BY BINNEH S MINTEH Rtd Lieutenant

In her famous book titled “Wild Justice” Jacoby argued that “Vengeance and forgiveness are marks along the spectrum of human responses to atrocity. Yet they stand in opposition: to forgive is to let go of vengeance; to avenge is to resist forgiving. Perhaps justice is what partakes of both revenge and forgiveness.” So in remembering our fallen comrades who were cold bloodedly murdered by the AFPRC (The Military Junta) on the sad day of November 11^th 1994, one should return to the central question: Should Gambians seek for forgiveness, avenge, revenge or ensure that justice takes its proper dispensation for such acts of barbarism? 

In responding to the above question, it is important to note that revisiting the past always help a nation to learn and nurture institutions that will lay the foundation for a better future. It is also worth understanding that in taking such positive course of actions one must never do so in revenge, avenge or out of vengeance but rather in the name of Justice under a constitutional legal entity. 

From a scholarly analysis of Suzan Jocoby, she would suggest that “A wife need not forgive an unashamedly brutal husband in order to avoid dousing him with gasoline and setting him on fire; a concentration - camp survivor need not pray for God’s blessing on the Nazis in order to refrain from personally settling scores in the manner of spy-novel avengers; a society need not set murderers free if it refuses to put them to death.”. In paying tribute to fallen heroes of our beloved land we must remember that seeking justice for such a cruelty must never be ruled out but to take a forefront of Gambia state of affairs. Those who carried out the summary executions and those who participated in that criminal act must therefore be chased and shunned away by the civilized global communities.  

The stakes for the cold-blooded murders of November 11^th 1994 are not only high, but the impact on our communities highly dangerous. Whiles the quasi- military regime of President Yaya Jammeh continue to tumble in disgrace, it is worthwhile reminding members of the former Junta that closing of the gap on them is nearing. Those who spear headed the Joint Criminal Enterprise of murdering officers and men of the armed forces must certainly be held accountable before a court of law. 

It is no historical incident setting such a stage for the benefit of coming generations, but a changing reality of the 21^st century that is naming, shaming and putting a dead end to the culture of impunity. Nuremberg’s cry for human rights and ending impunity have today carried further as seen strengthened in The tribunals of Former Yugoslavia, the Special Court of Sierra-Leone, and the Special Court for Rwanda. Sad events of November 11^th 1994 is one such inhumane conundrum that must be revisited by such a special Gambian legal institution set within the framework of the constitution and International law.  
Lieutenant Bassiru Barrow, Lieutenant Gibril Seye, Lieutenant Buba Jammeh, Lieutenant Abdoulie Faal (dot), Lieutenant Momodou Lamin Darboe, Second Lieutenant Bakary Manneh (Nyancho), Officer-Cadet Sillah, Sgt-Major Fafa Nyang, Corporal Bassiru Camara and countless other soldiers are gone but never forgotten. Their killers will continue to be hunted and haunted until our replica as a transnational justice modality takes the forefront of global affairs. In conclusion it is important to note Justice Robert Jackson’s comment after the Nuremberg trials that “when a nation is stung with injury and stays away from vengeance, voluntarily submitting perpetrators of heinous crimes to the judgment of the law is one of the most significant tributes that power has ever paid to reason”