As a reflection on the 24th year of the student massacre on April 10 and 11 in the year 2000, Abdou Karim Jammeh, an Instanbul-based survivor of the student massacre, reminded The Gambia government of the need for justice.
Security officers gunned down more than a dozen students during a demonstration that turned bloody.
Abdou Karim Jammeh, who now lives in Turkey, said it is twenty-four years since the students were killed by men in uniform during the dictatorial era of former President Yahya Jammeh.
He urged that the survivors, victims, and families deserve justice as they have been waiting for far too long.
“Justice delayed is justice denied,” said Mr. Jammeh.
He added that survivors need proper medical treatment, which the government could facilitate.
He stated that the government is turning a blind eye to them.
Abdou Karim pointed out that there should be a public holiday in honor of the innocent students whose only crime was to demonstrate and demand justice for the killing of a fellow student and the raping of another.
“The killed students are fallen heroes worthy of remembering for standing for justice at a time when only a few dared to tell the truth to power or openly hold the then government to account,” he noted.
Abdou, now 45, who received an AK-47 bullet in his knee during the 2000 protest, stressed that no government would allow her future leaders to be brutalized and killed in cold blood without justice.
He called on Gambians at home and abroad to support the survivors in getting proper medical treatment, adding, “We are dying one after the other from different ailments as a result of gunshots.”
He extolled all those who stood by them during the dictatorship, hoping others would support the suffering survivors.
He further said that the Adama Barrow government was only trying to attract politicians to gain cheap popularity and perpetuate his regime in power.
According to Jammeh, the current government is working with the enablers of the former dictator, Yahya Jammeh, instead of ensuring the appropriate reforms for the country’s democratization and preventing the reoccurrence of past human rights violations.
“If the bad elements are not removed from this government, justice will not be served because the perpetrators will not be prosecuted accordingly, ”he concluded.
