--Gruesome tales of torture & testicular injuries abound

By Ebrima G. Sankareh, Editor-In-Chief

Highly placed sources close to the Mile II Prisons reveal that Gambia’s erstwhile army chief, General Lang Tombong Tamba and several other security detainees have been subjected to cruel and inhumane treatment while in detention for reasons that are subject of wild speculations. Ever since their arrest two months ago, little has been known about the precise details of their crimes let alone, the circumstances surrounding their life behind the harrowing walls of probably, the most notorious prison system in Africa.

Gambian dictator Yahya Jammeh and General Tamba during the good days

Today, we report with unimpeachable information that beside the mental torture of being detained incommunicado for months, General Lang Tombong Tamba and his colleague detainees have been brutally tortured by agents of Jammeh’s most predacious Presidential guards.

Reveal our sources, Lamin Bo Badjie was severely beaten for allegedly resisting arrest on the fateful Friday he was picked up from his Tallinding family home and whisked away to the Mile II Prisons. Badjie, who briefly served as Director General of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) before he was redeployed to the Gambia National Army, was sacked along side General Tamba in the wake of withering revelations by President Jammeh of dilapidated and decrepit military quarters coupled with allegations of administrative malfeasance. Among other things, President Jammeh also alleged that $12million- tweleve million US dollars meant for the general improvement of the army, were apparently diverted for personal use.

Col. Kawsu Camara & Jammeh during the good days 

According to our most competent sources, Colonel Kawsu Camara, notoriously nicknamed Bombardier for his alleged atrocities and penchant for false bravado is routinely pummeled, brutally tortured with electric cables and gun butted, leaving him with severe back and  testicular injuries and today, Camara, a salacious womanizer, walks legs akimbo not to exacerbate the traumatic pain he is reportedly suffering.

Likewise, General Lang Tombong Tamba, once crowned the most famous army general in Gambian military history, is routinely humiliated and subjected to cruel treatment and torture both mentally and physically. General Tamba allegedly suffers from severe back  and muscle pains as well as debilitating headaches following what our operative calls, sleepless nights of brutality sanctioned by President Jammeh; a man who only months ago, was showering all kinds of accolades on General Tamba as the most patriotic officer ever. According to our sources, the food at Mile II Prisons is very poor, the sanitation dismal, mosquitoes marauding, dinner is served at 3pm and bedtime is 4pm.

Lamentably, these gruesome tales of torture more so, testicular injuries, have become a familiar pattern with security and political detainees at the Mile II Prisons. Last year, The Gambia Echo reported about a former National Assembly member who reportedly lost his potency following his ordeal at the Prisons. Despite an extended travel to a western country for rehabilitation and therapy, doctors could not revive his manhood. Today, declared impotent, his wife has gone and in his prime, he has been abused, humiliated and left to live a life of loneliness.

Also, a close friend of The Echo, a Gambian journalist was constantly subjected to this testicular torture while in detention at the NIA and even months after his ordeal, he was scared of getting close to his wife for he too, feared the worse until he was medically diagnosed competent that he could embrace his lovely wife.

There was the case of Yahya Drammeh who, on October 26, 1996 as the nation was reeling from the traumatic pains of the November 11, 1994 massacre of Gambian soldiers, followed by Finance Minister, Ousman Koro Ceesay’s brutal murder in 1995, entered The Gambia through Senegal with a group of Liberian trained Gambian mercenaries and seized the Farafenni army camp. Drammeh and colleagues went on a rampage and as they advance toward Banjul, they left behind a chilling trail of havoc and destruction but were shortly thereafter, overpowered by the military and arrested. During the interrogations that ensued, the alleged mercenaries were forced to say that Senegal had supported their coup plot to remove Jammeh from power but only Drammeh refused to lie. According to Prisons sources, a senior officer at the NIA vowed he could make a detainee say exactly what his detainers wanted. The officer then ordered for some candles to be filled into an aluminum cooking pot and be allowed to melt. Once melted, the said officer ordered that Drammeh be brought before him with pants down. He reportedly emptied the contents of the melted candle wax onto Drammeh’s genitals and since that day, he never recovered. Drammeh subsequently died of multiple complications and true to its character, the Jammeh government lied to its teeth as to the circumstances leading up to Drammeh’s death. Both senior military officers as well as prison wardens close to the Drammeh saga concur that his genitals were peeling apart on a daily basis like a baobab tree shedding its leaves during the Hammatan.

According to our sources, Yahya Drammeh was subjected to the most excruciating trauma that a prisoner ever encountered at the Mile II Prisons.

Paradoxically, in what could be described as a cruel twist of  irony, some of the people privy to his ordeal are themselves held captive today, consigned to the same dungeon-Mile II Prisons, Africa’s hell on earth and despite their past, we as journalists, will continue to document their conditions and truthfully report their fate because that is our calling. We will continue to write and speak against Jammeh’s tyranny until the day his regime comes to its knees and no amount of inducement, money or position will make us surrender.

Instead of trying to induce speakers and writers of truth with ill-gotten wealth, you might as well use that money to feed the families of the numerous Gambians that you brutally butchered since coming to power on July 22, 1994.

As an extension, we think it is high time that Gambia’s veiled vice President, Isatou Njie-Saidy begins to speak truth to power and rally the religious leaders- Muslims and Christians to talk to Yahya Jammeh about the dangerous path he is headed to with our country and try to see what good could come out of it. Being VP does not mean to give tacit approval to every nonsense your boss says, for part of the qualities of a good leader is to be honest and be speaking truth to power and that is why the Gambian people are paying you a D50,000 monthly salary. Madam VP, you have been serving in your position for over a decade now and by the standards of every democracy, you have overstayed your position, yet throughout your tenure, several innocent Gambians including your own relatives may have been arrested, tortured and in some instances, brutally murdered.

Madam VP, remember journalist, Deyda Hydara who once employed your late affable husband, Jay Saidy as Associate Editor of The Point newspaper. Remember how Deyda was brutally murdered and to date, even his anniversary is not covered by your government media. Remember The Point family lunches of M’bahal we had at Pap Saine’s house every Friday and your late husband’s always educative conversations after lunch and remember the numerous confidential conversations you had with us at 1A Hagan Street in the very first days of the coup. Please try to remember and if you remember, you will know that life is like a kaleidoscope, reflecting the changing shapes and shifting images of our own existence and then, may be; hopefully, you will begin to contemplate the future of our nation that is on the precipice of turmoil.

If you will, may I suggest that you ask Speaker Elizabeth Y. Renner to join you and the country’s religious leaders to meet Yahya Jammeh to free all these political prisoners for the sake of peace and in the spirit of the sanctity of human life. Most of them are young men with wives and children and most importantly, most of them were protecting you up to moments before they were arrested and sent behind the harrowing walls of Mile II Prisons. I have suggested Speaker Renner because I know her too, and like you, she was very prominent in the very PPP regime your government overthrew. Besides, both Speaker Renner and you were very apprehensive of Yahya Jammeh when he seized power and today, you both have shifted gears, 360º in tandem with the very character that overthrew the PPP regime. By virtue of your combined life experiences and the wisdom of old age and position you both possess, please try and see what good could come out of this proposal- freeing our political prisoners for the good of our country, once an oasis of democracy and the rule of law. Let us restore that hope by suggesting to your boss, Yahya Jammeh to unclench his iron first to borrow President Barack Obama’s inaugural line when addressing world leaders who continuously oppress their citizens for the sake of greed and power.