Standing up Against Injustice: A Memoir

By Dr. Amadou Scattered Janneh

Standing Up Against Injustice
Standing Up Against Injustice is both inspirational and instructive, emotional and riveting.
A key element of this book is a focus on The Gambias human rights situation and political landscape political turmoil; prison conditions and the plight of prisoners; the death penalty and executions; detention without trial, disappearances, torture, and extrajudicial killings; and, political repression, and corruption. These are all addressed from Dr. Amadou Scattered Jannehs personal experience and knowledge as a trained journalist, political scientist, former cabinet minister, entrepreneur, former political prisoner sentenced to a life-term, and a leading critic of the dictatorial regime of President Yahya Jammeh.
Standing Up Against Injustice looks at Amadous evolution from a seemingly shy pupil at Gunjur Primary School to a budding activist at Saint Augustines High School; from a leading anti-apartheid activist at The University of Tennessee to a cabinet minister, and a political prisoner jailed for life. There is an extensive discussion of prison conditions and his incarceration at the Gambias notorious Mile II Central Prisons where he saw prisoners being dragged away for execution in August 2012.
The book concludes with a discussion of events leading to Dr. Jannehs release from prison through the intervention of the Rev. Jesse Jackson, and his expulsion to the United States in September 2012.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: May 13, 2013
• ISBN: 9781483628462

Book preview

Copyright © 2013 by Dr. Amadou Scattred Janneh.

Author Website: www.AmadouJanneh.com

Cover Design: Gabrielle Liedtke

Editing: Kathleen A. Tracy

Front Cover Photography: Abdoulie John

Library of Congress Control Number:   2013907088

ISBN:   Hardcover   978-1-4836-2845-5

            Softcover      978-1-4836-2844-8

            Ebook         978-1-4836-2846-2

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted

in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system,

without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Rev. date: 05/09/2013

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CONTENTS

Dedication

Acknowledgements

Prologue

Introduction

Chapter 1 Change

Chapter 2 Gambian Spring?

Chapter 3 Poised For Action

Chapter 4 Family

Chapter 5 Early Education

Chapter 6 Initiation Into Journalism

Chapter 7 To America In Pursuit Of A Dream

Chapter 8 Back To The Gambia Again, And Again

Chapter 9 Close-Up View

Chapter 10 Arrest

Chapter 11 A Cell In Nowhere

Chapter 12 Solitary Confinement At Bamba Dinka

Chapter 13 Sham Trial

Chapter 14 Mile Ii Central Prison

Chapter 15 Executions

Chapter 16 Expulsion

Appendix A Ruling In Treason And Sedition Trial

Appendix B Article From Pan-African News Agency

Appendix C Amnesty International’s Statement

Appendix D Gambia News: Press Release: Gambia Pro-Democracy Group Launched

Appendix E Ghaddafi Row In The Gambia

Bibliography/ For Further Reading

DEDICATION

To my children: Aisha, Kareem, Muhammad, and Yacine (Maya); my lovely wife, Mame Fatou; my mother, Aja Makaddy Bajo; and my wonderful in-laws, Papa Dial Kouate and Ndeye Yacine Mbengue.

Also to the many people who valiantly fought for my freedom: Rev. Jesse Jackson, Ndey Tapha Sosseh, Fatou Kinneh Scattrel, Mama Sonko Bajo, Marie Janneh, Lamin S. Touray, Lawyer Lamin S. Camara, Mrs. Adelaide Sosseh, Banka Manneh, Khady Janneh Badjan, Alieu B. Ceesay, James Gomez, Haruna Bajo, Mathew Jallow, Famara Demba, Mbye Babou Jobe, Essa Bokarr Sey, Pa Nderry Mbai, Seynabou Kouate, and other names too numerous to mention here.

Special mention must also be made of Michael Uche Thomas, a hard-working Nigerian national who lost his life at The Gambia’s Mile II Central Prison after being jailed for merely printing 100 T-shirts demanding freedom.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I wish to extend my profound gratitude to the Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA) for providing the necessary funds to publish this book and for its role in the defense of human rights in West Africa.

Sincere thanks also go to Amnesty International, Article 19 West Africa, International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), West African Journalists Association (WAJA), and Raddho for their invaluable support.

PROLOGUE

The country known as The Smiling Coast is one of the smallest countries in Africa. It is situated in West Africa and is almost completely surrounded by Senegal apart from a short strip of Atlantic coastline at its western end. The description that best fits this country at present is the Crying Coast as the smile on the faces of a relatively happy and peaceful people has been wiped out by 19 years of misrule by a tyrannical government.

The reign of fear has silenced people and anyone who dares to stand up and speak out has the iron fist of the state machinery coming down on you with all its force. For those who think that they can change things from within, the effects are equally as devastating. Efforts to influence change from within or from the outside are all squashed mercilessly as the President can tolerate no divergent views, criticism, or dissenting voice. The untenable situation is a far cry from the promise that was made when five young military officers took over from the democratically elected government in July 1994.

The promise that they were soldiers with a difference became a distortion from what people expected. In a sense they were different for one soldier managed to push out four and turned the military into a subservient force that no longer served the interests of the people but the interests of one man for whom they pledged unflinching loyalty. It is a sad fact that the dictator has followers who implement his wishes for their own personal interests. Jammeh cannot do all the dirty jobs by himself and these followers are constantly engaged in propagating, torturing, harassing, murdering, and inflicting pain on their own brothers and sisters.

And, not only the soldiers but the security apparatus, the legislature and the judiciary as well as the citizenry bow down in obeisance to the coup leader who eventually became elected president with a wide majority in three consecutive presidential elections. Jammeh has entrenched himself by the overt displays of generosity throwing lavish parties, doling out money and dishing out gifts for religious festivals and for all sorts of activities turning the country into an endless jamboree and not a state. All these are done in a bid to bribe private citizens to spy on their compatriots and report on everything they deem as suspicious. The young people have been brain washed and controlled as they seek to show their support and reverence for a leader who they perceive to have invested so much in their education. In using state resources as his own he has convinced communities to believe that he has done so much. In the process he has won three consecutive presidential elections with a wide majority.

The Gambia is no place for those who believe in democracy and the rule of law and in the fundamental rights and freedoms of human beings including freedom of expression. For exercising these rights means one would be muzzled. Jammeh is the only one who enjoys freedom of expression, while his followers repeat the dictator’s whims and fancies. The state owned TV and state sponsored Daily Observer (which I used to edit in a different era) present only His Story and not the story of government or of others. The dictator and his regime control what information is given to the people. Sometimes, I think back with nostalgia on the days that Baba Galleh Jallow, Demba Ali Jawo, and others influenced me through the pages and within the walls of The Daily Observer and ask myself how it got to this.

Speaking out in a repressive regime like The Gambia is risky business. In the process you put not only yourself at risk but others as well, as demonstrated in the book by Dr. Janneh. In the process, too, I met and cemented a friendly, professional relationship with Amadou Scattred Janneh during his tenure as Minister of State for Jammeh. Quite unusual for someone like me, who abhors and rejects anything Jammeh.

In my first encounter with Janneh, during December 2004 just after Deyda Hydara’s murder, I realized he was an outsider within. When Vice President Isatou Njie Saidy, Justice Minister Shiekh Tejan Hydara and other members of the National Security Council during a meeting with the GPU Executive and media Chiefs, were hostile to GPU led proposals to stage a peaceful demonstration, Janneh served as the voice of reason. That same night, he called my private line, requesting another meeting and offered advice on strategies on how to effectively communicate with Government officials without being confrontational.

At the time, I was editing The Daily Observer and on more than one occasion, the Minister of State served as quite a useful source. This did not last long for a few months after, he was relieved of his ministerial functions.

I realized then as much as I do now, reading through Standing Up Against Injustice, that even though Dr. Janneh was acutely conscious of the risks involved in standing up within to be the lone voice and now standing up to the dictatorship, his conscience told him that something had to be done to expose the atrocities that are going on in The Gambia. The killings, abductions, deportations, arrests, closure of media houses, and sham trials had to be exposed. He did so then and was accused of espionage, though no legal charges were proffered. Later, for his involvement with the CCG, he got a life-term sentence for treason.

Standing Up Against Injustice is a riveting read and I hope that it awakens the conscience of Gambians and non-Gambians alike so that The Gambia will rightly carry the name The Smiling Coast.

~ Ndey Tapha Sosseh

INTRODUCTION

May Day, 2012, was a turning point; a catalyst for the deep reflection I had been avoiding. The roaring sound of a jet plane flying overhead triggered warm, fond memories of my activities the previous May, and I was overcome by a strong sense of nostalgia. Shifting emotional gears from daydreaming about the past to the reality of my current predicament was a monumental task. I literally had to pinch myself hard to fully focus and appreciate the grave and turbulent turn my life had taken. I was nearly a year into a life sentence for treason and sedition in one of the most brutal places in the world: The Gambia’s notorious Mile II Central Prison.

How did I get here?

My journey to Mile II may have started during my childhood in Gunjur. Even then it was my nature to stand up and speak out. How that came to be; how I persevered and survived in the face of seemingly insurmountable hurdles; how I wiggled my way through a political system where abuse, fear, and impunity characterized every aspect of statecraft and continued the fight to create a better future for The Gambia constitutes the core of this book.

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CHAPTER 1

Change

May 2011

The first day of the month marked the 14th anniversary of my marriage to the very beautiful and lovely Mame Fatou Kouate, a Senegalese national I met in March 1995 while teaching at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, in the United States. She was on a business trip while I remained in The Gambia. So celebrating our wedding anniversary together was out of the question.

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Amadou and wife, Fatou, celebrating her birthday in The Gambia, 2009

Fatou was in Guangzhou, China, shopping for the latest styles in household decor for her aptly named Classy Decor business situated at Kotu in The Gambia. She is an astute and successful entrepreneur with a sharp eye for quality products that are, at the same time, potential moneymakers. Fatou crisscrossed the United States, from New York to Los Angeles, Atlanta to Nashville, and indeed the globe—Milan, New Delhi, London, Istanbul, Dubai, Hong Kong, Guangzhou, Dakar, Banjul—in search of the latest fashions. She spent a considerable amount of time doing research online and even more time in stores and factories just to select the right items. I tended to be somewhat impatient when I accompanied her, so I went elsewhere to conduct my own business or simply stayed at the hotel.

On her latest trip to China in May-June 2011 she went with one of her aunts and a friend. I was discouraged from going so I wouldn’t rush them. I remained in The Gambia but planned to join Fatou in Savannah, Georgia, upon their return from China. Savannah has been our hometown in the United States since we moved there from Knoxville, Tennessee, in 2000.

During Fatou’s absence, I found myself with a lot of free time while alone at our newly purchased Paradise Estates home near Serrekunda. The days were marked by boredom, punctuated by the daily challenges of living in The Gambia—erratic power cuts, belching generators, water shortages, the very many problems of sick distant relatives, the unemployed who could not afford school fees, basic food and the list goes on. The authoritarian character of the government further complicated life and guaranteed that no one was beyond President Yahya Jammeh’s reach. After work, I remained glued to 24-hour TV news channels trying to stay up to date with events related to the so-called Arab Spring. Restlessness, a repressive regime, and the ongoing political changes in the Arab world proved too infectious for me.

Fatou and I celebrated our anniversary by talking over the phone and exchanging text messages every hour or so. Our last discussion before I went to bed on that May Day took on a somber tone. We spent a few moments forgiving and praying for each other before hanging up.

I headed for the bedroom and tuned into West Coast Radio, a popular FM station in The Gambia known for its excellent sports programming and its rebroadcasts of BBC World Service newscasts. The station helped fill the void I felt with my entire family away in Senegal and the United States. Another thing that kept me occupied during that period was my invaluable iPhone. It was my backbone, truly a life-line. I used it to