Rights groups want Gambian leader banned from CHOGM

Human rights groups are asking the Commonwealth to ban Gambian President Yahya Jammeh from attending the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) which begins in Port of Spain, Trinidad on Nov. 27.

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Trinidad and Tobago’s Caribbean Centre for Human Rights (CCHR) and the India-based Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative have demanded action against Jammeh for statements he made in September on Gambian television.

The Gambian online publication Freedom has quoted the president as saying, “I will kill anyone who wants to destabilise this country." The threats were directed at human rights groups.

“If you think that you can collaborate with so called human rights defenders, and get away with it, you must be living in a dream world.

"I will kill you, and nothing will come of it. We are not going to condone people posing as human rights defenders of the country. If you are affiliated with any human rights group, be rest assured that your security and personal safety would not be guaranteed by my government. We are ready to kill saboteurs,” the paper quoted him as saying.

CCHR executive director Diana Mahabir-Wyatt said in a media statement Trinidad and Tobago must not condone the Gambian leader’s violent declaration. She noted that the statement "openly repudiates the commitment which this country has always upheld, to adhere to the rule of law and the judicial process."

She said, "It is also a violation of the principles that the Commonwealth stands for and to which Trinidad and Tobago and the Gambia have subscribed by signing the Harare Declaration.”

Mahabir-Wyatt said on October 22 CCHR’s chairman Desmond Allum wrote to Prime Minister Patrick Manning "asking him to withdraw any invitation to the president of the Gambia to attend a meeting in this country unless he withdrew that statement."

The statement added that so far the PM's office has not even acknowleged the CCHR's letter.

"We have been unable to find out from the CHOGM office which heads of countries will be attending, but declare our opposition to the hosting, in Trinidad and Tobago, of the Gambian president who had openly and publicly declared his intention to kill anyone who is or collaborates with human rights defenders,” the stament added.

Minister of Trade and Industry Mariano Browne, who heads the Cabinet committee organising the event, told the Newsday newspaper he does not know if the Gambian leader is attending but promised to check on it.

Browne said banning Jammeh is a matter for Prime Minister Patrick Manning and the Commonwealth to decide.

“That has to be decided by the heads of government and the Commonwealth secretariat,” he said.

The Human Rights Initiative (CHRI), which is based in New Delhi, has called for the Gambian leader to be barred from the Port of Spain meeting and has asked outgoing Commonwealth chairman Uganda President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni to intervene in the matter.

"In view of the universal condemnation and concern at the statements of the President of Gambia, CHRI strongly urges you to seek a clear repudiation of his statement and a strong re-affirmation of his commitment to the values of the Commonwealth and in the absence of this to strongly recommend that no invitation be extended to the President of Gambia to attend the upcoming CHOGM in Trinidad," the organization said.

Jammeh, 44, took power in 1994 after the Gambia National Army toppled the administration of Sir Dawda Jawara in a bloodless coup. He was elected to office two years later.

Jammeh presides over a notorious and brutal regime that has no tolerance for critics and anyone who doesn't share his values. He is on record as calling on journalists to obey his government "or go to hell", has jailed villages for petty offences and threatened the the "chop off the heads" of gays.