Dr Lamin Sise, the chairman of the Truth Commission investigating the human rights violations of the former President Yahya Jammeh, has likened the activities of Junglers to atrocities committed during the rule of Hitler in Nazi Germany.
Sise made the remark at the closing of the testimony of the 6th Jungler before the Commission. Junglers are a team of hitmen operating on the orders of former President Jammeh.
Before the Commission on Wednesday afternoon was Inspector Lamin Sambou, a paramilitary officer recruited into the kill-squad by General Sulayman Badgie.
“Gambia is going through hell… These revelations we have heard in the past few days are beyond shocking for any society. To have Government agents coming out with these kind of activities… These are gruesome murders. Today alone, we have heard of 14 murders. This is all on top of what you and your colleagues, the Junglers, have been telling us since they started coming before us,” said a visibly emotional Dr Sise.
“To hear that senior Government officials like ministers of state being present at the execution of prisoners… It is almost like Nazi high command catting to the gas chambers in the occupy areas or the death camps of prisoners who have been killed and their bodies burnt… They (Nazis) had their Junglers. In Dafur, you have the same kind of Junglers going around slaughtering people. And to hear that you have similar stories in Gambia… and we have not gotten to the end of it… Gambia is going through hell… I have no question to ask you and your colleagues.”
Sambou has confessed to participating in the execution of 9 death row inmates in 2012. He said they were told by Solo Bojang that the prisoners were condemned to death by law and they should be killed.
The Junglers have masked their faces and collected the 9 prisoners from Mile 2 allegedly under the supervision of Justice Minister (Lamin Jobarteh), director general of prison (David Colley), Interior Minister Ousman Sonko and Sulayman Badgie.
While they were being put in separate vehicles, the inmates have had their hands cuffed and legs shackled, said Sambou.
He said he is only getting to know now that those executions were in fact illegal. Sambou said inmates were later taken to be dumped in a well at an unspecified place near the border with Senegal, toward Cassamance.
The execution of the 9 prisoners has caused huge controversy in the country but Jammeh and his then Justice Minister Jobarteh defended it as legal. It was condemned by several human rights organizations including Amnesty International.
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