TRRC To Submit Interim Report In December/January
The Executive Secretary of the Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission (TRRC) Dr. Baba Galleh Jallow has revealed that the interim report of the TRRC will be submitted in late December 2019 or early January 2020.
The TRRC is an independent Gambian institution mandated to conduct research and investigations into human rights violations committed under the presidency of Yahya Jammeh. The Commission further aims to prevent a repetition of the violations and abuses suffered under the past regime by making recommendations to government and citizens aimed at ensuring the crimes of the past never recur in The Gambia.
In pursuit of these aims, the TRRC will facilitate community and national reconciliation, launch civic education efforts on peace and justice, design individual and communal reparations, and shape the scope of future prosecutions and amnesties. It will promote national reconciliation and healing, by assisting victims and their relatives.
The TRRC was established by an Act of the parliament in September 2017 to investigate past human rights violations under the 22 – year repressive rule of Yahya Jammeh.
The Commission was inaugurated on the 15th October 2018. The Act provides under Section 14 subsection 4 that the Commission shall after one year of its establishment, submit an interim report to the President detailing its activities.
The Commission has a two-year mandate to investigate human rights violations by the AFPRC and the APRC regimes. Over a hundred witnesses have appeared before the TRRC including perpetrators and victims.
Three members of the defunct AFPRC government in the persons of Sanna B. Sabally, Yankuba Touray, and Edward Singhatey have all appeared before the Commission. Both Singhateh and Sabally have admitted responsibility for several violations including torture and killing of several people. Touray is under the custody of the State facing a single count of murder of Ousman Koro Ceesay, a former Minister of Finance under their government.
The TRRC at the end of its mandate will come up with its recommendations to the government to ensure the “Never Again” slogan.
