhere. Regional Charters such as the African Charter on Human and People's Rights (Banjul Charter), named after Gambia's capital,10 lend specificity and culturally relevant interpretations to the Universal Declaration. Accordingly, the Banjul Charter emphasizes group and economic rights while simultaneously recognizing individual rights as long as they are subservient to those of the group and greater community. Similarly, Islam contains a body of principles and practices, which affect not only the religious community of believers "Ummah", but the polity as well. Egalitarianism, piety and the collective good of society are emphasized. The role of the state in Islam II is to provide guidance for the "ummah" based on rules and principles of justice and equality. These perspectives on human rights complement a component of the Universal Declaration's emphasis on social and economic rights of groups, rights not often given primacy in Western societies. This bifurcation and varying emphasis is steeped in Cold War politics of the 1950's and beyond. Thus, it is to these varied interpretations of human rights that the former Chairman of the AFPRC, Yahya Jammeh, derived and articulated a human rights position. These perspectives continued to shape his views on human rights even after his election to the presidency in September 26, 1996.

Following the 1994 coup d'etat, Lt. Jammeh projected himself as a populist leader in the same mold as Ft. Lt. Rawlings12 of Ghana who led a successful coup on December 31, 1981. Rawlings' post coup pronouncements were explicitly Marxist. Though Jammeh appealed to Gambians for their support on class terms, he did not use explicit Marxist parlance. In effect, junior officers in both countries rejected the more individual based Western conception of human rights, perhaps out of conviction, yet used it self-servingly to repress dissent in Ghana13 and Gambia respectively. Similar to the African and Islamic perspectives on human rights, the Marxist perspective denies that the individual could have any rights separate and apart from the group to which the individual belongs. To Marxists, inequality undermines human rights and where economic rights are grossly unequal and the acquisition of material wealth is concentrated in a few hands, it is likely that the provision of civil and political rights would be severely unequal.14 Clearly, Rawlings has a better grasp of these conceptual niceties; ideologically he is to the "left" and more intellectual and charismatic than Jammeh. It follows therefore that the view one takes in evaluating human rights in Gambia under the AFPRC. would depend on the emphasis one places on civil/political rights on one hand, and social/economic rights on the other. In this analysis, I place emphasis on both.