Please add my name to this noble cause.  The struggle continues.  The
dictator must go.

Naphiyo,

Muhammad Lamine Jassey-Conteh


> [Original Message]
> From: Ebrima Ceesay <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Date: 11/19/00 10:24:22 PM
> Subject: Re: Dumo Saho Petition
>
> Kabirr:
>
> Please, do add my name to the Dumo Saho latest petition. By the way, I was
> going through "The Black World Today" Web Page, and came across this
> article, by chance. Dumo Saho's name is mentioned in it. Anyway, I am
> forwarding it for your perusal.
>
> Brother Tijan Jobarteh: I hope the Journalist (Charisse Waugh) who wrote
the
> story below, did not misquote you. Well, I know you are more than
> capable/competent to clarify issues if need be. Cheers!
>
> Ebrima Ceesay
> Birmingham, UK.
>
> ________________________________________________________________________
>
>
>
>
> Crackdowns in The Gambia
>
>
> By Charisse L. Waugh
>
>
> At the conclusion of President Clinton's trip to Africa last month, he
> conferred with Hosni Mubarak, President of Egypt, about issues concerning
> the Northern African region.  It was a familiar photo op:  An American
> President and his Egyptian counterpart in grave conversation.  Nothing
about
> Clinton's activities in Africa was unfamiliar though, at least not to
anyone
> who has read a newspaper, watched a nightly newscast or a public
television
> documentary here in the last few years.
>
> Sierra Leone, Nigeria, and Burundi, the main subjects of those programs,
> were also the focus of Clinton's diplomatic exercise on the world's second
> largest continent.  There are other African countries, however, which have
> escaped the radar of the western press.  But they too are experiencing a
> reversal of their human rights, social and economic fortunes.
>
> The Gambia is one such country.  So tenuous is the human rights situation
> there, that as Clinton and his entourage were traveling to Africa, a
senior
> producer at The Gambia's state run television station was heading to the
> U.S. seeking refuge from possible arrest by the Gambia's National
> Intelligence Agency.
>
> Tijan Jobarteh, a U.S. educated journalist who has served as the senior
> producer at Gambia Television Services for the past six years was
attending
> a communications conference in South Africa when he received word that a
> colleague with whom he had founded a community center in the Gambia had
been
> arrested with seven others and charged with treason.  It was the latest
in a
> number of events which last month prompted Representative John Lewis of
> Georgia to prepare a written condemnation of the country's increasingly
> brutal and authoritarian government.
>
> Last April, 13 high school students were shot dead by the police while
> participating in a peaceful demonstration against the death of a
13-year-old
> boy who died in March while in the custody of fire officers.  According to
> Gambian press reports, the official autopsy showed that the boy had
> apparently been beaten to death.  Also prompting the student protests was
> the rape in early February of a young girl allegedly by uniformed officers
> at a sporting event in front of witnesses.  No arrests have been made.
>
> Crackdowns on the press have become arbitrary and frequent.  Last month a
> popular radio station was firebombed, and its proprietor injured.  No one
> has claimed responsibility for that assault, but it came a few days after
> President Yah Yah Jammeh, in a speech to youth, threatened the state radio
> for its broadcasts.
>
> "I don't want to be associated with the government anymore," says
Jobarteh.
> "The security forces have been given carte blanche to do what they want.
> The President is creating another ton-ton macoute," claims the 40 year old
> journalist in reference to the Gambia's National Intelligence Agency's
> resemblance to the notorious security forces who showered death over the
> country of Haiti during the Duvalier regime.
>
> Until now, The Gambia has enjoyed reasonably positive press in the U.S.
Its
> most controversial coverage being the question of whether Alex Haley's
> "Roots" in which Haley claimed Gambian ancestry was authentic or not.
>
> Last June, an op-ed article appeared in the Journal of Commerce praising
the
> Gambia's 35-year-old President for "representing hope for a brighter
future
> and an end to the social ethnic and religious scourges that have kept
> problem-ridden African off the global agenda."  The editorial was
> subsequently entered into the congressional record by three
African-American
> congressmen who visited The Gambia in 1999.  Representative Bennie
Thompson
> of Mississippi was part of that entourage along with Representative James
> Clyburn of South Carolina and Earl Hilliard, a congressman from Alabama.
> Thompson says he did not see anything amiss during his trip.  "At that
time
> the situation had not de-stabilized," said Thompson after learning of the
> country's current troubles.  "We try not to get involved in the political
> situation of a country anyway.  We try to go in and change the quality of
> life of individuals through the use of foreign aid."  Thompson explained
> that every member of the Congressional Black Caucus has a piece of the
> "motherland" that they try to help by lobbying for aid here in the U.S.
"We
> have done this for Sierra Leone, and other countries whose governments we
> don't agree with.  Our history is very consistent with this."
>
> Jobarteh attended college in the U.S.  He earned his Bachelor’s and
Master’s
> in Media Studies from the New School University in New York.
>
> After completing his studies in 1994, he returned to his native Gambia.
"I
> was thinking I could contribute something positive," he says.
>
> A few months before his arrival, Jammeh, then a 29-year-old army officer,
> had seized control of the government in a coup that upheld Gambia's
> reputation for peace.  He ousted Dada Diawara the only President to serve
> since the close of British rule over 30 years ago.
>
> By 1995, Jobarteh was made a principle producer at the state run
television.
>   He immediately began trying to influence its programming, and changing
the
> format from mainly soccer games and local soap operas to more substantial
> fare.  For example, he aired a documentary on the Million Man March held
in
> Washington, D.C. in 1995.  He says: "People loved it.  They were calling
the
> station."
>
> Buoyed by the enthusiastic response, Jobarteh began scheduling documentary
> programming every Monday night during prime time.  He showed films and
> videos he had acquired from friends in New York City such as a documentary
> about Malcolm X by the African-American filmmaker St. Claire Bourne.
> Subsequent documentary subjects were Kwame Nkrumah, Frantz Fanon and other
> political and historical figures.  "I was trying to find material relevant
> to the history of Gambia and West Africa.  I knew it was successful,
because
> people expressed their opinions in newspapers and to the station itself."
>
> In December of 1996 Jobarteh was suspended indefinitely.  He believes it
was
> his programming decisions that left him vulnerable.  "They couldn't pin me
> on that though, because what I was showing mirrored their rhetoric," he
says
> referring to the two-year-old government and its youthful President who
> often praised the virtues of socialism and pan-African values.  "They
knew I
> was political, but I was professional."
>
> The official reason given by the government for the suspension, according
to
> Jobarteh, was because he refused to interrupt scheduled programming to
send
> a crew to film government officials as they were breaking ground for a new
> Insurance Institution.
>
> The country was about to elect a new President and political campaigning
was
> heavy.  Jobarteh who was in charge of coordinating all of the political
> broadcasts, says he didn't think it was fair to the other candidates to
make
> special arrangements for the government.  There were more than 20
different
> parties vying for the presidency and other offices just two years after
the
> coup.
>
> "Fundamentally, I believed we had a new democracy.  My guiding principle
was
> to give equal time to everybody.  I thought the people could decide for
> themselves."
>
> "I had been out of the country for 10 years.  How could I come home and
take
> a stand.  All the parties were new anyway."
>
> Jobarteh was eventually reinstated to his position.
>
> He was attending a conference in South Africa on children's educational
> television programming when he received an email about his colleague's,
> Momodou Dumo Sarho, abduction by the National Intelligence Agency.  He and
> Sarho were the main coordinators of a community center they had founded a
> few years ago for poor youths.  The center provided educational and
> recreational services, and recruited the country's professional class to
> volunteer as teachers and mentors.  About 60% of the youths who
participated
> were girls.  "Education for girls is very important in the Gambia," says
> Jobarteh.  "Traditionally this is the group that has been left out."
>
> Jobarteh is extremely concerned about the well being of Sarho.  "No one
has
> seen him since his arrest.  Not his lawyer or his wife.  We don't even
know
> if he is alive," Jobarteh says of the 45-year-old community activist.
>
> "Here is a man who dedicated his whole life to working for his people and
> this is what he gets.  This is very scary."
>
> Instead of returning to the Gambia from the conference in South Africa,
> Jobarteh took the advice of his family and friends who told him that he
> should "lay low."  He traveled to Sweden and then made his way to New
Jersey
> where he is temporarily living with relatives.
>
> While he is here Jobarteh plans on pursuing his Ph.D., but he intends to
> return home soon.  "I'm not fearful of my own life," he says.  "I'm
fearful
> about what is happening to my country, and what it is becoming."
>
> © 2000  The Black World Today. All Rights Reserved.
>
> _________________________________________________________________________
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