Gambia’s new leader calls for political prisoners’ release

Banjul. The Gambia’s President-elect Adama Barrow held talks with his team Saturday to plot his transition to power, with the release of political prisoners emerging as a top priority for the new administration.

Barrow’s shock election victory ended the iron-fisted 22-year rule of Yahya Jammeh on Friday, and the scenes of jubilation on the streets after the results were released have given way to a calm but buoyant mood in the capital Banjul.

Jammeh’s rule over the tiny ex-British colony -- which began with a coup in 1994 -- was marked by frequent allegations of rights abuses and the regular arrests of politicians, journalists and activists, often on spurious charges.

arrow, a businessman and political novice, met with the eight leaders who make up the coalition that sealed his remarkable rise to power in Thursday’s vote, with the talks focusing on the challenges facing the administration.

The talks went “very well, we are reflecting on the way forward,” said Isatou Touray, one of the leaders.

Touray said the release of political prisoners was the “most urgent” issue facing the new government, with expectations this could happen very soon.

“We are looking at next week,” she said.

The leader of the main opposition United Democratic Party (UDP), of which Barrow is a former member, is appealing a three-year jail sentence he received with several other UDP officials for holding a peaceful protest in April.

Touray added the team expected the United Nations to play a key role in smoothing the transition that will see Barrow, a businessman who once worked as a security guard as an economic migrant in Britain, take office in mid-January.

“We will try to get the UN to give us support,” Touray told AFP by phone. “It is urgent, we need to have it as soon as possible.”

Ibn Chambas, the UN’s west Africa representative, said meetings with the opposition had been fruitful, raising expectations of a government that would reverse some of Jammeh’s policies that have isolated The Gambia internationally.

Barrow has pledged to rejoin the International Criminal Court and the Commonwealth, both institutions which Jammeh railed against and withdrew from, to the dismay of many.

The UN envoy also said he was “willing to work with the Gambians to establish a truth and reconciliation commission”, but would not be drawn on whether Jammeh could face prosecution.

Allegations of rape, torture and execution at the hand of the National Intelligence Agency, which reports directly to Jammeh, have long tarred The Gambia’s image.

Barrow told French media Saturday that “we are not witch-hunting anybody, nothing is personal” when asked whether Jammeh would be prosecuted. (AFP)