When the Secretary General of the United Nations Ban Ki-moon announced that he was sending a special representative to the West African State of the Gambia in the aftermath of the December 30th alleged failed coup to find out about the facts, many people especially Gambians welcomed the immediate action. The United Nations of recent has shown interest in the gross human rights situation in the Gambia after the country’s dismal failure at the UN Universal Period Review in Belgium late last November. The UN sent a special rapporteur to visit prisons and investigate the general welfare of human rights situation in the country. The Special Rapporteurs Christof Heyns and Juan Méndez were shocked when they failed to complete their mission by being denied access to certain parts of the notorious Mile II prison suspected to be one of the worst prisons in the world. The UN team were mandated to conduct Investigation of killings and torture alleged to have been carried out by the Jammeh regime by Human rights groups and Gambian activists.
The UN team is still believed to be working on its comprehensive report when an alleged armed men wanted to overthrow the dictatorial regime of Yahya Jammeh on December 30th, who was out of town at the time. The alleged failed coup was a wake up call to the International community and to President Jammeh that Gambian dissidents were ready to rescue the country from 20 years of tyranny and brutal oppression of the Gambian people. It became immediately clear that the long and far cries of an innocent population that the world has ignored for several years is now catching up with reality. The Jammeh government allegedly dwarfed the attempted take over killing four of the alleged attackers and arresting many including family members.
The tense situation attracted mix reaction and massive International press coverage on the alleged attacks. Many governments including the United States condemned the arm attempt while Gambian activists and the International press revealed the true leader of the Gambia who has been killing and torturing his people while everybody looked the other way. In light of this situation the UN Secretary General sent Dr Mohammed Ibn Chambas, United Nations Secretary General’s Special Representative for West Africa to investigate the situation. However, it did not take long for the UN representative to show his true colors and bias towards a situation that needed thorough investigation and careful consultation with all interest groups in the Gambia to know exactly what has transpired, and more importantly what led to the situation. Any credible professional with a sense of history of African politics will ponder twice about such a grave situation before jumping to conclusions about an incident that is still very fluid. The UN mission was not to side with one side or the other but to thoroughly investigate the situation with a goal to report back to the Secretary General so efforts can be put forward to mitigate the situation before it gets out of control.
Barely 24 hours when he entered the country without speaking to Journalists, civil society groups, opposition leaders, Dr. Mohammed Ibn Chambas after hearing the government’s side of what happened immediately accepted government’s narrative and called a press conference. During that press conference Dr. Mohammed said “There is also the willingness on the part of the UN to work closely with the Gambian authorities to thoroughly investigate this in a manner that would satisfy everybody to ensure that the facts are known and those who are culprits in this are brought to face justice with due process and total respect for Human Rights,”. This statement from the UN representative reveals the shallowness and rush to judgement by Dr.Chambas. One would have expected that he would spend considerable time speaking to both sides to fully understand the situation before declaring that the alleged perpetrators will be brought to justice without even considering the massive crack down of innocent family members including minors who are being rounded up and detained without due process. Does Dr. Chambas truly care about the situation of the Gambian people or was he eager to please a government and bothers not to do any research on the country for 20 years of political oppression with enforced disappearances, extra judicial killings and torture. Has Dr. Chambas not read the UN periodic review and all human rights conditions in the Gambia?. Oh was he another corrupt old African UN representative buried in the stone ages supporting government systems no matter how flawed they are?
Dr. Chambas statement “We know today in Africa, there is a zero tolerance policy for unconstitutional accessing to power and the UN completely subscribes to this, and the UN has stated so very clearly; so there should be no ambiguity about that,” is void of historical reference and at best shows another African elite who is out of touch with the reality of this backward continent mainly due to its leadership failures. Did Dr. Chambas forget that Yahya Jammeh came to power through the barrel of the gun by overthrowing an elected government? Does Dr. Chambas has any clue on the governing situation of the Gambia before visiting the country? Was he not aware that Yahya Jammeh has completely monopolized the electoral system in the Gambia to the level where even ECOWAS failed to recognize his last elections. How did Dr. Mohammed Ibn Chambas have the moral audacity to ignore all the killings and human rights violations in the Gambia and openly declare his unconditional support for a rogue regime bend on controlling the whole political space with impunity in Gambia?
It is our firm conviction that Dr. Chambas has lost the moral fiber to lead any mission to the Gambia on behalf of the UN to fully investigate the unfortunate events of December 30th. His rush to conclusion without fully understanding the magnitude of the events leading to this date made him incompetent to mediate in this eye opening incident. Dr. Chambas appears to be a sheep in wolf’s clothing who may have been bought by Jammeh’s anti colonial, anti gay and Lesbian false propaganda against the Gambian people.
The UN Secretary General should learn a lesson from this mission that when dealing with African governments it is better to send outsiders who does not have preconceived bias about events in Africa. Certainly, the position of Dr. Chambas within 24 hours after entering the country completely contradicts that of the special rapporteurs Christof Heyns and Juan Méndez who expressed their dismay in how they were treated in Gambia. Secretary General Ban Ki Moon must therefore reconsider Dr. Chambas’ mission to Gambia. It is shocking to learn of the wealth of experience Dr. Chambas has only for him to act so unprofessional and bias in this game changing mission. His background as a Ghanaian who may have experienced military dictatorship first hand should have been a guiding principle for him to approach this situation carefully. Even the killings of 40 plus Ghanaians and the recent expulsion of the then Ghanaian Chief Justice should have ring a message in his brain. But no! he has shown again why African leaders are not able to address their own conflicts and problems that are sinking this beautiful and promising continent. Any African political conflict needs careful examination before crafting a solution. Dr. Chambas therefore owe the Gambian people the moral responsibility to listen to their situation, investigate the arrest of scores of civilians and detention without trial before making a mockery of a situation he has little or no knowledge of.