Gambia Found Liable For The 2005 Killings Of Ghanaians

A Joint United Nations ECOWAS Fact-Finding Team has found the Gambia liable for the 2005 killings and disappearances of 40 Ghanaians and other nationals in that country.

The report presented on Monday during a meeting convened by the UN for representatives of the Ghana and the Gambia stated “The Gambia had a duty and responsibility to ensure the protection of human rights of all persons on its territory and that the state was liable for the violations of human rights of the Ghanaians and other West African nationals who were on its territory during the period”.

 Foreign Affairs Minister, Alhaji Muhammed Mumuni. disclosed this to the media in Accra, on Wednesday on his return from Abuja.

 Referring to portions of the report, he said, the joint team indicted the security services of the Gambia for taking active part in the killings of the victims.  

 “Even though the report blamed rogues within that state police service for the deaths the leadership of the Gambia was complicit in whatever happened to our nationals”.

 In this vein, the team recommended that The Gambian Government provides compensation and redress to families of the affected persons and also “facilitate the exhumation and return to Ghana, the bodies of six of the deceased persons who were found dead in Tanyi forest and were identified as Ghanaians for fitting burials.”

 However, Alhaji Mumuni said that although the country welcomed the findings, conclusions and recommendations of the report, his   delegation nonetheless raised serious questions in respect of certain findings and requested joint team and the meeting to critically look into the concerns raised.

 “For instance, even though the report made a find of fact that the scam was perpetrated by a Gambian, Lamine Tunkara and one Captain Taylor, who lured the Ghanaians and other nation's to Gambia before being transported to Europe, it failed to describe the exact nature of the scam.”

 He said he two men were mentioned by the report as being the brain behind the travelling syndicate that lured the Ghanaians under the pretext of sending them to Europe.

 The Minster further said that, among other things, the Ghanaian delegation also raised concerns about the inability of the team to visit the sites where the deceased were buried.

 “This is important in view of the contestation by the Gambian delegation that the deceased were not Ghanaian nationals and that their identities were yet to be established”.

He said that in the case of Tunkara, the report identified him as a Gambian national and yet he was not made available for interrogation by the panel and as such, the Gambian government would do more good by issuing an international search and warrant for his arrest for him to be prosecuted as well as that of his accomplice, Captain Taylor.

However, the Gambian delegation at the meeting, according to Alhaji mumuni, rejected according to Alhaji Mumuni, the findings of the report on the bases that “the Gambian state could not be responsible for the protection of persons whose presence in the country it was not aware of”.

 Due to the posture and position adopted by the Gambian delegation at the meeting,

Alhaji Mumuni said the facilitators held a closed door meeting for leaders of the delegation upon which after lengthy negotiations, the parties agreed to a draft communiqué to be presented to the respective governments for consideration after which another meeting would be convened for possible signature of the agreement.

 The UN/ECO Joint Fact-finding Team was appointed in Agust 2008 following the Gambian government's persistence denial of complicity in the killings.  

Earlier diplomatic initiatives at both bilateral and sub-regional levels had failed to persuade the Gambian authorities to accept responsiblies.

 Other members of Ghana's delegation to the meeting included the Minister of the Interior, Cletus Avorka and officials of the Foreign Affairs Ministry.