Saul, thanks once again for your contributions. Am particularly thankful for
your revelation that the chief justice was preventing witnesses at the
commission from commenting about the issue of who gave orders to the cowards
that murdered our children. Your linkage of that issue to the terms of
reference given to the commission, is an excellent one. The chief justice
has to be the most corrupt lawyer in the country or the biggest fool with a
law degree not to recognize that their terms of reference were wide enough
to justify inquiry into who gave the orders for the fateful shooting. To use
legal technicalities in order to absolve the murderers of our children, is
one of the most heinous things one can do. I understand that the chief
justice and his cohorts are running around in legal circles trying to
convince people that their terms of reference did not permit them to check
into whether Yaya ordered the shooting. This is ridiculous. Months ago when
the terms of reference were publicized, we observed that the document gave
the commission powers that could be interpreted widely. We also opined then
that the commission will simply come back and try and blame the students.
But frankly, I did not think that lawyers at the commission will use dubious
legal arguments to try and cover the case up. I thought the chief justice
will at least have the decency to state that the reason he could not lead us
to Yaya was because people like Ousman Badjie were not prepared to implicate
Yaya. We would still have condemned that because the commission had powers
to compel Badjie to testify honestly. But, for the commission to come back
and tell us that their terms of reference did not allow them to investigate
the orders Yaya gave to his people, makes their report a total whitewash. I
herewith reproduce part of Section 2 of the enabling law for the commission
of inquiry for the benefit of those who missed it the first time:

"2. The Commission is authorised to inquire into the CAUSES OF THE BREAKDOWN
OF PUBLIC ORDE on 10th and 11th April 2000 and to- "(a) determine the extent
to which any individual or group of individuals directly or INDIRECTLY
contributed to it" emphasis mine.

As you can see, it is patently clear that the commission had powers to
determine WHO GAVE THE ORDERS TO KILL? Clearly, without the orders there
would be no massacre. If the security personnel were not armed with live
ammunition when they confronted the children, there would be no massacre. We
want to know who is responsible for arming the PIU and on whose orders they
were acting. Had Yaya and his cohorts offered to diffuse the situation by
meeting the student leaders, there would not have been a massacre. The
decision to kill the children rather than engage them in dialog, is the
direct cause of the massacre. Case in point is the demonstration of APRC
loyalists against the firing of Lai Conteh. Did Yaya order his thugs to
violently remove the demonstrators from his premises? Was there a massacre
because of that incident? Instead, Yaya sent his cronies to talk to
demonstrators and asked them to send an orderly delegation for a dialog.
There are marked differences in the way that demonstration was handled
compared to the way Yaya remotely controlled the April demonstration. The
commission ignored more questions than it answered. By sweeping these issues
under the rug, the commission is not doing good to its master, Yaya. The
fact that the commission did not talk about certain issues, does not mean
that we are going to forget about those issues. We await the full report and
would shred it into pieces and put it in the garbage bin where it belongs.
The chief justice's whining about the constraints of their terms of
reference is unacceptable. It does not require a genius to figure out that
the terms of reference could have been interpreted to encompass inquiry into
how the authorities handled the demonstration. What was the chain of
command? What did the authorities do to avert the demonstration, apart from
shooting the innocent children? All these questions are relevant in
assessing the causes of the massacre. We urge the opposition back home to
put pressure on the AG to bring this case up in the regular criminal courts.
Clearly, we did not get justice at the coroner's inquest and the commission
of inquiry. We should also encourage the families of the slain children to
file civil suits (like Ousman Sabally did) against Yaya and his government.
Such suits can also be filed by families in the United States. That way,
when Yaya comes here next time, he will have some more things to deal with.
KB



>From: sulayman jobarteh <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: The Gambia and related-issues mailing list
><[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Re: Commission Blames Gamsu Leadership for the April Massacre
>Date: Sat, 30 Sep 2000 21:55:24 GMT
>
>KB,
>
>You have got it right again. This report is a tragedy and a shame to the
>Gambia as a nation. I mean how can a suppossed group of intellectuals,
>after
>what is suppossed to be a rigorous inquiry, turn up with a report that the
>students are to be blamed for the massacres of april10 and 11. Lets assume
>for a second that Gamsu is responsible. But who ordered the service people
>to opeb fire? That question is the one people need answered. Now the lives
>of 12 innocent students have been wasted. Their families and friends have
>lost. No one will pay for their deaths. This, clearly is a tragedy.
>
>Several witnesses before the commisssion, identified people who fired at
>the
>demonstrators. So some people should have been prosecuted. I remember one
>gentleman who asked the police operations chief as to whether they received
>any orders from jammeh or any of his superiors to use real bullets. The
>chief justice intervened quickly and declared that such questios were not
>welcome. Is this investigation or thwarting the course of justice.
>
>One of the terms of reference of the commission, as jammeh proudly
>declared,
>was to find out what led to the deaths of students. Jammeh shamelessly
>declared that no stone will be left unturned to get to the bottom of the
>issue. I guess one of the stones, that should have been turned, involved
>the
>question of who gave the orders. Now that stone has not been turned. So
>according to jammeh's own standards, we have not got to the bootom of the
>issue. This is double standards.
>
>Gambians are not sleeping. I am quite confident that this file will be
>reopened even if it will be in the next millenium. Before that, lets hope
>that the government will see sense and do the right thing. That is
>prosecuting whoever gave the orders and whoever carried out those stupid
>orders.
>
>Meanwhile, i pray that the departed souls of the april incidents continue
>to
>rest in peace.
>
>Sulayma Jobarteh.
>
>
>>From: Dampha Kebba <[log in to unmask]>
>>Reply-To: The Gambia and related-issues mailing list
>><[log in to unmask]>
>>To: [log in to unmask]
>>Subject: Commission Blames Gamsu Leadership for the April Massacre
>>Date: Tue, 26 Sep 2000 09:51:32 EDT
>>
>>As we get piecemeal newspaper reports about the contents of the toothless
>>commission of inquiry report the picture is becoming clearer everyday. The
>>ineptitude and corruption of this illegal regime can turn the dumbest man
>>into a clairvoyant. Months ago, we said that the commission report will
>>succeed at nothing but blaming the students for their death. We have been
>>vindicated. The shameless commission of inquiry blamed the students for
>>exercising their constitutional right to stage a peaceful demonstration.
>>How
>>can one blame the students for not conforming to the Public Order Act? The
>>Constitution which guarantees every Gambian the right to assemble and
>>demonstrate against tyranny, is a higher order. If the commission was
>>looking for someone to blame, it should have blamed the authorities that
>>administer the Public Order Act. It should have blamed the police for not
>>ensuring an orderly demonstration after giving the students the required
>>permits to stage a demonstration. You don't deny the students a permit and
>>then blame them for not getting one. That is absurd. What is wrong with
>>demonstrating against the torture and murder and rape of fellow students?
>>Is
>>the chief justice saying that the Gamsu leadership should have called off
>>the demonstration in order to avoid the massacre? I put to the chief
>>justice
>>that no Gambian, except Yaya and his cohorts, could have anticipated such
>>a
>>heinous act. The students never thought that the security forces would
>>turn
>>their guns on fellow Gambians. It might be the order of the day where the
>>chief justice came from, but in The Gambia, we have seen numerous
>>demonstrations that did not turn out bloody. So, to put the responsibility
>>on the Gamsu leadership to have anticipated such barbaric acts is grossly
>>unfair. The students never intended to get into a violent confrontation
>>with
>>the authorities. If that was the case, they would have been armed; albeit
>>with sticks and rocks. In my book, no blame should be leveled on the
>>students. They had a very legitimate reason to demonstrate. They followed
>>all legal avenues opened to them prior to the demonstration. It was only
>>when the authorities would not reciprocate the goodwill of the students,
>>that things turned for the worst. The insensitivity and lack of mental
>>sharpness demonstrated by the chief justice is inexcusable. The Gambians
>>that sat in that commission should also be ashamed of themselves. When the
>>day of reckoning comes, they will be sorry for their actions. How can
>>these
>>Gambians sit down and let foreigners like Lartey come in and impose on us
>>the morally bankrupt standards of societies where the Larteys and the
>>Wowos
>>of this world came from? In Gambia, it would never be all right to
>>massacre
>>15 innocent and defenseless children.
>>Again, am yet to see the full report, but I will repeat my prediction that
>>no trigger man will be named. Naming people like Momodou Ceesay of the PIU
>>is neither here nor there. What the chief justice is saying is merely that
>>Ceesay's unit was present at a location where students were murdered.
>>According to reports that I saw on Gambian newspapers, the commission did
>>not say that Ceesay pulled a trigger. The commission did not also say that
>>Ceesay gave orders to the people that pulled the triggers. So, these
>>findings are bogus. Yeah the guy was there. So was Badjie as well. We need
>>findings saying that the guy pulled a trigger or ordered his men to fire
>>at
>>the students. Better still, we need findings about the chain of command.
>>Who
>>gave the orders to Ceesay? What transpired between Yaya and his ministers
>>while the former was in Cuba? That is what we are interested in. Not
>>blaming
>>our children. The chief justice can call us all sorts of names
>>(detractors,
>>spiteful etc.), but we assure them that we will forever be on their backs
>>until justice is done in this matter. If they are confident in their
>>findings, let them publicize it for the whole world to see. The only
>>definitive findings we are aware of so far, dealt with the assaults at St.
>>Augustine's. Not to minimize what happened to Ousman Sabally, but we have
>>15
>>children dead and the murderers are still roaming the streets with
>>impunity.
>>Where is Momodou Ceesay and the five security men that were linked to the
>>massacre at Brikamaba? Are these people still in positions of authority
>>where they can orchestrate another massacre? This is insane. The recipient
>>of this bogus report is the major culprit in this case. His inhumane
>>orders
>>from Cuba is the reason the students were massacred on April 10 and 11.
>>KB
>>
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