Date:       Mon, 24 Apr 2000    

From:       ebou colly <[log in to unmask]>
Subject:    SOLDIERS OF THE GAMBIAN ARMY

SOLDIERS OF THE GAMBIA ARMY 

Soldiers of the Gambia Army it is indeed a reassuring feeling to learn that 
there are some of you who have totally regretted the killing of the innocent 
children you were forced to shoot by Yaya. And most of you have also realized 
that the despot is making all efforts to shift the blame on you. Anyway after 
clearing his image, he would then as usual send few bulls with a couple of 
thousand Dalasis to each of your camps for you to feast on and praise him as the 
good leader. You will understand what I am exactly telling you. Anyway just 
remember that your hands have been soiled by children’s blood. 

It is however understandable that you were inadequately equipped, under 
prepared, misled and misinformed that sad day. In the first place you all know how 
Yaya has been systematically undermining the efficiency of the GNA through a 
deliberate conspiracy of robbing you of the right equipment, the right talents 
and the proper training. And those elite vampires, freeloaders, and patronage 
junkies lying all over to protect their perks and benefits have only made 
things look uglier. The bottom line up front was that you were sent out that day 
to control a riot situation which none of you were ever trained or prepared to 
handle in your military careers. In the first place Ak47 assault rifles should 
not have been issued for that civil disturbance operation at all, let alone 
arming the security forces with them. On the other hand I can understand why 
they were issued, because there are nothing in your armories to equip yourselves 
with for the assignment. That was the first step to the disaster that later 
unfolded in the operation. 

Lets be frank to each other, the GNA does not in anyway understand the proper 
method of riot-controlling, neither does it have the means to do so. If we 
are to reflect back to the only consignment of good riot –controlling gears that 
the GNA ever had, I could remember in 1998, there were only about 200 gas 
masks donated by Libya. But like the ten T-54 tanks and the ninety-two 35mm 
artillery pieces from Egypt, the APCS, plus all your other good equipment meant to 
improve your competence technically and tactically, Yaya simply took all of 
them from the camps and hid them at the State House. The typical Mobutu Style of 
securing himself at the expense of his nation. As ignorant as Yaya is about 
the dynamics of heavy weapons however, he does not know that after keeping 
those arsenals without firing or properly aligning them for even six months they 
permanently lose their technical configurations, hence rendering them useless. 
I may as well advise him to find a junkyard and dump those tanks and artillery 
pieces that have never worked and would never do again. 

However the issue here is about you the soldiers. Yaya is indirectly pointing 
his fingers to you as the child killers when he was the very one who 
manipulated you into the operations. And unfortunately, your leaders who should have 
guided you on the operational principles of using minimum force under such 
circumstances lacked the proper education to do so. It is no secret that some of 
you, the ordinary soldiers are far better educated than your Chief of Staff 
Baboucarr Jatta and Yaya Jammeh himself. Nonetheless, they were the leaders you 
had depended on to guide you and of course protect your actions if they turned 
unfavorable as in this regrettable case. But look at them now. Yaya in 
particular who gave the orders by referring to the school children as “the bastards 
who should be dealt with without mercy”, is now giving the impression to the 
world that if he had been in the country that day he would have prevented you, 
the murderers, from killing the kids. Certainly, out here, most of us very well 
understand that Yaya led you into this unprecedented act, quite unbecoming of 
good soldiers with the right leadership. For Yaya to disassociate himself 
from this massacre should be termed the betrayal of the millennium. In a war 
situation, leaders like him and Baboucarr Jatta are given hasty court martial 
hearings and shot like all traitors deserved. But by our judgement here, we have 
already found him guilty of two capital crimes. (1) He has ordered the murder 
of our finest sons and daughters who could have been our leaders tomorrow; plus 
(2) he has betrayed the security forces that acted exclusively on his orders 
in the slaughter. 

As a result, I urged you to act. This is the time to get rid of Yaya Jammeh 
by all the means you can apply. Of course, some of you have already registered 
your commitment to do it, which if successfully done, would be the most 
progressive and noble thing you would have done for the peace-loving Gambian people. 
Gambia does not deserve a person like Yaya. He has lied in your names, killed 
in your names, cheated and stole in your names, humiliated you and then in 
this latest incident, ordered the killing of our children, brothers and sisters. 
Yet it is apparent that dictators like him would foolishly refuse to accede 
to popular demand for them to step down and give chance to genuine democracy to 
the point of their own perils and to the extent of even destroying the whole 
country. Anyway before this retarded imbecile destroys the nation you the 
soldiers must take the initiative. The removal of Yaya from that seat would be the 
greatest service you could do for The Gambian people and mankind in general. 
Yaya’s killing instinct is a mental attitude. And The Gambia is a small 
family, peopled by decent men and women who for generations would not kill each 
other for any reason whatsoever. The more time you give to this evil character the 
greater risk the Gambian people stand to suffer in the future. Remember how 
it was done in 1994? If the senior ones are too timid to do it, let the junior 
officers do it. But you must conduct the operation with the genuine intention 
of calling the civilians to take over the political platform in the shortest 
possible time. Between us, we all know that Yaya is not a real soldier. He only 
pretends to be one when in actual fact he is the worst person in uniform who 
has ever existed in your midst. How many of you have honestly ever seen the 
fool firing a weapon, leading a tactical operation, conducting a land navigation 
exercise or going through a BFT? The guy is false in that uniform but has 
been hiding behind it with the worst abuses imaginable. So GNA soldiers must 
realize that the day of reckoning is quite close now, when Yaya and his cohorts 
would pay the price of their evil deeds. You must not allow the outside forces 
under mobilization now to come and do it for you. History would not forgive you 
for that in anyway.

 And most important of all, there are far too many outstanding intellectuals 
waiting to come and work for the Gambia after the removal of Yaya the moron. 
Some of the best and finest Gambian brains within or outside the country cannot 
be utilized because they are humans governed by conscience and integrity. 
Their positive characters and codes of conduct made them true persons who would 
rather die than succumb to the terrorist rule of a semi-educated tyrant. 
Helping the Gambian people lose Yaya therefore is a historical obligation you must 
fulfil. That would not only mean rescuing our nation at the brink of an 
imminent disaster but should also be the only acceptable gesture the GNA could make 
to restore its former prestigious image. It would be popular, blessed, 
respected and cherished throughout the world from Africa to Europe to Asia and the 
Americas. Without that, be rest assured that the members of the GNA should 
continue counting themselves as passengers in Yaya's aircraft to hell where he would 
be landing for killing our children. 

May god bless you all.
 Ebou Colly 

    

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