The attorney general in Switzerland has opened an investigation into the activities of a Swiss-Romanian, Nicolae Buzaianu, who is a business partner of Gambia’s exiled former president, Yahya Jammeh.

The Swiss authorities announced the move earlier this month – three years after human rights NGO Trial International filed a criminal complaint against Mr Buzaianu for environmental crimes over trafficking in ‘blood timber’.

“The case is historical in many aspects and is a sign of hope towards the end of impunity for economic actors that are illegally participating in the exploitation of natural resources in conflict zones,” Benoit Meystre, Trial’s legal adviser told Malagen.

Reacting to the news, Kemo Fatty, a Gambian environmental activist, said holding corporations to account for environmental crimes ‘is a huge step in ensuring environmental justice.’

“We have seen how corporations have profited illicitly from rosewood trafficking,” he told Malagen. “This [opening of investigations] is sending a further warning to all people involved in natural resource destruction. We are hoping this will continue and both corporations and government officials will be brought to justice for environmental crimes.”

Possible war crimes

President Jammeh is a 50 per cent shareholder of Westwood Company Ltd, which Buzaianu operated here in The Gambia, from 2014 to when Jammeh was removed from power and exiled in 2017.

The company’s activities were a subject of investigation by a commission of inquiry in 2018, revealing how the company monopolised export of timber to China, raking in US$45.3m in revenue in three years of its operation.

In the criminal complaint filed before the Swiss prosecutor’s office, TRAIL International argues that Westwood was dealing in ‘conflict timber’, trafficking protected rosewood illegally felled from the troubled Southern Senegal region of Casamance.

“This precious rosewood species was illegally harvested from the neighboring Casamance region, where the armed group the Movement des Forces Démocratiques de Casamance (MFDC), has been fighting the Senegalese army since the 1982.

With Jammeh as an ally, the MFDC was able to monopolize the timber trade in Lower Casamance, using its profits to finance its armed struggle. Westwood benefited generously from this trade, transferring its profits to individuals and companies associated with Former President Jammeh and Mr. Buzaianu.”

The organisation describes the activities of Westwood as environmental crime which, per 2011 revision of the Swiss criminal code, could constitute war crime.

“Exploiting natural resources from a conflict zone is a war crime that must be punished. Without the pillaging of natural resources, many armed groups would have no means of financing their wars,” said Montse Ferrer, senior legal advisor, TRIAL International.

Gambia gov’t notified

Malagen has confirmed that Swiss authorities have notified the Gambia government about opening of investigations against Jammeh’s close business associate.

“They want all the information we might have in our possession concerning the illegal timber trade involving Westwood,” Tah Kimbeng, the deputy director of civil litigation at the Gambia’s Ministry of Justice told Malagen.

“We have every intention of cooperating and are cooperating with the Swiss. We are in the process of compiling the information and once done will provide it to the Swiss.”

Although indicted by the Commission of Inquiry that investigated the assets and finances of Jammeh and his close associates for range of issues, including timber trafficking and tax evasion, Westwood never faced any criminal penalty in the Gambia.

However, the company’s assets, including cars and gold refinery plant were forfeited by the state.

Meanwhile, the whereabouts of Buzaianu has been a mystery since he left the Gambia in 2016/17. But TRIAL International is hoping that the Swiss authorities will launch a hunt to bring him to book. 

In a separate development, the UN treaty body responsible for the protection of endangered plants and animals, CITES, had announced suspension of Gambia’s license for commercial trade in rosewood with effect from June 8 of this year.

Click HERE to read Malagen’s groundbreaking investigation into timber trafficking in the Gambia published in April this year.