Human rights perpetrators during the Jammeh era, who have confessed before the nation’s Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission, have been labelled as “wicked torturers” who willingly brutalised innocent Gambians for money and favour.

“It was clear from the testimonies the Commission heard that the perpetrators weren’t the innocent and ignorant enablers of the dictatorship as some portrayed themselves to be,” the Commission chairman Dr Lamin Sise said in a statement.

“They were wicked torturers who willingly brutalised innocent Gambians for money or favour. 

“Some perpetrators gave flimsy excuses that if they did not carry out the superior orders to torture a detainee, they would themselves be tortured. 

“They claimed that they had no choice. But of course, they have a duty not to implement unlawful orders and no amount of explanation can excuse the cruel and inhumane treatment they inflicted on their victims.”

He added: “These naked truths, albeit hard and painful, must be recorded.

“Indeed, the governing legislative mandate requires this Commission to investigate, among other things, the nature, causes, including antecedents, circumstances, motives and perspectives which led to the gross violations and abuses of the human rights of these detainees.”

The TRRC, which was set up as a truth-seeking Commission in January 2019 to investigate human rights abuses during the Jammeh dictatorship, have heard testimonies from 321 witnesses which included 251 men and 72 women. 

About 208 of the witnesses were victims while 59 were self-confessed perpetrators and adversely mentioned persons in several high profile human rights abuses.

Twenty-nine witnesses have testified via video link from the Gambian Diaspora. 

These hearings also included several protected witnesses and closed-door testimonies, the Commission said.

Reporting by Adama Makasuba