REMEEMBERING APRIL 10TH AND 11TH, 2000: A FLAGRANT ABUSE OF THE RIGHT TO LIFE AND DIGNITY
BY BINNEH.S.MINTEH
FORMER ARMY LIEUTENANT
In her contemporary analysis of “ The legacy of Abuse, Confronting The Past, and Facing The Future” Alice H. Henkin argued that, “efforts should be made to uncover the truth regarding the suffering, fate and whereabouts of victims.” She further asserted that, “these efforts should aim to acknowledge the pain and abuse suffered by victims and their families and to create an official record to preserve memory and guard against revisionism.” The tragic events of April 10th and 11th 2000 are such “moral imperatives” and “moral blindness” that must be an abject concern of all actors in The Gambian Political landscape.
On the sad days of April 10th and 11th 2000, student demonstrators manifesting their constitutional rights against the torture, rape and death of their comrades, were gunned down by trigger-happy elements of the Security forces. Following such a flagrant abuse against innocent unarmed students, a flouted “indemnity clause’ embedded in the constitution have successfully entrenched impunity in the tiny West African nation.
As we remember the fallen Student Martyrs, it is important to note that seeking the truth in such sad situations, ‘must focus on perpetrators and seek to identify, in as much detail as possible, not only those directly responsible for the carrying out the abuse, but also those who expressly or implicitly authorized such violations.”(A. Henkins)
In a world were states are entrenched around the universal norm of upholding the respect for human life and dignity, it is important to internationally affirm respect for the rule of law and challenge violations underpinning such great norms of civilized societies around the world. By the same token, it is a moral obligation upon all human rights organizations to ensure that perpetrators hiding under the banner of immunity and impunity are fully investigated and brought to justice. The leads are available and report of a “Coronas Inquest” is a building block in that direction.
The rights to life and dignity are the most important of all universal human rights and the source of all other personal rights as codified in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. By committing ourselves to building societies that founded on the recognition of human rights, we must collectively value these two rights above all the others. And this must be demonstrated by not only the “State”, but by the rest of the civilized world.
In conclusion, it is important to reflect on a famous quote by Martin Luther King Junior “He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it.”
MAY THE SOULS OF ALL OUR STUDENS REST IN PERFECT AND ETERNAL PEACE