I hope that all opposition parties in the Gambia will
seize this opportunity and write not only to the
British High Commissioner in the Gambia, but also to
key officials in the British Government such as Mr.
Robin Cook and Mr. Tony Blair.  Their letters should
include highlights of the reasons why they fear that
the ruling party, APRC, will unfairly manipulate the
elections to their benefit if the International Body
is not called in for monitoring purposes.  They should
mention all instances of intimidation, bribery, etc
carried out by the APRC.  People, we should not let
this opportunity pass us by.  Here we have the
British, extending an offer that we have always known
is necessary in order to ensure fair elections in the
Gambia.  We thus need to accept the offer and even go
a step further to try to get the British to convince
other members of the European Union to also get
involved.  I AGAIN CALL UPON ALL THE OPPOSITION
PARTIES.  START WRITING THOSE LETTERS NOW!

FOR THE WOLLOF SAY THAT, "KU YALLAH TAHCHUL, FEYCHOH!
DOHTOOH FEYCHATIH!"




--- "Jeng, Beran" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> 'Britain Will Respond Positively to Gambia's
> Electoral Requests'
>
>
>
> The Independent (Banjul)
>
> October 6, 2000
>
> Banjul
>
> John Perrott the British High Commissioner to The
> Gambia has promised that
> Britain will respond positively to any request from
> the government or individual
> political parties to assist in the election process
> next year.
>
> High Commissioner Perrott said during an interview
> with The Independent Friday,
> that his country is ready 'to play a role' in the
> elections if a section of The
> Gambia's political spectrum makes a request to the
> British government to that
> effect. Mr. Perrott emphasised that any
> collaborative effort by his country
> should not be interpreted as support for any party
> or general policy, taking
> part in the elections. He clarified that support
> from the British government
> should be seen in the context of ensuring that the
> rule of law, constitutional
> provisions and democratic processes are observed in
> the conduct of the
> elections. 'It is normal for multi-lateral agencies
> such as the UN or the EU to
> support election processes in countries like The
> Gambia and our future
> contribution would be in this tradition', he
> explained.
>
> On the scheduled dates for the elections, Mr.
> Perrott held that it is more
> important to ensure that the election processes are
> conducted 'in a free and
> fair fashion than the actual issue of timing'. He
> said the British government
> would concern itself with the need for democratic
> debate about the election
> scheduled. ' Since The Gambia Government has
> committed itself to holding
> elections, which is as good as ensuring that
> elections take place' he argued.
>
> Mr. Perrott said the High Commission is receptive to
> the initiative of
> introducing international observes in The Gambia to
> witness the elections,
> although he warned that there may be 'huge'
> resource-implications in despatching
> international observers to every polling booth in
> the country with a view to
> monitoring and reporting the progress of the
> elections.
>
> Mr. Perrott who referred to The Gambia as a
> 'developing democracy' said it is
> important that The Gambia 'satisfactorily' subject
> itself to what he called the
> 'test' of democracy, rule of law with a view to
> avoiding circumstances when one
> party would entertain distrust in the election
> process.
>
> Mr. Perrott also said that the 'health' of our
> democracy remains arguable since
> according to him democracy cannot be defined in
> absolute terms. 'One has to
> accept that what is regarded as the norm and what is
> in proper observance of the
> democratic principle in one country may not be right
> in another country' he
> posited. However, he declared that 'what we look for
> in The Gambia is the things
> that we use to monitor democracy to gauge whether
> things are good or not and
> they are freedom of speech, rule of law, access to
> the media and observance of
> all constitutional provisions'. According to High
> Commissioner Perrott what
> interests the British government now is whether the
> situation in The Gambia is
> getting better, stable or worse.
>
> He said he was puzzled by sentiments opposed to the
> resumption of British
> military aid to The Gambia. Mr. Perrott argued
> though that all sectors in which
> The Gambia Government was working were 'worthy of
> our support'.
>
> 'We are very pleased to send a Gambian officer cadet
> to Sandhurst, which I think
> is what people were talking about. If such
> criticisms should come six years
> after the coup, then I would say to those people
> that a course at Sandhurst
> involves training soldiers to be leaders, better
> soldiers and exponents of human
> rights,' Mr. Perrott argued.
>
> On the fate of UK's aid package to The Gambia should
> the APRC government fail to
> meet with the Commonwealth Harare principle, Mr.
> Perrott said the British
> government in the 'spirit' of the Commonwealth
> strongly calls for the quashing
> of decrees proscribing political parties and
> hindering the workings of the
> Gambian media. He revealed that the British
> government has joined the
> Commonwealth in its concern and stance on the
> question of human rights in The
> Gambia.
>
> Mr. Perrott also described as 'regrettable' the
> harassment and intimidation
> meted out to Gambian journalists. He said his office
> would continue to deplore
> harassment on journalist who he said are
> contributing vibrantly to the
> development of The Gambia as a fledgling democracy.
> He believed that Gambian
> journalists are giving a good account of themselves
> as far as investigative
> journalism is concerned.
>
> He pointed out that despite their tribulation,
> Gambian journalists are fearless
> in publishing reports, which reflect adversely on
> government and other sectors
> of the society.
>
> The High Commissioner said that any legislation for
> a National Media Council
> (NMC) should be seen as being in line with
> democratic principles and allow for
> freedom of expression. Any bill passed into law
> would be rightly criticised if
> it contained restrictive clauses contrary to such
> principles and freedoms he
> added.
>
> On the Commission and Coroner's findings, regarding
> the April 10 and 11 student
> unrest, the High Commission said he hoped the
> president would decide that 'it is
> right and proper' to publish the findings. Mr.
>
> Perrott who expressed disappointment that the
> reports have not been published,
> said the British government would appeal for
> openness, transparency and
> promptness in the handling of the investigations.
> The High Commissioner said he
> wouldn't seek to pre-judge the outcome of the
> findings by declaring his office's
> stance on the issue, but preferred instead to adopt
> a 'wait and see policy'
> before the findings are made public.
>
> On the DFID development support, which resumed in
> 1998, Mr. Perrott outlined the
> area of governance and poverty reduction as the
> focus of British development aid
> to The Gambia. He said this programme aims to assist
> The Gambia Government in
> efforts to improve governance, promote human rights
> and facilitate social
> inclusion and economic well being of Gambians. Under
> the DFID, the British
> government allocates millions of pounds for an
> average of three years to support
> various projects in The Gambia, ranging from
> education management projects,
> records management, mainstreaming poverty and gender
> and community based-
> organisation capacity building projects among
> others.
>
> The British High Commissioner also unequivocally
> declared support for
> organisations like the WHO in advocating for the
> elimination of Female Genital
> Mutilation. He said the British government is
> helping countries where the
> practice prevails to put into action plans and
> legislation that would see to the
> eradication of FGM. He observed that although The
> Gambia Government recognises
> its harmful effects FGM had not been prohibited.
> According
=== message truncated ===


=====
"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"

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Photos - 35mm Quality Prints, Now Get 15 Free!
http://photos.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.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------