DEAR SISTER JABOU
I first read this article from PANA news last night.
And as Mr. Lamin Conteh somewhat put it, it was a
pretty disturbing story. Disturbing in the sense that
I don't think the Independent publishers did a very
professional job in this case before letting it out to
the public. Looking at the gray areas surrounding the
logic of the text and the usable existing information
regarding the background of these captives/ detainees,
I am left but to guess that the Independent publishers
threw this one around more for the purpose of probing
for the actual facts than reporting a story they
really understood its general implications.
Unfortunately, however, the Gambia government would be
the last institution to clarify matters of this
complexity which deals with what I may term this
international political mess that at one point cost
the GNA the lives of six innocent soldiers murdered in
Farafeni Barracks in 1996; thanks to the naiveté of
former President Abdou Joof and Yaya Jammeh.
Interestingly, the attack on Farafeni Barracks in
1996, which had a direct bearing on the case of these
Liberian-trained mercenaries being detained at Mile
Two Prisons, is part of my last chapters in the
compilation of my memoirs intended for publication
sooner or later.
Anyway like so many outrageous misconceptions
developed by so many people from the inaccurate
stories spread all over the world about the 1994 coup
in The Gambia , this story also surfaced as another
flawed article requiring detailed clarification. I
will do that now for the purpose of straightening out
the records and sharing an aspect of history long
overdue for telling.
As for the Independent publishers, I think they would
have done a better job if they had put a little extra
effort in their investigation before writing such a
half-baked story. Going through it may easily impress
the ordinary reader into thinking that innocent
Gambians living in Senegal were wrongly accused of
coup plot by the notorious Jammeh regime in which
former President Abdou Joof may have been manipulated
into believing in the false coup story, extraditing
these poor guys through the torturing hands of Sakung
Badjie the current IGP and Samsideen Sarr the former
GNA Commander who is now in exile in the USA.
Swanding Camara was referred to as one of them who
fought his case and won his freedom through the
courts. As a free man now, the Independent could have
compiled a more accurate story from Mr. Camara if they
had done their homework properly.
In 1996, after the attack on Farafenni, a press
conference was held at the Army Headquarters in Banjul
where the captured attackers were paraded before the
public and private journalists for open questioning.
The Independent may claim that their paper was not
then in circulation or even established yet,
nonetheless the images and confession of those deadly
mercenaries still remain clear in the minds of those
who cared about the murdered soldiers at Farafenni
Barracks. Sulayman Sarr one of the most eloquent
speakers among them elaborated on an evil story
involving a scheme they had hatched together with
Kukoi Samba Sanyang from the jungles of Liberia to
come to The Gambia and destabilize the country like
they helped Charles Taylor did in his country. During
that interview captured in many tapes lying in several
archives today, Sulayman Sarr and others revealed the
active role played by people like Swanding Camara a
well trusted aide to Kukoi and a former Gendermarie in
the confederal armed forces, the late Yaya Drammeh and
Ablie Sonko their leader in the Farafenni attack
On a memory refreshment, if one could recall, it was
explained that when Kukoi and the seventeen of them
arrived in Senegal in March 1996, ready to attack The
Gambia with the hope that the Senegalese government
was going to give them unconditional support just like
their leader Kukoi had convinced them to believe, they
split the large group into two for tactical reasons.
One group was based at Tambacounda and the other at
Sokone while Kukoi, Swanding Camara, Ablie Sonko and
Yaya Drammeh remained in Dakar. They were to link up
with General Wane who was supposedly coordinating
everything about them and the Senegalese government.
The captives further revealed that after the
Senegalese government started arresting their men in
Tambacounda for trying to acquire weapons and Kukoi
eventually abandoning them in Senegal for no specified
destination, it was Swanding Camara who volunteered to
go and face General Wane to find out why. Swanding was
arrested that day. All these stories were told before
the Gambian journalists in an honest and free
environment of questioning and answering. If the
Independent publishers had any doubts about it, they
could consult the veteran reporters of the Point such
as Pap Saine and Daida Haidara who were present at the
press conference.
Having said that and still on the poor job done by the
Independent publishers in this issue, there was
another gray area on the matter, which should have
triggered their curiosity for a little more
investigation. The Point News Paper first reported the
case of armed Gambian rebels captured in Tambcounda by
the Senegalese government in the summer of 1996. The
report indicated that the rebels were from Liberia but
at the time, it had attracted little attention to the
Gambian public or the Armed forces. But guess what?
Those captured were none other than these Ansu Wally,
Ebrima Waa Drammeh (Bamba), and Gibril Jallow,
Abdourahman Baldeh and three more whose names I cannot
remember.
A little more effort in investigating this story would
have given the Independent a more realistic story to
tell. For instance if they had searched for the
missing link from the Point article reported in the
summer of 1996 to the confessed stories by the
captives in the Farafenni attack and then wondered a
little more over why these men were not extradited
throughout until in 1997 well after Kartong Camp was
attacked by ex-GNA soldiers living in Cassamance, a
bigger and more interesting picture would have
appeared before them.
Anyway the whole story is more complex than what I may
expect an average reporter from the Independent to
produce out of it just like that. But as I said
earlier I will start telling the whole story as I
experienced it. I was part of the investigation team
in this particular case which I was very bitter about
because of the preventable deaths it caused at
farafenni Barracks. Abdou Joof and Yaya Jammeh could
be justifiably accused of being the very culprits
behind that crime. LOOK FOR MY NEXT PIECE.
Ebou Colly
--- Jabou Joh <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> The Independent (Banjul)
>
> March 30, 2001
> Posted to the web March 30, 2001
>
> Alhagie Mbye
> Banjul, The Gambia
>
> Highly placed sources close to both the Department
> of State for the Interior
> and the Central Prisons Department have confirmed to
> The Independent have
> described as appalling the condition of four
> Gambians who were extradited
> from Senegal in 1997 accused of attempting to
> overthrow the APRC
> administration.
>
> Also family members of the detained men, the four
> including one who was
> released were extradited from Senegal since July
> 31st 1997 and were held
> incommunicado for three years until last year when
> they were allowed to meet
> with members of their families. Ansu Wally from
> Wuli, Ebrahima Waa Drammeh
> alias Bamba from Tujereng, Suwanding Camara from
> Bondali, Abdurahman Baldeh
> from Basse and Gibril Jallow, alias Paco from Buiam
> are said to be held in
> "very stressful and inhumane conditions" without
> being charged in any court.
>
> Concerned family members called on the authorities
> to charge the accused
> persons and try them or release them for the sake of
> "humanity and justice."
>
> However sources close to both Departments
> acknowledged that one of the
> accused persons, Suwanding Camara, hired a lawyer
> who challenged the
> government on the legality of his continuous
> detention without legal
> backing. After a court battle Mr. Camara was
> subsequently released and is
> now said to be a freeman.
>
> The sources explained that the four detainees who
> did not contract the
> service of a lawyer like their former fellow inmate
> were allowed only an
> hour's rest for a whole day and given poor food
> rations and "appalling"
> toilet facilities.
>
> "They re not always given chance to bathe at times
> and refrained from eating
> food from family members an open empty gallon is all
> they use as toilet" one
> of them claimed.
>
> The accused five who were in Liberia were reportedly
> arrested in Dakar when
> the Gambian authorities convinced former President
> Abdou Diouf that the five
> were urgently wanted in Gambia "for trying to gather
> arms to overthrow the
> Jammeh administration." Despite the accused persons'
> persistent denial of
> the claims, the current Inspector General of Police,
> Sankung Badjie, and the
> former GNA Commander Samsideen Sarr who is currently
> in exile in the United
> States including five paramilitary officers went to
> Dakar to effect their
> extradition to Banjul. Sources claimed that the
> accused persons were always
> "harassed, beaten and tortured" by soldiers and
> prison officers at Mile II.
>
> It added that late last year, the ICRC were allowed
> to visit them and
> provide them with two blankets each, a two inch
> mattress.
>
> The sources added that despite numerous complaints
> by the detainees, an
> Interior department top-notch only conduct a visit
> to the prisons twice a
> year but pay no heed to their complains.
>
> Family members of the men also complained that their
> detained relatives who
> were held in Senegal for a year, were detained at
> Cent Meter Camp (100m
> camp) in Dakar Central Prison, where they were
> reportedly freer and better
> looked after. They were provided with proper food
> from friends and family
> members and allowed to rest from 8 am to 5 pm
> outside the prisons a family
> member of one of the detained men said. They noted
> that in Senegal the coup
> suspects were also allowed to listen to news and
> read newspapers, drink
> 'ataya' and smoke cigarette. "But in The Gambia any
> officer, who brings a
> copy of a newspaper, magazine or a radio set or
> offer them cigarettes are
> sacked with immediate effect" they noted.
>
> Family members who said they were shaken by the
> experience called on the
> international community and human right concerns,
> such as Amnesty
> International, the donor community and The Gambia
> Bar Association to
> intervene so that the suspects are either released
> or charged.
>
> When contacted, a senior official at the Interior
> Department who refused to
> be named confirmed the continuing detention of the
> four men. "I have just
> been reading it in the papers. It is true that they
> are being held there but
> don't ever quote me in your newspaper" he said.
>
>
>
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> --
>
> Copyright © 2001 The Independent. Distributed by
> AllAfrica Global Media
> (allAfrica.com).
>
>
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