Today is exactly one month and a week since the shooting incident that happened around the Sir Dawda Kairaba international conference centre in which soldiers opened fire on a vehicle carrying some Gambian youths. As a result, one of them, Stanislav Gomez sustained injuries with a bullet still lodged in his thigh since Sunday August 25.

Immediately after the incident, the spokesman of the Gambia Armed Forces Col. Lamin K. Sanyang came out in the media and through a statement to narrate that the vehicle carrying these youths refused to stop at the military checkpoint mounted there. In their statement, GAF said, rather the “over speeding” vehicle nearly ran over one of the soldiers if he had not dived to “avoid a fatal collision.” Consequently, the statement said the soldiers shot at the tyres of the vehicle. They concluded that their preliminary investigations indicate that the driver Issak Sambou and the other passengers were drunk.

But since then, Stanislav came to provide a totally different narrative about the incident. He completely denied that they were drunk. He said they were not over speeding and that the shooting took place when their vehicle was in fact stationary. He has faulted the GAF narrative as malicious and intended to tarnish their name and reputation.

I want to state upfront that since this incident happened, a young man, Stanislav, is living with a bullet in his body without any effort by the Government to come to his aid. The fact that the incident concerned a shooting of guns should have warranted the immediate interest of the police to investigate even if it concerned the military. This incident did not happen during a war situation, or in a state of emergency. The victims involved are not armed combatants. Rather they are civilians in the middle of the city.

Therefore, this matter is primarily for the Inspector General of Police and the Attorney General to handle. What is expected of the Gambia Armed Forces is to fully cooperate with the IGP and AG to investigate this matter, even if they will conduct their own inquiry on their own soldiers for discharging their guns.

It is rather worrying that neither the IGP nor the AG have spoken about this incident at all. Rather it is the military which has set up its own so-called investigation panel to which they demand the victims to go before them to testify. Why? This matter is not entirely a military issue such that GAF should be the only entity to investigate. This issue is also a law enforcement and human rights issue that requires the lead involvement of the IGP, the Attorney General and the National Human Rights Commission.

GAF is not competent to be the sole investigator of this issue because there is clear conflict of interests issues. Already GAF has exonerated itself and blamed the youths for the incident. How therefore could GAF be impartial, objective and honest in this investigation?

Secondly, this issue raises all over again the very purpose of the security sector reforms. Why should the military mount checkpoints in our villages, towns and cities when the country is not at war, or in a state of emergency? It is disheartening to notice that GAF has not only maintained Yaya Jammeh-era checkpoints but has in fact gone further to increase these checkpoints across the country. For what?

These Gambia youths may be ordinary citizens who are from humble backgrounds and certainly not connected to powerful ‘big men’ and ‘big women’. But they are citizens and human beings nonetheless who have the same fundamental rights as any other Gambian. What happened to them requires the full attention of the relevant authorities who, unfortunately, have decided to ignore the matter. What this means is that these youths are left on their own to be condemned by GAF. That constitutes gross negligence of duty and betrayal for which the IGP and the AG must be held accountable.

I call on all Gambians to stand with Stanislav Gomez and his friends in demanding a transparent and impartial investigation of their ordeal at the hands of the military. Even if Stanislav and his friends were drunk and over speeding, it does not give justification for the soldiers to shoot at them. Soldiers should be well equipped and trained to know how to respond to such situations which involve civilians without causing death or injury.

But were these youths truly drunk and over speeding at all, as claimed by GAF? Soldiers cannot shoot an unarmed civilian in the city, and it is left with soldiers to investigate themselves. This is why the IGP and the NHRC must take over this investigation away from GAF. Rather GAF should provide all cooperation and assistance to the investigation. If GAF is confident that its soldiers acted lawfully and properly then let them cooperate with the IGP and NHRC lead the investigation.

Meanwhile, a young man, Stanislav Gomez is suffering with a bullet in his leg without care from the authorities. If he were the son of a ‘Big Man’ or ‘big woman’, the story would have been different! Let us speak out and stand against ‘Animal Farm’ tendencies in our country for the good and safety of all. All Gambians are equal.   

For The Gambia Our Homeland

By Madi Jorbateh