COUP IN GAMBIA TEN
Mr. Sanusi thanks for your observation over that typo
date on Captain Johnson's training period in the US.
It should have been 1986 instead of 1996. I totally
missed it.
On our dehumanizing jail experience, I ended my last
piece with the list of the names of all those who were
detained at Mile Two Prisons during the early days of
the AFPRC rule of terror. However as I said earlier
the first couple of weeks were unimaginably horrible
but we eventually came to live with it at ease as
typical of all human spirit, regardless of what. But I
guess it was primarily the sense of innocence felt by
almost everybody over the illegality of our
predicament that helped us endure the pain. Without
doubt it was really painful.
Another factor behind our ability to adapt to the
death-row horror was the early realization by prison
officials that after all we were held for nothing
serious to make them enforce their stiff rules on us.
There were in fact few of the prison officials who
expressed their open solidarity with us calling it
naked tribal prejudice and fear of men considered more
competent than those in charge. Consequently, by the
end of August, the period I estimated to be the end on
the arrest and detention spree of officers', things
began to look hopeful.
We were aware of the poor rating the AFPRC were facing
from the public who for a while could not exactly
understand what was going on. Sana on the other hand
had come up with a Fafa Mbye-tailored decree about us,
which among other things had stated that our detention
would not exceed six months. However during those six
months, we were to be subjected to a review board
headed by a foreign judge to determine our guilt or
innocence. Any one found guilty was to be prosecuted
while the innocent would of course be freed.
Everyone behind bars was therefore convinced that,
going by the decree's conditions we would before long
go free. Interestingly, each detainee started to
calculate his detention date against the exact date in
the future that should end his six-month term. Those
who were arrested on the 22nd July tagged 22nd January
as their final dates. I made my calculation too. July
27th was my detention date, so January 27th was
supposed to be my last day. What I did not know was
that by divine intervention, that day, the 27th of
January was going to be the day Sana and Haidara were
to join us in chains.
Anyhow as we eagerly awaited the convening order for
the review board, the conditions got better in the
jail giving us the needed opportunity to interact
among ourselves and compare experiences we had during
the coup. We even started receiving provisions from
our families-biscuits, cakes and the like.
However, an important matter raised by Captain Mamat
Cham was his experience at the residence of Colonel
Akogie where some of them had spent the whole period
of the coup operation. He was there with Baboucarr
Jatta and Lt. Ebrima Cambi. Captain Cham disclosed
that at the early hours of the coup, the Senegalese
authorities actually called up the Nigerian colonel
who was in charge of the GNA at the time asking for
whether they could send troops to help foil the coup.
The colonel declined the offer assuring them that they
could handle the crisis.
By all indications the Nigerians for some reasons
known to them were hoping or confident that they were
going to come up with a solution to the problem. It
was however learnt that Colonel Gwadebeh, General
Dada's successor who never was, went at length to
convince General Sani Abacha to allow him to mobilize
Nigerian troops to intervene and restore the PPP
government. Abacha was reported to have blessed the
colonel's idea, but when the latter started the
mobilization process, he was some how warned to abort
the mission. That ended all Nigerian military plans to
come in 1994. The Abacha government later accused
Colonel Gwadebeh of coup plot and almost executed him
in 1996. His death penalty sentence was commuted to
life. He was lucky that Abacha died and they set him
free in a general amnesty.
Anyhow, the reason for the Nigerians not to accept the
Senegalese offer is a historical puzzle that I hope
scholars would someday make us understand.
In jail, September began fairly normal with the
conditions still considered improving. We even began
to get use to the unappetizing food, enjoying the
dark-colored pap and nightly "chereh" with boiled
bonga fish.
Then there came the 5th of September. The prison
guards and their supervisors were all changed to
mainly Jola crewmen. Headed by David Colly, things
suddenly changed back to the conditions of the first
days. The twenty- four hour behind bars policy was
reintroduced. David Colly brought us papers to sign
from Vice Chaiman Sabally stating in effect that we
were under detention for security reasons and that he
was directly responsible for whatever may happen to
us. It was the first time we saw a written statement
from the government telling us anything about our
detention. There was no charge or reason given for our
detention. It was also disappointing that the
so-called review board headed by a foreign judge was
not mentioned in Sabally's three-sentence statement.
Another strange thing that happened was the transfer
of all civilian prisoners we found at death row to
another location. The other detainees who were locked
up in other locations were also brought over to us
"Block #4". Major Sheriff Mbye, Captain Alieu Ndure
and Cambi were among those transferred from another
block to ours.
Everything was a serious cause for concern. Then
Sergeant Major Alagie Faye, whose cell was very close
to the common footpath outside, gave us the disturbing
information that at the early hours of the morning,
between 1:00 to 2:00 a.m., he had heard footsteps of
numerous people walking in and around the area. And
when he peeped through his narrow window, he had seen
members of the AFPRC with a lot of guards looking
around. He had particularly identified Edward
Singhateh and Sana Sabally.
Around 6:00 p.m., one hour after our regular time to
go to bed, another strange thing happened. A senior
prison officer, S.P.O. Joberteh whom we understood was
the duty officer the previous night was brought in
handcuffs and locked up in one of the cells. The man's
crime was explained to have been his absence from the
facility when the AFPRC members arrived in the morning
and wanted to visit the detainees. Since he was the
man in charge, nobody was allowed to go into the
blocks in his absence. In fact as a rigid rule,
prisoners or detainees' cells were never to be opened
after the time they consider after hour-5: 00 p.m.
With the whole day being so worrisome, we decided to
spend the rest of the night praying for our safety.
I did not know when I slept that night, but suddenly
the noise of the main door being unchained or unlocked
woke me up at about 1:00 a.m. I was in number one cell
that was very close to the door. As a result, I was
the first to see the devils walking in when the door
was opened.
Yes Edward Singhateh in full combat outfit armed with
an AK47 was the first to walk in with heavily armed
guards yelling for Captain Mamat Cham to tell him his
cell location. The late Antou Saidy, Deputy
Commissioner of prisons was the next person I noticed
carrying the bunch of keys that opened the cell doors.
Then there was Sana Sabally, Sadibou Haidara and
Yankuba Touray. Everyone was fully armed followed by a
section or more of their guards.
Anyway it was Singhateh who did most of the talking.
After calling for Cham until the captain's cell was
found, he ordered for the door to be opened telling
him to say his last prayer because he was going to die
that day. "People are saying that Yaya's government is
worst than that of Idi Amin", Edward went on, "but
today we will demonstrate it to everyone that we don't
care".
After his cell was opened Captain Cham was ordered to
get down on his knees and place both his hands behind
his back. He obeyed begging for mercy as Singhateh put
a handcuff on his wrists. Cham's cell was in the inner
part of the block, a dimly lit area. So they began to
drag him on the cement floor towards our area. It was
brighter around there.
As if he was waiting to come right under the light,
Singhateh suddenly stopped and began to rain deadly
blows on the handcuffed captain using the wooden butt
of his AK47. He kicked him on the ribs, butt-struck
him on the shoulders, back, head and everywhere,
calling his guards to do the same. One or two of them
gave the captain few kicks but Singhateh carried out
the whole senseless beating. Even Sabally, Haidara and
Touray just stood watching him until he lost his
breath.
The captain cried for mercy until he could no longer
say a word. I thought he had even fainted.  Singhateh
reach for his hands behind his back again and
continued the dragging out of the block to the sharp
cutting pebbles outside. Everyone followed.
After a minute or so we heard gunshot fired in rapid
volleys at the back of the block. If you understood
flying pattern of fired rounds from assault riffles,
you would be able to determine that the bullets were
fired in the air and not at anyone as they wanted us
to believe.
I was however positive that I was going to be the next
person to be tortured. I was also sure that they would
come back.
They came back. But it was Major Chongan they went
for. He was also handcuffed, dragged on the cement
floor and beaten mercilessly before they took him to
the back and fired shots in the air again.
The next victim was Sergeant Major Baboucarr Jeng
(RSM).
This NCO's torture really got into me. He was
suffering from severe neck pain he got from a grenade
accident he sustained from an exercise few years ago.
His condition was also bad enough to require treatment
abroad. Because of the terrible sleeping conditions in
the jail the state of his neck worsen. At the night he
was being tortured he could barely move his neck.  He
was still beaten until I thought he was going to die.
After kicking and hitting until he ran out of breath
again Singhateh leaned back against the wall breathing
heavily. There he saw me looking at him from my cell.
He leaped forward yelling at me not to look at him.
"You f---ing liar", he said. "You said the Americans
had amphibious tanks which was a lie".
He gave me all kinds of verbal abuse as I stood there
praying to be spared from the torture. He then raised
his weapon and ordered me to lie down on the floor and
never to show up my face to the window again. I
complied immediately.
From my cell I could smell the heavy concentration of
alcohol from his breath .
The beating of RSM Jeng was resumed. He was later
dragged away followed by the usual gunshots.
By this time some of their guards were quietly going
from cell to cell telling those they could not to
worry, for there was execution. It was all meant to
scare us.
When they returned one could sense how most of them
had had enough of the Singhateh-led torture. Haidara
and Sabally were heard making remarks that showed that
they had had enough. Yankuba was also heard saying
"Sings it's enough". That was after Singhateh went to
Catain Sonko's cell and gave him three nasty slaps
that left his fingerprints in the face of the officer
for days. Then he moved to Lt. Sheriff Gomeze's cell
and aimed the muzzle of his weapon directly at him
teasing him to say a word. He teased him about being a
slave to the Nigerians, especially Colonel Audu whose
adjutant he was. The lieutenant knew better. He also
remained quiet.
They left soon after saying that they would be back
the next day. I could hear Yankuba Touray laughing
saying  "Amphibious, be ready tomorrow, it is going to
be your turn with Captain Sonko and Lieutenant Gomez.
It was thinkable that government officials of their
position had nothing to do but come to the state
prison to physically carry out that maddening torture
against innocent detainees. If these monsters were to
lead the nation then it was apparent that the Gambian
people had a big trouble ahead of them.
Cham, Chongan and Jeng were never seen again until
January 27th when they were brought back for the final
preparations to bring in Sabally and Haidara.
I wish these men could tell you the terror they had
gone through during that period when they were placed
under solitary confinement. They later told us that
for 43 days they were not allowed to have any form of
bath. They wore the same clothes, no toilet articles,
no toothpaste or brush and worst of all the injuries
they suffered from the beatings were not treated. They
healed on their own. Captain Cham suffered the worse
injuries with bruises all over his knees not
mentioning the swollen parts of his entire body.
The whole thing may have been done to scare us, but
drunkards playing with guns loaded with real bullets
is like drunk driving at its worst. It was possible
for a round to accidentally hit someone and kill him.
Then the next thing you know, they would say since one
had died there was no reason to spare the rest. And
mark you, Lt. Kanteh's warning that Singhateh was on a
serious campaign to have us executed was still a
matter of concern.
As a result when they did not come the following day
as they had said, I tried a deceptive plan that
everyone later agreed helped the situation for the
better. For five days I acted as if I was so
frightened that I refused to eat and even lost my
mind. I used a towel to cover my face and head,
refusing to talk to people or look at anyone in the
face. In the mean time however, I had some biscuits
hidden in my pants munching them every night to help
ease the hunger. Also it was prison policy that if a
prisoner refused to eat his food for any reason the
meal had to be left there untouched until the
following morning. The pap was very helpful. I could
eat some of it at and dilute it with water without
anyone knowing.
Almost everyone was convinced that something was
seriously wrong with me out of fright except one
prison office P.O. Thomos Jarju. This guy saw the coup
as a Jola revolution that they must support by all
means. He would quote a similar pretence of sickness
once pulled on them by the late Alieu Sallah after the
1981 coup. Anyway he was the only one in doubt of my
actions.
By the second day, the police C.I.D. were sent to come
and take our statements for the review board.
Everybody's statement was taken except mine. When it
was my turn as the last person, P.O. Thomas Jarju
insisted that I must go. I was dragged out of my cell
to their main office. Gonel Bah was the head of the
team. They tried everything to make me write my
statement but I pretended as if I did not know what
the heck I was saying or doing.
By the fourth day everything was focused on me.
Sometimes things were funny but because of the towel I
had over my face they could not notice it when I had
to chuckle over some fun.
However at night when the doors were locked up, I
would write the minute events of the day on tissue
papers that are still with me. I was able to document
most of the things that happened during my ten months
of detention. And it was easy to smuggle the records
to a safe place outside. With few Dalasis the prison
officers could do anything for you.
On the fifth day, I decided to call off the acting. At
that time the freedom we used to enjoy before the
night of the terror was back again.
For those I thought needed to know, I later talked to
them in private explaining what happened. It was easy
to convince them that I was acting by telling them the
exact remarks they made or their actions at times when
they thought I could not understand anything.
The devils never came back.



__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Get personalized email addresses from Yahoo! Mail
http://personal.mail.yahoo.com/

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L
Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html
You may also send subscription requests to [log in to unmask]
if you have problems accessing the web interface and remember to write your full name and e-mail address.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------