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West Africa: IPI Calls On the Government to Cooperate With Ecowas Legal Proceedings
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Freedom Newspaper (Raleigh, North Carolina)
PRESS RELEASE
15 March 2008
Posted to the web 17 March 2008
13 March 2008
PRESS RELEASE
The International Press Institute (IPI), the global network of editors, media executives and leading journalists in over 120 countries, strongly condemns the failure of five key witnesses, all members of Gambia's military or police forces, to appear at a hearing recently scheduled before the Community Court of Justice of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) in Abuja, Nigeria.
According to information before IPI, three military personnel and two police officers were scheduled to appear on 11 March 2008 before the ECOWAS Community Court of Justice, in connection with a lawsuit regarding the disappearance of Chief Ebrima Manneh, a former reporter for the Daily Observer. According to several witnesses, Manneh was arrested by two plain-clothed officers of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) at the Daily Observer's premises in July 2006, one week after a African Union summit in Banjul, prior to which Manneh was suspected of having passed "damaging" information to a foreign journalist, who wrote a feature article critical of the regime. Manneh was subsequently spotted in various prisons and police stations, but the government and police have insisted that they are unaware of Manneh's whereabouts. Manneh, apparently frail, was last seen at Gambia's main hospital in Banjul in late July, and is feared dead.
The suit, filed by the Media Foundation for West Africa in June 2007, seeks a court order compelling the Gambian government to immediately release Chief Manneh and compensate him adequately for his detention, based on the argument that his continued detention violates the African Charter on Human and People's Rights. The legal proceedings have been plagued by delays and non-cooperation from Gambia's government. A government representative failed to make an appearance at a preliminary hearing scheduled for July 2007. In late November, a witness informed the court that he witnessed the journalist's arrest by two NIA officers. The March hearing scheduled for the five security agents was meant to provide an opportunity for the men to clear themselves of any involvement in Manneh's disappearance.
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"The Gambian media environment has long been hostile and dangerous, but the government's flagrant disregard for the ECOWAS legal proceedings represents a low point," commented IPI Director David Dadge. "IPI calls on the government to cooperate fully with the court's efforts to resolve the fate of Chief Manneh, and to disclose any information it may possess regarding his health or whereabouts."
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