Gambia Affairs:Pursuing Justice for Gambia’s Deyda Hydara

By Darian Pavli,open society

The following entry first appeared on the CPJ Blog of our friends at the Committee to Protect Journalists, an independent, nonprofit organization which promotes press freedom worldwide by defending the rights of journalists to report the news without fear of reprisal:
December 16 marks the seventh anniversary of the killing of Deyda Hydara, the dean of Gambian journalism. It is also the 20th anniversary of the first issue of The Point, the courageously independent-minded daily that Hydara founded and directed for many years. He was murdered in a drive-by shooting as he drove himself and two staff members home from an evening of somber celebration at The Point's premises. He had received multiple death threats in the preceding weeks and months. In his last column, he vowed to keep fighting to the end for Gambians' right to speak their minds.

During his last years, Deyda Hydara was best known for two probing weekly columns. "The Bite" covered a broad range of matters of general interest. "Good Morning, Mr. President" discussed issues of governance and mismanagement, in a polite but incisive tone aimed directly at President Yahya Jammeh, the former junior army officer who has ruled the country since taking over in a coup 17 years ago. Treating Jammeh and his deputies as fallible, fellow human beings reportedly did not go down well at the presidential palace. While The Point continued to carry both columns for some time after Hydara's death, the intelligence service told the paper's management in 2006 that the outlet would be shut down if "Good Morning, Mr. President" was not discontinued.
The shutdown of media outlets and unpunished violence against media professionals are not exceptional events in the Gambia. In fact, being an independent-minded reporter in Jammeh's republic is a greater health hazard than perhaps anywhere else in the African continent. A few months before the Hydara shooting, in the summer of 2004, BBC reporter Ebrima Sillah was almost killed in an arson attack. The premises of The Independent newspaper were also set on fire, allegedly by members of the presidential guard, before the paper was finally shut down by the police, the entire management was rounded up, and its chief editor, Musa Saidykhan, brutally tortured--apparently for having complained to South African then-President Thabo Mbeki, at the time head of the African Union, about the media freedom situation in the Gambia.
Not surprisingly, not a single person has been brought to justice in all these years for attacks on journalists and other Jammeh critics, including Hydara. The president assigned the investigation of the Hydara shooting to the intelligence service, an agency better known for torturing, disappearing, and intimidating the victims of such crimes than catching the perpetrators. The report on their Hydara "investigation" devoted several pages to discussing the victim's private life, but gave almost no details on crime scene findings, ballistics, or potential political motives.
The regime seems to reserve a special scorn for Deyda Hydara's audacities, even post mortem. Jammeh tends to dismiss questions about the unsolved crime by pointing out, for example, that lots of people get killed in the Gambia every year. He attacked The Point, publicly and viscerally, for maintaining a "Who Killed Deyda Hydara?" banner on the front page. On the second anniversary of Deyda's death, the Gambia Press Union put up commemorative posters all over Banjul, calling for justice; they were all taken down overnight. And in January 2007, more than two years after his death, the Hydara family told me that the police refused to provide them with a death certificate so they could claim Deyda's life insurance (as an international correspondent). Not even death pays for one's political sins in the Gambia.
This month, my organization, the Open Society Justice Initiative, filed a lawsuit against the Gambian government, on behalf of the Hydara family, with a West African regional court. The court filing argues that not only has the Gambian government failed to conduct a proper investigation into the shooting, but that it contributed to the attack on his life (among others) by tolerating a general climate of impunity for violence against critics of the regime.
President Jammeh recently claimed re-election to another term in office, amid a chorus of electoral fraud allegations. ECOWAS, the West African states' organization, refused to send an observer mission, in protest against the lack of even minimal conditions for free and fair elections. Responding to charges of violent suppression of dissent, the president likes to say that his conscience is clean and that he fears "only Allah." In the meantime, the Hydara family and many others in the region are looking for some overdue, earthly justice from the ECOWAS Court.
This is the third case before the ECOWAS Court involving attacks against Gambian journalists, with the tribunal having already found the government responsible for the disappearance of Ebrima Manneh and the torturing of Saidykhan. The Gambian government has failed to comply with either ruling. It is time for the ECOWAS Community to decide whether the Jammeh government meets the minimal conditions for membership in a democratic club.

Gambia Affairs:Deyda Hydara: Seven Years of Impunity

By D. A. Jawo a veteran Gambian Journalist
This is yet another anniversary of the assassination of prominent Gambian journalist, Deyda Hydara, the seventh year since he was brutally murdered by unknown assailants, and yet, there is no indication that the Gambian authorities have any intentions to investigate the case with a view to apprehending those responsible for this heinous crime.
It is unfortunate however that every time President Jammeh comments on the case, he makes remarks which tend to confuse rather than clarify his government's stand point on the issue. A case in point was his last interview with the BBC in which he compared Deyda's brutal murder to the deaths of other Gambians in road accidents.

We can all recall the so-called 'Confidential Report' that was released in 2005 in which the authorities chose to subject Deyda's personal character to all sorts of disparaging comments, even to the extent of blaming his death on his wayward behaviour. The least anyone expected from the authorities was to show commitment in thoroughly investigating the case with a view to bringing the culprits to justice. Therefore, their failure to do so tantamount to shirking their responsibilities to a bona fide Gambian citizen.

From the very beginning, the Gambia Press Union and other civil society groups had called on the authorities to invite more competent investigating bodies from abroad to help our security forces to unravel the case, but they always turned down the call, saying that the security forces have the competence to carry out the investigation, and yet so far, they have failed to carry out any serious investigation. There is no doubt that if the government had agreed to such a proposal, then by now the truth would have been known as to who killed him and why.

Therefore, in view of the lack of any sign of commitment on the part of the Gambian authorities to investigate this heinous crime or invite other competent bodies for help, we are left with no other option but to call on regional bodies like ECOWAS and the African Union, or even the United Nations and the international community to assume their responsibilities and ensure that justice is done.

Gambia Affairs:Gambia Press Union Statement On The 7th Anniversary Of The Murder Of Deyda Hydara

Emil Touray President of The Gambia Press Union

Compatriots, Fellow Journalists and Friends of the Media,December 16th marks seven years after Deyda Hydara, co-proprietor and managing editor of the Point Newspaper was assassinated in a drive-by shooting. Yet the gunmen behind this nefarious act are yet to be arrested and brought to book.

It is imperative herein that the Government of the Gambia expends all its efforts and tools to investigate this matter in order to bring the culprits to book. Failure to bring the perpetrators of this heinous crime to book will only entrench a culture of impunity in our society. The Gambia Government and indeed all Gambians need to realize that a culture of impunity in any society threatens the very security and safety of the life of each and every one in that society, sooner or later. What happened to Deyda can happen to any other Gambian at any time. It is the responsibility of the Government to protect the right to life of all Gambians as enshrined in Section 18 of our constitution. Thus the Government of the Gambia should move heaven and earth to bringing these criminals to book as this barbaric act has no place in a civilized democratic society.

The murder of Deyda is a fundamental human rights violation that goes against the very essence of our constitution and all regional and international instruments that the Gambia has ratified. These include the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights, hence the responsibility to ensure justice prevails and the protection of human rights in our society lies squarely in the hands of the Government. Given the fact that the Gambia Government has several progressive allies in the world, we recommend that the Government should solicit support from the international community to enable her to unearth the truth.

It should be noted that journalists like all other sectors and professionals are legitimate and have a right to contribute their quota to national development. We serve a crucial role not only in bringing the state closer to the citizenry but also promote the creation of an open society where democracy and good governance flourish. The accomplishment of our crucial role would be hard to come by when rogue elements in the midst of society who negate the work of journalists enjoy the fruits of impunity

The killers of Deyda Hydara must be brought to justice.

Sign:

Gibairu Janneh

Secretary General

Gambia Affairs.EU Vows To Help Online Dissidents Speak Out

The European Union has unveiled a strategy called 'No-Disconnect' to help online activists living under oppressive regimes get their message out without fear of state surveillance.

Online activists in parts of the world face huge hurdles

Called the "No-Disconnect" strategy, the new European Union plan announced Monday aims to enable Internet activists operating under oppressive regimes to communicate safely and anonymously outside the reach of governments. However, European officials are yet to precisely explain how these tools will be created, distributed, or evaluated.

Neelie Kroes, the EU's digital affairs commissioner outlined the four-part "No-Disconnect" plan in a speech on Monday in Brussels.

Kroes said online freedom is closely linked to democracy

The new strategy includes developing technology to enhance privacy, teaching activists how to use it, developing on-the-ground intelligence to monitor the level of surveillance and censorship and promoting cooperation between governments, the private sector and activists.
"I want the EU to help develop and distribute those tools, in a framework that ensures the legitimacy of our action," Kroes said.
Kroes said the tools need to be simple and ready to use so they can be deployed quickly by activists with minimal technical knowledge and training.
The tools should also be readily accessible, she said, not just from computers, but from mobile phones, social networks, and micro-blogging services, like Twitter.
Many Internet experts believe social networking websites played a role in fomenting the revolutions of the Arab Spring this year, helping topple authoritarian regimes in Egypt and Tunisia.
"The Arab Spring was a wake-up call for all of us," Kroes said at the Freedom Online conference held last week, in The Hague, the Netherlands.
"[This is] a reminder that democracy is not just a rich world luxury – but something which people hope and struggle for everywhere," she added. "And a reminder that, across the world, information and communications technology can support freedom of speech and enable the peaceful transition to democracy."


Egyptian blogger Wael Ghonim played a prominent role in the uprisingMesh network on the way
The EU's push to support online freedom follows similar initiatives by the United States earlier this year to fund and develop alternate digital communications networks to help dissidents bypass state-controlled censorship.
Separately, the Dutch government has pledged one million euros ($1.3 million) to develop "mesh network" technology that can use devices like cellphones or personal computers to create a backup system to disseminate information in the event governments shut down Internet and mobile phone service.
Iran, Syria and Zimbabwe are reported to be target countries.
Walking a fine line
Though details of the EU digital freedom strategy remain sketchy, Internet rights advocates have welcomed it as a step in the right direction.
"I'm glad the European Union is taking a stance on Internet freedom. It helps highlight just how important the issue is," said Markus Beckedahl, editor of a popular German-language blog that focuses on digital issues, in an interview with Deutsche Welle.
But at the same time, he added, the EU is trying to walk a fine line: on the one hand it's helping activists in repressive nations help bypass state-controlled censorship.
On the other EU member nations impose curbs on online speech within its own borders when it comes to downloading music, blocking websites to fight child pornography or gathering information on its citizens to combat terrorism.


Internet activists say western governments also block web content"It's very hard to lecture a country like China about censoring Internet content when governments in Europe too are blocking access to certain things," echoed Joe McNamee, head of European Digital Rights, a Brussels-based Internet advocacy organization. "This is the trickiest challenge for the EU – it simply has to be consistent to be credible."
Activists have also criticized the United States for its "Stop Online Piracy Act" proposed by Congress, which would require American telecommunications companies to block access to foreign-based websites that infringe American copyright.
Western tech firms complicit in Internet monitoring
Others point out that any EU efforts to champion Internet freedom are undermined by the fact that western companies export surveillance technology to authoritarian governments. WikiLeaks recently began publishing extensive internal documents from companies around the globe that engage in these types of surveillance.
Stephan Urbach of Telecomix, a decentralized network of Internet freedom activists, said his group had discovered earlier this year that the Syrian government was using web filters developed by US technology company Blue Coat Systems. In another instance, a Munich company reportedly sold Internet monitoring technology to the Egyptian government.


Stephan Urbach and his colleagues at Telecomix have tried to help activists stay online"This is a real problem," Urbach told Deutsche Welle. "The Western world sells this kind of monitoring hardware all across the Middle East."
Both the European Union and the US have in recent days urged technology companies to be transparent about equipment they sell to government who might use it to repress their citizens.
"I think it is high time for the industry to decide where they stand, and what they are going to do. If not as a moral issue, then as an issue of corporate reputation," Kroes said. "Being known for selling despots the tools of their repression is, to say the least, bad PR."
Helping existing activists   
Though the EU hasn't said how much it intends to invest in its "No Disconnect" strategy, experts say any funds must be targeted carefully.
Beckedahl suggested that the 27-nation bloc should help finance groups such as Telecomix, which famously offered slow, but functional, dial-up Internet access to circumvent state blockages of broadband networks during the uprising in Egypt.
"If the EU is serious about supporting Internet freedom it should fund civil rights groups, open source software and groups that already do good work on the ground and are well-connected with activists in other countries so that they can improve their initiatives," he said.
Author: Sonia Phalnikar
Editor: Cyrus Farivar