Three Years After  The Killing Daba Marena And Co

….Families Demand For Justice!!!

By Musa Jobe, Our West Africa Bureau Chief In Dakar.

Extra-judicial killings and enforced disappearances have apparently come to stay in The Gambia but the disappearance of some officers of The Gambia Armed Forces and a former director general of the National Intelligence Agency nearly three years ago now has still remained a question burning on the lips of many.

It is now almost three years since Daba Marenah, Lt. Ebou Lowe, Lt.Alieu Ceesay, Staff Sgt. Manlafi Corr and RSM Alpha Bah have disappeared in questionable circumstances after their implication in the March 2006 foiled coup and their relatives are still gonging the Jammeh administration to come up with cogent explanation as to the whereabouts of their loved ones and breadwinners.

Speaking in an interview with Freedom newspaper, relations of the disappeared men, made  passionate appeals to the administration of President Jammeh to give them credible explanations as to the whereabouts of their loved ones  since the families are still in quandary as to where they might be.

According to them, next month will exactly mark three years since their fathers, uncles, husbands and breadwinners disappeared in thin air and that the government is yet to give them a believable explanation.

' We're not sure whether they're dead or alive. We have been undergoing through trying times since their disappearances and what we need to know now is that whether they're killed as widely believed or are still alive. The government owe us an explanation,' said our interlocutors..

Meanwhile, reports reaching this paper have revealed that the relatives of the disappeared men are not taking the issue lightly. This paper have been reliably informed that the families of the men, who are now traumatised, are keen on knowing the whereabouts of their loved ones since the government have fallen short of explaining where they have escaped as reported by the government, at what time and between which settlements.

It would be recalled that the government of Yaya Jammeh had, shortly after the March 2006 foiled coup, issued a news release that the men had escaped in the process of transferring them to Janjanbureh prison after the vehicle, transporting them was reportedly involved in a road accident.

Meanwhile, an Appeals Court sitting in the Senegalese capital, Dakar has upheld the three-year sentence slammed on El Malick Sy for defaming President Wade and his son, Karim.

Sy was given a three-year jail term in September of last year after his paper reported that Wade and his son were involved in a money laundering scam.

In another news, more Gambians are fleeing into the neighbouring Senegal to escape persecution back home. This paper has reliably learnt that at least three people have arrived in Senegal this month alone. The refugees, some of whom were detained for their alleged involvement in the March 2006 attempt on the life of President Jammeh's regime, include a student and civil servants. One of them is currently receiving medical assistance from a local NGO several kilometres outside the Senegalese capital, Dakar.

Our West Africa correspondent have made several attempts to speak to the arrivals but his requests for interviews were turned down, as according to the men, they're in hiding and speaking to the Press can further endanger their security.

It will be recalled that this paper earlier this month reported that several Gambians, who have fled into Senegal for fear of persecution, have being undergoing through turbulent economic and financial times. Most of them have been grappling with high cost of food and housing and are apparently receiving no food or shelter aid from any organisation here in Senegal .