My sentiments exactly.  And I think it would be a good
idea to put what you have written here in a letter and
send it to the British Foreign Affairs Cabinet.  I can
always supply their E-mail address.

--- Dampha Kebba <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> First of all, I wish to take this opportunity to
> thank Ms. Jagne again for
> her efforts. Decent Gambians should emulate what Ms.
> Jagne is doing and has
> done for our dear country and its citizens.
> The letter from Mr. Hackett just confirms my earlier
> views about this whole
> debacle. The letter also reinforces my notion that
> the British government is
> insensitive to the plight of the innocent and
> defenseless Gambian citizens.
> This double talk highlights the hypocrisy of this
> government and makes a
> mockery of their 'ethical foreign policy'. Did we
> not say weeks ago that
> this is about Sierra Leone, British troops and the
> British electorate? At
> least Hackett had the decency to admit that. Let us
> face it, the British
> care less about whether Yaya's brute machine will go
> out and murder innocent
> Gambian children. All the British are concerned
> about, is ways of avoiding
> British soldiers being killed in theaters like East
> Timor, Sierra Leone and
> other so called Third World countries. We know where
> they stand. Our duty is
> to condemn them strongly and showcase their
> insensitivity and hypocrisy. It
> is disingenuous for the British to pretend that they
> are on the side of our
> children by claiming that they want justice done on
> the issue of the April
> massacre, yet at the same time, they are helping to
> further arm the brutal
> forces that perpetrated the massacre. This is simple
> logic. To save the
> lives of professional British soldiers, the British
> are putting the lives of
> innocent Gambian children in jeopardy. It is telling
> that Hackett only
> highlighted our government's achievements in the
> international peacekeeping
> arena. He conveniently ignored the blatant human
> rights violations the
> regime is engaged in and will continue to engage in
> with the support of the
> British. I want to let Hackett know that there is no
> substantive movement in
> the case of the massacred victims. The people
> responsible for those heinous
> acts are still roaming the streets of Banjul as free
> men and women. The
> coroner's inquest and subsequent commission of
> inquiry came up with bogus
> findings. These were merely delay tactics employed
> by the government and
> their friends in the EU to thwart the wheels of
> justice. I repeat that up to
> today (more than six months after the massacre), not
> a single person has
> been brought to justice. I would also like to inform
> Hackett that the UDP
> supporters that were ambushed in Basse are still
> under jeopardy. The
> attorney general of our illegal government is still
> trying to send Ousainou
> Darboe and his supporters to jail. The government
> currently has an
> application before the Gambian court of appeal which
> is aiming at revoking
> the bail granted to Ousainou Darboe and his
> supporters. Thanks to the
> ineptitude of the attorney general's chambers,
> Darboe et al still do not
> know their fate because when the attorney general is
> scheduled to come to
> court, he absconds. So the net result is that the
> matter of the ambush is
> still unresolved. Britain and the EU should not take
> any diplomatic credit
> for the state of that case. In the first place, APRC
> thugs should not have
> ambushed the UDP supporters. Secondly, what can be
> more absurd than 25
> people being accused for the murder of one person
> (the aggressor because he
> went to a lawful gathering, uninvited)? Thirdly, how
> can the Brits reconcile
> the fact that Gambian law enforcement was super
> efficient in this ambush
> case, whereas in the case of the massacre of 15
> innocent and defenseless
> Gambian children, no one has been brought to court
> to answer charges. I
> think Hackett should look for other things to brag
> about than trying to
> defend Yaya's dismal human rights record. Since we
> are on the subject of the
> ambush, what did the Brits do about the dismissal of
> the magistrate that
> ordered the release of Darboe and his supporters. Am
> not trying to say that
> it is the Brits' responsibility to do something
> about that. All am trying to
> say is that, it is gross hypocrisy for the Brits to
> cite incidents like the
> Basse ambush and the formation of a commission of
> inquiry to look into the
> massacre of our children in order to prove that the
> British are doing a
> great job in trying to promote human rights in The
> Gambia. The British do
> not care if the army goes out tomorrow and murder
> innocent Gambian children.
> They do not care if the army sits by and watch APRC
> thugs butcher political
> opponents, burn down properties of innocent Gambians
> and abduct defenseless
> citizens. Case in point is a recent seminar the
> British organized in order
> to bring together law enforcement and human rights
> activists in The Gambia.
> At the seminar, NIA officers stood up and denied
> ever abducting Gambian
> citizens. This was done at a time when people like
> Dumo were languishing in
> jail, incommunicado. The point am trying to make, is
> that token gestures
> like organizing such seminars is neither here nor
> there. The NIA goes there
> and tell blatant lies and go out the following day
> and abduct innocent
> Gambians and torture them. That is the human rights
> record of Yaya and his
> security apparatus. They are not out to protect
> innocent Gambians. They are
> out to protect Yaya at any cost. If it means
> murdering 15 innocent Gambian
> children, so be it.
> We also resent the way Hackett was trying to
> downplay this resumption of aid
> by implying that the aid is restricted to taking few
> officers to Sandhurst.
> The British ambassador in The Gambia told his
> friends in the army that this
> was just the beginning. The next we know, Britain
> will be supplying weapons
> to these vermin. People like Hackett should know
> that they are not dealing
> with fools or impotent morons any more. The Yayas
> and the Edward Singhatehs
> of this world are illiterate morons that do not
> represent what is good in
> The Gambia and Gambians. Gone are the days when
> silly statements like those
> given by Hackett will pass muster. Hackett can try
> all he wants, but he
> cannot justify arming Yaya to murder innocent
> Gambian children. What Hackett
> has to realize, is that the primary purpose of our
> army is to defend the
> lives of innocent Gambians, and not to participate
> in international
> peacekeeping missions. I have nothing against
> international peacekeeping
> missions, but the insignificant contributions Gambia
> makes to such missions
> should not be rewarded by this insensitive move from
> the British.
> We again urge the Gambians in Britain to continue
> their protest on this
> matter. The hypocrisy and insensitivity of the
> British government has to be
> unmasked. The British electorate has to be informed
> of this debacle. I hate
> attacking other members of the opposition, but
> frankly I must express
> disappointment in the Jawara camp. How can they let
> the British get away
> with such a despicable act? We are in all this mess
> because of the
> ineptitude of the Jawara regime. They should
> tirelessly work to ensure that
> we get rid of Yaya. Sitting in Britain and watching
> the British arm Yaya
> further is disgraceful. We should let the British
> know that taxpayer money
> is being used to support a despot that boasts about
> allies like Gaddafi and
> Charles Taylor; a despot that is worst than Idi Amin
> Dada. We should not be
> satisfied unless the British admit this fiasco and
> withdraw their aid to
> dictator Yaya.
> KB
>
>
>
> >From: Sigga jagne <[log in to unmask]>
> >Reply-To: The Gambia and related-issues mailing
> list
>
=== message truncated ===


=====
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