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Should US Punish Gambia For Human Rights Violations?

Should US Punish Gambia For Human Rights Violations?

Alhaji Ceesay and Ebrima Jobe, two naturalized American citizens from The Gambia, went back to the African country in 2013 and disappeared. Their family says they’ve been kidnapped, the State Department says they’re missing and the Gambian government hasn’t been much help.

After President Yahya Jammeh’s government in The Gambia refused, at the last minute, a scheduled week-long tour by U.N. Special Rapporteur on Torture, the E.U. is considering changing its aid policy towards the West African country.

This shows a commitment to domestic human rights too rarely shown in international relations. It is unfortunate that despite an ongoing and more intimate connection with The Gambia’s human rights abuses, the U.S. has not done the same.

Jammeh’s inbtolerance for dissent was fully on display during the recently completed U.S.-African Leaders Summit in early August. According to the Washington, D.C. local ABC affiliate, WJLA, after the summit, when confronted by protesters, the Gambian security detail “charged at the crowd made up of mostly Gambian exiles.” The security detail reportedly kicked, punched, stomped and used brass knuckles on protesters. One such exile, prominent human rights activist and journalist Fatou Camara, was injured and spent a night in the hospital.

According to Jeffrey Smith of the RFK Center on Human Rights, this was not the only incidence of violence in the U.S. The day before, when “confronted by the crowd, Jammeh’s security team assaulted several protesters.”

These incidents happened in front of the Hay Adams, a famous hotel in downtown D.C. just blocks from the White House. Despite the prominent location and evidence surrounding the incident, no charges were filed, no arrests were made and the Gambian delegation returned home claiming diplomatic immunity.

This type of treatment is commonplace for dissenters in The Gambia. Not only does the country have a history of stifling dissent, it’s getting worse. Francois Patuel, Amnesty International spokesman on The Gambia, told the South African news outlet DefenceWeb that “Gambia has used a number of laws voted into legislation recently, which restrict the right to freedom of expression. These involve hefty fines, harsher prison terms for very vague charges like publishing false information, illegal broadcasting or insulting the president.”

While such harassment is the norm in the West African state, the fact that it was brought to downtown D.C. in full view of the international media — and nothing was done or said about it by authorities — is astounding.

The Gambia has a spotty record on the treatment of American-Gambian dual nationals.

The State Department recently marked the one-year anniversary of two American citizens of Gambian origin missing in the country. According to the State Department, Alhaji Ceesay and Ebrima Jobe went back to their native Gambia in summer, 2013, and have been missing ever since. The State Department has called on the Gambian government to “intensify its efforts to assist us in locating these two missing citizens,” saying that the two were last seen in The Gambia and there is “no credible information to suggest that they have left the country.”

Juka Ceesay, Alhaji’s younger sister, talked to AFKInsider in a telephone interview. She said her family believes Alhaji and Jobe were kidnapped by the government. According to Ceesay, on the night of the pair’s disappearance, a distant family member in the U.S. was contacted by a witness who claims to have heard horrific noises coming from the apartment that the two shared. Later, when Ceesay’s mother traveled to The Gambia to investigate the incident along with an American FBI agent, they found an apartment and an office that had been ransacked almost to the point of destruction, with the office locked from the inside. Questions from the family to Gambian authorities have been passed up the ladder to higher authorities but remain unanswered, Juka said.

Why has the U.S. not shown interest in Gambian human rights as the E.U. has?

The E.U. seeks to punish Jammeh for his treatment of his own people, including torture and an intolerance for dissent. The U.S. has seen the tyranny of the West African dictator firsthand including abuse of individuals on the streets of Washington, D.C., stonewalling a search for missing American citizens, kidnapping and mistreatment, yet does nothing.

The U.S. does not lack the means to sanction or punish the West African dictator. USAID programs mainly support citizens through programs on “democracy, human rights, girls’ education, and the fight against HIV/AIDS,” and thus should not be touched.

However the West African country has a preferential trade status through the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA).

Jammeh expects bilateral economic relations to continue to grow. In his speech at the U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit, Jammeh called the forum an “opportunity to move to a higher level of mutually beneficial cooperation between the U.S. and the countries of sub-Saharan Africa,” according to the Gambian Daily Observer.

If the U.S. is to be a force for human rights, such advocacy must start with bilateral relations. Americans have felt the sting of Jammeh’s tyranny, whether it be through governmental inaction or brass knuckles on the streets of D.C. The U.S. has the ability to sanction and punish violations just as the E.U. has. This opportunity cannot be squandered.

Andrew Friedman is a human rights attorney and freelance consultant who works and writes on legal reform and constitutional law with an emphasis on Africa. He can be reached via email at afriedm2@gmail.com or via twitter @AndrewBFriedman.