Hi folks,
I thought I should bring you the sad news of the killing of civilians by Gambian
security forces last week. In these unfortunate and tragic incidents, a
journalist, Omar Barrow, lost his life as he was going about his duties as a Red
Cross/Red Crescent volunteer. For your information, I am appending an article
from "The Independent Newspaper" of The Gambia whose Web site you can find at:
http://www.qanet.gm/Independent/independent.html
The article also includes a press-release from the Gambia Press Union
([log in to unmask]), and you can, if you would like to, contact them for more
information about their colleague, Omar Barrow.
As you can imagine, there's been an outrage in the widely dispersed global
Gambian community. You can review postings on the issue at the Gambia-L
archives at:
http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html
For your information, the archives also include a recent posting that was the
address given by President Jammeh to the nation,
(http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/CGI/wa.exe?A2=ind0004&L=gambia-l&F=P&S=&P=91506)
on his return from the G-77 meeting in Havana, Cuba, almost a full week after
the tragic events happened in The Gambia. If you ever thought that the year
2000 spells a new beginning, I think you should think again. It certainly seems
that at least for The Gambia, the more things change, the more they remain the
same.
And I'm sending this e-mail out in the belief that the best medicine against
such atrocities is to make sure that the whole world knows. From now on out, we
will make sure that President Jammeh's full record follows him where ever he
goes.
Thanks for reading this, and please excuse me if you find it out of place.
Sincerely,
Katim S. Touray
[log in to unmask]
------------------------- START OF APPENDED ARTICLE FROM "THE INDEPENDENT
NEWSPAPER" -----------------------
The Inependent Published Saturday, 15 April, 2000
Gov't blamed for Omar
Barrow's death
Sheikh Lewis, President of the International Society for Human
Rights,
Gambia, has laid the blame for the killing of Sud-FM news
editor and Red
Cross volunteer Omar Barrow, at the feet of the Gambia
Government.
He said the Gambia Government is 'purely responsible' for the
death of Omar
Barrow, who was reportedly shot dead by security forces at the
Red Cross
premises in Kanifing during Monday's student demonstrations.
Speaking during Mr Barrow's funeral at the Latrikunda mosque,
Mr. Lewis said
'the government should be blamed as soldiers don't have the
right to shoot
and kill innocent civilians'. He said journalists and Red
Cross volunteers are
neutral and non-political and as a result, should not be
targeted by security
forces when in the line of their duties.
At an emotional gathering, Mr. Lewis stressed that it was the
duty of security
personnel to maintain law and order and to ensure the safety
of civilians
during such troubles, 'not to kill them'.
He added that 10th April would be a Remembrance Day not only
for the
Gambia Red Cross Society, but also for the Red Cross
world-wide.
Outass Abdoulie Drammeh, also speaking at the funeral service,
described
Omar Barrow as an intelligent young man whose death was a
great loss not
only to The Gambia, but to Africa as a whole. He said Mr
Barrow was highly
respected in the society and contributed greatly in informing
the general
public. He added that Mr. Barrow contributed greatly to the
development of
Radio Sud FM, where he was an editor.
Sheriff Saye, Alieu Badara Njie, Cherno Jallow of the Gambia
Press Union
(GPU), and Swaebou Conateh of the Gambia News and Report
magazine all
spoke highly of Mr. Barrow's contribution to the media. They
expressed
heart-felt grief over the incident.
Mam Saye Njie told this reporter at the gathering that
Monday's shooting of
innocent school children and journalist Omar Barrow was akin
to the
Tiananmen Square killing in China and urged the authorities to
respect the
human rights of all Gambians.
Meanwhile, the Gambia Press Union issued a press release on
Tuesday
condemning the killing of Omar Barrow. The full text of the
release is
reproduced below:
'The death on Monday of a young and promising journalist will
certainly go
down as a dark stain in the history of the second Republic.
Omar Barrow died when allegedly shot by a soldier as he stood
inside the
compound of the Red Cross Headquarters at Kanifing.
Barrow died while serving as a Red Cross volunteer called to
duty by the
emergency. He has now paid the highest price with his life to
a cause of
selfless service to humanity he strongly believed in.
His untimely death has shown the whole world the
trigger-happy, gunho
attitude of our security forces in their unprofessional
dealings with civilians
and un-armed students and journalists.
The Gambia Press Union condemns this dastardly, brutal act of
members of
the Security Forces and calls on government to immediately set
up a
commission of inquiry into the death of Omar Barrow and all
those who lost
their lives in the disturbances.
The GPU further believes that the situation could have been
better managed
if the authorities did not lose their heads by over-reacting
------------------------- END OF APPENDED ARTICLE FROM "THE INDEPENDENT
NEWSPAPER" ---------------
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