Ms. Jagne, thank you for your efforts. Every effort to unmask the Devil we
have back home, counts. We also thank Hamjatta and Ebrima Ceesay. That was a
fantastic articulation of the issues. The British action in restoring
military cooperation with the renegade regime we have back home, is
indefensible. All the ambassador had to do, was to look at Peter Singhateh
and Jatta in order to see whether training soldiers from Sandhurst had a
positive effect on the innocent Gambians. I would have had more respect for
the ambassador had he come out and said that the purpose of this cooperation
is to ensure that next time there is turmoil in Sierra Leone, Gambian
(instead of British) soldiers will be sent to fight rebels. That is what
this is all about. The ambassador himself admitted that sending that
nonentity to Sandhurst was just the beginning of a more fruitful
relationship (for Yaya and Britain). So if we do not stop them, the next
time around, we would be reading in the press that Britain is sending tanks
and heavy weaponry to Gambia. That is why we commend your efforts and those
of other Gambians that registered their disgust with the British government.
It is the prerogative of the British government to ally themselves with a
child murderer, rapist, thief and coward of the caliber of Yaya. It is also
our duty to hold the British government accountable. They have to reconcile
this illogical move with their rhetoric about an ethical foreign policy. We
have to let the British tax-payers know that their government is sending
their tax pounds in order to support a Gaddafi ally that would not hesitate
to unleash brute force on his citizens. Again, we join you and reiterate
that there are numerous areas in which the British can give us assistance.
Beefing up Yaya's brute machine is NOT one of those areas. We do not have
far to look. What has Singhateh and Jatta done for us lately? I cannot think
of anything apart from the massacre of innocent and defenseless children in
broad daylight. So since the British cannot guarantee us that the soldiers
they train will turn our right, they should cease military cooperation that
has the only effect of further arming Yaya. The life of Gambian children is
too precious to be wasted on the farfetched theory the ambassador used in
order to justify the British action. What is there to show us that these
soldiers they are training would not turn out to be other Idi Amins?
KB

>From: Sigga jagne <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: The Gambia and related-issues mailing list
><[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: A copy of the letter I sent to the British officials' E-mail
>        addresses provided by Mr. Hamjatta Kanteh
>Date: Mon, 9 Oct 2000 16:41:29 -0700
>
>To Mr./MS.  ----
>Title:
>
>Dear Sir/Madam,
>
>My name is Sigga Jagne and I am a citizen of the tiny
>West African country, the Gambia.  I currently reside
>in the United States where I attend graduate school as
>well as work as an industrial hygienist.  I decided to
>write this letter after reading a publication in one
>of the Gambian newspapers about your country resuming
>military training assistance to the Gambian
>government.  I, like many Gambians the world over, was
>shocked by this decision on the part of your
>government.  Ordinarily, such an action would
>generally have been welcome by most Gambians.  But
>recent developments in our country has caused us,
>Gambian citizens and friends of the Gambia in general,
>to lament the action.  For it came in the wake of the
>slaughtering of innocent and armless Gambian children
>in broad daylight by the very instrument supposed to
>protect them - the Gambian military.  The only crime
>that these children had committed was to practice
>their right to peacefully demonstrate against the
>murder of one of their colleagues- a school boy - by
>fire service personnel; and the rape of a 13 year old
>school girl by security personnel.  After waiting in
>vain for justice to be done in the above named cases,
>and after listening to the familiar "never going to be
>fulfilled promises to ascertain that justice is done"
>by the president.  The students prepared to lunge a
>peaceful demonstration on April 10, 2000.  Military
>personnel were sent out to shoot them with live
>bullets which left about 12 students, including a 3
>year old boy, dead and a vast number maimed for life
>or seriously injured.  You see sir/madam, even before
>this event, the military and other security forces
>were constantly being used by the government as a tool
>of intimidation and often murder, in order to silence
>any voices that dare to speak against the rampant
>corruption and injustices that the government has
>become known for.  As such, a stage was set in the
>Gambia where the security forces and the government's
>APRC Youth Wing, backed by the president, has the
>authority to arbitrarily arrest, harass, beat,
>threaten, kill anyone that so much as utters a word
>against the president or the APRC government.  Civil
>servants and judges are fired for not supporting or
>for merely speaking a good word about the opposition.
>The opposition parties and the media are constantly
>arrested, beaten and threatened with death.  One of
>the major radio stations in the country, Radio One FM,
>which is well known for airing the Gambian people's
>increasing discontent, was burnt down by the APRC
>Youth Wing.  This came in the wake of a meeting held
>by the president and his supporters, in which he (the
>president) clearly asked his supporters to report any
>civil servants or judges who are opposed to his
>political party, so that they can be stripped of their
>positions.  At this meeting, the president responded
>to stories, from his militant youth group, of beatings
>and intimidation rendered to those opposed to him by
>laughing and applauding.  To top it off, the president
>threatened to put "six feet deep" anyone opposed to
>him describing such people with language that I do not
>dare reiterate in this letter.
>
>Sir/madam, the Gambian people generally live in fear
>of these forces and are constantly forced to look the
>other way in the face of rampant injustices, in the
>wake of constant beatings, arresting, and harassing of
>their fathers, mothers, sons, daughters etc.   Such is
>their fear that, even when one phones one's friends
>and family in the Gambia, many of them hang up the
>phone or change the conversation as soon as any
>mention of something adverse to the government is
>made.  FOR THE GAMBIAN SECURITY FORCES ARE RAGING A
>WAR AGAINST THE PEOPLE OF THE GAMBIA BY ORDER OF THE
>PRESIDENT.  It should therefore, sir/madam not be a
>strange matter that Gambians are outraged that your
>government, which is well known for its promotion of
>democratic values, seems to be legitimizing the
>actions of the Gambian president and his security
>forces, by helping in the training of these forces.
>Because to Gambians sir/madam, to better train the
>present army, only means to better equip them in their
>quest to terrorize Gambian citizens.  As I conclude
>this letter, I am obliged to point out that even
>today, some of the victims of the April 10 shootings
>are still suffering immensely without any
>repatriations from the government.  At present, there
>is a 17 year old boy lying in a Gambian hospital since
>April 10, paralyzed from the waist down.  The Gambia
>does not have the required facilities to render him
>the necessary medical treatment.  And attempts by
>people like myself to attain help for him outside of
>Gambia are being blocked by the authorities' refusal
>to release his medical reports.  We therefore hope
>that your government will, in the name of humanity,
>human rights and democracy, and in the name of those
>innocent children who were murdered or wounded by the
>said security forces, reconsider the assistance in
>training that is being rendered to the Gambian army by
>your government.  For such an action only legitimizes
>a government that is bent on destroying its people.  I
>am quite sure that the British government will not be
>limited in areas to assist our country in besides
>military training.  For in the wake of the havoc that
>our current government is wreaking on our economy, the
>Gambia more than ever needs help in numerous social
>and economic arenas.  Your government sir/madam, can
>start by making good on the recent promise of  Mr.
>John Perrot, the British High Commissioner to the
>Gambia, to assist in the coming presidential
>elections.  For only with international monitoring can
>there be a fair election in the Gambia.  I do thank
>you sir/madam.  And I hope that your government will
>continue to help the Gambia in its quest for true
>democracy.
>
>Respectfully yours,
>Ms. Sigga Jagne
>
>
>=====
>"NO ONE CAN MAKE YOU FEEL INFERIOR WITHOUT YOUR PERMISSION"
>
>                        ALSO
>
>"NOTHING IS UNACHIEVABLE, THE ONLY QUESTION IS, WHETHER ONE IS WILLING TO
>DO WHAT IT TAKES TO ACHIEVE WHAT IS DESIRED"
>
>__________________________________________________
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>
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