Victims of April 10/11 won’t let former president Jammeh go scot-free

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By AWA SECKA

Yusupha Mbye, also known as Papa Mbye has told the Truth, Reconciliation and Reparation Commission (TRRC) the April 10/11 victims would not let former President Yahya Jammeh go scot-free, adding that they are not just examples but heroes.

Mbye, now wheelchair confined is a survivor of April 10/11 student demonstration that turned bloody in 2000 when security officers fired live ammunition at students leaving more than a dozen dead.

The witness said it was on Monday morning April 10, 2000 when he wore his school uniform and headed to his school, Pipeline Comprehensive Senior Secondary School now Daddy Jobe.

He said upon his arrival at the school he and his friends were sitting at shop not far from the school gate eating there breakfast.

According to Yusupha, some of their friends met them there and asked if they were not aware of what was happening but they responded in the negative.

He explained that their friends told them about a student demonstration; that students were gathered at GTTI heading to Westfield.

He said their friends further asked if they are not going there, but he (Yusupha) said he responded that they are not part of the demonstration.

He said he and his fellow students later walked to Kairaba Avenue chatting as they headed to Westfield where they saw students throwing stones at the members of the Police Intervention Unit (PIU) locally known as paramilitary.

He said the students broke glasses at the Gambia Post Office branch at Kanifing and paramilitary continue firing teargas at the students.

Mbye said the police and students chased each other helter-skelter up to Westfield.

He narrated that when they arrived at Westfield, they stood at Maroun’s Supermarket now Alvihag Supermarket.

He said they heard that two persons were shot to death by the security while some students were coming from Serekunda highway with the then Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) of the Gambia Armed Forces, Baboucarr Jatta.

“All of a sudden Baboucarr Jatta disappeared and the paramilitary started firing at the students who ran to save their lives and I was later shot in my back around my neck,” the witness reminisced.

He said as he was breathing, the bullet passed through his neck and he fell down and collapsed.

He added that he woke up at the hospital and asked the nurse what happened to me.

He said the nurse responded: “You were shot and while in a comma you were taken to the mortuary and parked among dead bodies.”

He stated that the lady further explained to him that they only realised that he was not dead when his leg was shaking.

“The first day my parents visit me at the hospital they thought I will not survive my injuries,” the survivor of the student massacre said.

He said he was taken to overseas for treatment in Egypt with one Dr Muhammed Nawal.

He said his second trip for overseas treatment was in Scotland.

He said he did not receive any treatment in Scotland, explaining: “The way I went was the same way I came back.”

He said in Egypy the Gambia Government paid for four months of their treatment and Dr Baha paid extra money for the physiotherapy.

“The treatment I was receiving in Egypt was incomplete. We came back. Myself, Sainey and Assan. The then Gambia Government was in a haste to see us back,” he told the Commission.

He said as a result of the penetration of his body by the bullet he began using a wheelchair, fed with porridge, cornflakes and cerelac through a feeding tube.

He disclosed that he was also using pampers and toilet bags when he wanted to use the toilet.

He further explained that the former president Yahya Jammeh once visiting them at the Royal Victoria Teaching Hospital (RVTH) now Edward Francis Small Teaching Hospital (EFTH).

He evoked that the former president sometimes sent former speaker of the National Assembly, Fatoumatta Jahumpa Ceesay to bring cornflakes and D100.00 but he never used it.

He said he was there with Assan Suwareh and a child who was shot in the head, enumerating that they spent 3 years at the hospital from 2000 to 2003.

He said at the hospital in Banjul, he received information from State House that the former president said they should not receive any treatment because their case is a political case.