All,
I attended the Advocacy Network for Africa (ADNA's) Monthly meeting last
Tuesday in Wash DC. As usual, the meeting was well-attended by Reps of
numerous organizations.
The meeting opened with Saleh Booker (from Africa Policy Info Centre/Africa
Fund,) giving us an update/evaluation of Prez Clinton's Nigeria visit. Mr.
Booker highlighted the misplacement of priorities/"controversial topic
avoidance" of Clinton on the trip. He lamented the fact that the Clinton
team was more interested in jacking up oil production than they were with
addressing civil rights issues that abound in Nigeria. He pointed out that
Clinton didn't meet with any civil rights leaders to hear from them
first-hand. But generally, he feels that the very fact that the trip took
place has helped spotlight Nigeria and their role in our region.
Mr. Leon Spencer of the World Org for AIDS then gave the meeting a report on
what they're doing to disseminate info (in Africa) regarding HIV/AIDS.
Mrs. Kathy McNeely from the Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns, updated
the gathering on the situation in Kenya regarding the murder of a civil
rights clergyman. It's generally believed in Kenya that the man was killed
by Prez Moi's thugs. Apparently Moi and his people are playing the same
slimy cat and mouse games that Yaya's people are playing with us. Mrs.
McNeely spoke of their frustration in identifying even where Moi would be
staying. "The embassy," she said "is not being helpful at all." (Not to
demean this fight, but I found it ironical that the death of one man in
Kenya is getting more attention than the cold-blooded murder of 17/18 school
children in the Gambia. I pointed this fact out to several people after the
meeting broke.)
Ms. Rory Anderson from World Vision, who is a major crusader against Western
diamond merchants who deal with the Foday Sonkos and Jonas Savimbis gave us
an update on "Conflict Diamonds." Apparently, she's been having problems in
getting strong language on the issue incorporated in legislation pending in
Congress. The lady believes that Ways and Means Chairman Bill Archer of TX,
is the main stumbling block. She urged all of us to call, email, or fax our
concerns.
Then came with Ezekial Pajibo, a Liberian who has been the coordinator of
the meeting since it's inception. Mr. Pajibo runs the Africa Faith and
Justice Network in DC. Pajibo gave the meeting an update on the situation in
Liberia regarding the four journalists Taylor locked up for a while down
there recently.
I seized the opportunity to highlight the Gambian situation. For
documentation, I had compiled and edited the verbatim texts of Yaya Jammeh's
speech to his vigilante group (the "100 feet deep" speech) as posted by Mr.
Hamadi Banna. (My thanks to you Hamadi. It made life a lot easier for me.) I
also had copies of the stories on the fires at both Radio One FM and Mr. Bah
(the DJ's) house. And I also included George Christensen's interview about
the incident.
My choice for these materials is simple: Yaya Jammeh describes himself
better than any of us can. In fact, I believe the man is his own worst
enemy. What he said in that speech says everything about him. Why bother to
describe him any further?
I pointed out that it's ok to laugh at some of the things he said, because
they're funny, but one shouldn't lose sight of the fact that 1.3 million
people are living under the whims of this person. Because I have a tendency
to try and squeeze a million topics in one, I was asked to cut it short due
to time. But the point is, all the various organizations now have a hard
copy (verbatim) of what Yaya Jammeh told his henchmen on Gambian public
media. And I did point out that the attack on Radio One took place soon
after that demagogic speech.
Mr. Ray Almeida from Bread For the World then gave us a report on how his
org -with the help of First Lady Hillary Clinton has been able to involve
Fortune 500 corps to invest in agricultural ventures in several countries in
Africa in a view to conquer hunger.
Ms. Alka Kothari from Refugee International, narrated a colleague's report
on a trip to Eritrea. Apparently, there has been serious cases of violence
(rape, beatings, etc) visited on Eritrean women by Ethiopian forces. This
has resulted in many HIV positive cases.
Then Uganda's Jubilee 2000 Chairperson, Ms. Charlotte Bagorogoza gave us a
brief overview of her efforts in the US to secure support for debt relief
for Uganda. Myself and two other attendees highlighted the hypocrisy of the
Museveni govt., in crying for debt relief while spending millions to kill
our brothers in the DRC. To the lady's credit, she didn't try to defend the
govt. (Apparently, she doesn't even work for them.)
She agreed entirely with our views, and pointed out that she did raise that
issue with the prez personally, and was assured that Uganda was in no way
overspending it's military budget. However, the lady said something pretty
revealing: "if you really study this issue, you may find that some super
power is footing the bill." I noted that, that would be even more sick than
killing people for diamonds, because Uganda (in that case,) is been used by
outsiders to kill their own brothers in the DRC! The Chairman intervened for
time constraints. We moved on.
Mr. Phyllis Cuttino from the Campaign for a Better World then gave us a
brief report on what her movt has been doing through the UN. It should be
noted that this org is being sponsored by the media mogul Ted Turner, who
has donated a billion $$ to the UN mainly for health and peace-keeping
purposes. They're interested in Sierra Leone and the Balkans.
Finally Mr. Scott Long from the Intl Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission
gave the meeting a report on his trip to East and Southern Africa (S.
Africa, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Namibia, Kenya,) on a fact-finding mission.
Apparently, homophobia is very common around the region.
When the meeting broke, I sought and conferred with Saleh Booker from
APIC/Africa Fund. Mr. Booker might be somewhat familiar to anyone who
watches "Nightline" w/Ted Koppel (when African issues are up for
discussion.) Or CSPAN. (He moderated the Press Briefing on the Clinton Trip
to Nigeria that was on CSPAN a few days before the prez left.) I have much
respect and admiration for the gentleman, and I conveyed that sentiment. In
my book, he's in an exclusive club with the likes of Randall Robinson. He
doesn't just understand African issues as narrated by "drive-by" reporters,
he understands the underlying-cum-causative agents/factors. He lamented the
lack of understanding of African issues by the US press (generally
speaking,) that he believes is a major hindrance to sensitizing the American
public. To drive home his point, he mentioned that he was contacted by a
Wash Post reporter for comment on the Burundi issue relating to Clinton's
stop there (I didn't read the story which ran last week.) The reporter
quoted him in his piece, but wrote a cynical remark that totally threw what
he (Saleh) had said out of context. "It's that type of hassle I have to deal
with all the time" he told me.
But, I was very pleasantly surprised that he knew who Yaya Jammeh is. I told
him about the PR campaign (by the APRC govt) going on, and the very
misleading report by the three Black Congressmen. It turns out, he's met all
of them, but more importantly, he's very comfortable with the Congressional
Black Causus leadership. At this point, we were interrupted by several
people trying to discuss various issues with the gentleman. I promised to
put something comprehensive together for him regarding the law firm
misrepresenting Americans on Yaya Jammeh, and something that he can help us
get to the entire Black congressioanl delegation.
The caveat here is, while anyone with a fax machine can send their
comments/protests to a member of Congress, there is no guarantee that the
member of Congress himself or herself will receive and read the contents.
But if one has a high profile personality on one's side, that often counts
for something. So, I'm in the process of setting something up with Mr.
Booker's office, so I can drop by sometime next week to get him to
personally drive home some points. We can only keep our fingers crossed.
Also, because one has to be representing a org to be on the agenda of the
ADNA, I've decided to register an email account under the name "Free Gambia
Movt" (unless if someone has a better idea. That way, we'll have our entire
5 - 10 minutes of un-interrupted presentation next month.
That's all for now. My big Thanks to the New Yorkers for all their efforts,
Good day.
Saul.
_________________________________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com.
Share information about yourself, create your own public profile at
http://profiles.msn.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
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
