Story highlights All death row convicts will be executed by mid-September, president says 
 
 The West African nation last executed an inmate about 30 years ago 
 
 By the end of last year, it had 44 people on death row, rights group says 
 
 Gambia plans to execute all death row prisoners by September, the president said this week, sparking condemnation from human rights groups worldwide. 
 
 The tiny West African nation last executed an inmate about 30 years ago. 
 
 It is unclear what prompted the change in stance. 
 
 By the end of last year, Gambia had 44 people on death row, including two women, according to human rights activists. 
 
 Death row convicts will be executed by mid-September, President Yahya Jammeh said in a speech on state media Sunday that was rebroadcast Monday. 
 
 "All those guilty of serious crimes and are condemned will face the full force of the law," he said. "All punishments prescribed by law will be maintained in the country to ensure that criminals get what they deserve: that is, that those who kill are killed ... By the middle of next month, all the death sentences would have been carried out to the letter." 
 
 The nation imposes capital punishment for various crimes, including murder and treason, the latter commonly used to stifle dissent in some African nations. 
 
 In 2010, British human rights group Reprieve said Gambia had introduced the death penalty for those found with more than 250 grams of cocaine or heroin. It's unclear whether the law still stands. 
 
 Amnesty International, the French government and other rights groups condemned the execution order. 
 
 "President Jammeh's comments are deeply troubling and will undoubtedly cause severe anguish to those on death row and their families," said Audrey Gaughran, the Africa director for Amnesty. "Any attempt to carry out this threat would be both deeply shocking and a major setback for human rights in Gambia." 
 
 International standards on fair trials are not followed in the country, according to Gaughran. 
 
 "Death sentences are known to be used as a tool against the political opposition," she said. "The number of grossly unfair trials is shocking and an especially serious concern in cases where the death penalty is handed down." 
 
 In 2009, Jammeh made a similar threat to resume executions, but did not act on it, Amnesty said. Nonetheless, the new threat raises concern in the nation, the group said. 
 
 The former British colony is surrounded by Senegal and has a population of 1.3 million. 
 
 Jammeh took power in a military coup in 1994, and was elected president two years later. The government represses political opposition groups, and the president has won all elections since he came to power. Most of the polls are tainted by allegations of fraud. 
 
 Gambia's human rights record has drawn steady criticism since his election, but the president has won supporters by building new hospitals, schools and other infrastructure. ||||| Gambia to execute all death row prisoners by September 
 
 BANJUL — Gambian President Yahya Jammeh has told the people of his tiny west African nation that by the middle of September all those already sentenced to death for crimes will be executed. 
 
 He added that crimes like banditry, drug trafficking or illicit use, homosexuality, murder, terrorism and other subversive activities against either the state or the people will not be tolerated. 
 
 Jammeh said in a televised address broadcast on Sunday evening and Monday to mark this year's Muslim feast of Eid-al-Fitr that the security forces and the judiciary will continue to be empowered to enforce the law where applicable. 
 
 "By the middle of next month, all the death sentences would have been carried out to the letter; there is no way my government will allow 99 percent of the population to be held to ransom by criminals," Jammeh said. 
 
 Though he did not give the exact figure of those to be executed, an AFP toll puts the figure of those condemned to death since July 2010, including former security chiefs, at 47. 
 
 However judicial sources say the figure is higher than that. 
 
 "All those guilty of serious crimes and (who) are condemned will face the full force of the law. All punishments prescribed by law will be maintained in the country to ensure that criminals get what they deserve," Jammeh said. 
 
 "My government will take whatever legal action is necessary to expunge these deadly and heinous acts from the country," he said. 
 
 Jammeh, a former military officer who seized power in a 1994 coup, brooks no dissent in a country often blasted by rights bodies for abuses. 
 
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 Gambian President Yahya Jammeh's announcement that all death row prisoners will be executed next month has drawn condemnation from human rights groups and foreign governments. 
 
 Jammeh made his vow to break a 27-year hiatus on carrying out capital sentences in an official speech Sunday to mark the Eid-al-Fitr holiday ending the holy Muslim month of Ramadan. 
 
 "All those guilty of serious crimes and are condemned will face the full force of the law. All punishments prescribed by law will be maintained in the country to ensure that criminals get what they deserve," Jammeh said in the speech rebroadcast Monday on national television. 
 
 Amnesty International condemned Jammeh's announced plans in a statement issued Tuesday, saying that the execution order "must not be acted on, and must be retracted." 
 
 "President Jammeh’s comments are deeply troubling and will undoubtedly cause severe anguish to those on death row and their families,” said Audrey Gaughran, Amnesty International’s Africa director. “Any attempt to carry out this threat would be both deeply shocking and a major setback for human rights in Gambia." 
 
 Gaughran said trials are notoriously unfair in Gambia and that "death sentences are known to be used as a tool against the political opposition." Rival political parties were outlawed after Jammeh took power in a military coup in 1994. Nominal civilian rule was restored two years later with a new constitution, but political opposition remained suppressed and Jammeh has won all elections since then. 
 
 A tiny English-speaking West African nation of 1.8 million surrounded by Senegal, Gambia last executed a prisoner in 1985. It has been "abolitionist in practice," Gaughran said, describing Jammeh's statement as "in stark contrast to the trend, both in West Africa and globally, towards ending the use of the death penalty." 
 
 Neither Jammeh nor the African news agencies that reported his vow to execute prisoners in a campaign to fight crime said how many people are on death row in the country that was a British colony until 1965. 
 
 Agence France-Presse, which first reported Jammeh's announcement this week, said it had tallied the number of known death row inmates at 47. Justice authorities in the country, however, put the figure much higher, the news agency said. 
 
 Jammeh made a similar threat to resume executions in 2009 that wasn't acted on, Amnesty observed, adding that this week's vow was nonetheless cause for alarm. 
 
 British human rights advocates Reprieve denounced Jammeh's plan Wednesday and reissued an analysis by founder and legal director Clive Stafford Smith debunking the "myth" that the death penalty deters crime. 
 
 In an official statement issued Tuesday, the French government said it "utterly condemns" the reported execution plans and urged Gambia to maintain its de facto moratorium "with a view toward the definitive abolition of the death penalty." 
 
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 -- Carol J. Williams in Los Angeles 
 
 Photo: Gambian President Yahya Jammeh arrives on July 15 at the African Union summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Jammeh vowed this week to execute all death row prisoners by next month. Credit: Simon Maina / AFP/Getty Images
– Human rights groups are condemning President Yahya Jammeh for his vow to execute every death row prisoner in Gambia next month, breaking an almost 30-year hiatus on executions in the country. "All those guilty of serious crimes and are condemned will face the full force of the law," Jammeh said in a Sunday speech, reports the LA Times. Gambian trials are notoriously unfair, and death sentences are often handed out for "treason," meaning any opposition to Jammeh, CNN reports. Cocaine and heroin possession were also reportedly made capital crimes in 2010. It's unclear how many people are on death row; the AFP counts 47, but Gambian authorities say the number is much higher. "Any attempt to carry out this threat would be both deeply shocking and a major setback for human rights in Gambia," an Amnesty International official said. Gambia last executed a prisoner in 1985. Jammeh announced a similar mass execution in 2009, but never followed through.