Joe Sambou wrote:

"Now that we have yet another live victim of the APRC, can you tell your
fellow Gambians your honest opinion regarding the torture syndicate that
operates in our country.?  You seem to know everything that the APRC does
and are good at trumpeting their causes. However, you always stay silent
when Gambians are killed, tortured, kidnapped, or harassed.  It seems to me
that all you care to discuss on this list are the projects that Yaya is
setting up.  Do you have any concerns for
the Human Being?  What is your take on the narrative of Alhaji Mbye?"

Joe, sorry for not commenting on Alhaji Mbye's case when you first mentioned
it earlier. My reasons are three. First of all, I do not generally like to
comment on specific cases where individuals are concerned. Secondly, I do
not like to comment on cases that are pending in the courts. And thirdly, I
have a very busy schedule these days.

Coming back to Alhaji Mbye's case, I wish to inform you that Alhaji is a
very fine young fellow whom I know personally and who has a lot of respect
for me. Until a couple of years ago he was an employee of Gamtel, first as
an accounts clerk and later as a secuirty guard. He is a very timid young
man who wouldn't hurt a fly. I know very little about his case and certainly
did not read the articles that allegedly brought him into confrontation with
the N.I.A. The little I know about his case is what I have read so far on
the L. Since you asked, I will repeat what I have said before and that is "I
abhor any form of violence, torture or any degrading treatment of people".
In other words if the naration I have read is true, I abhor and condemn it
in the strongets possible terms. I would however like to remind you of a few
portions of some posts that were on the L some months back.

1.(Baffour Ankommah, G-L archives, June 22,2001 - Contrasting the African
and Western media).

"That a newspaper (or the media) is a "weapon, a flaming sword" that one
must "know how to strike and when to strike". That, for the journalists
"behind" this "flaming sword" to "become deadly", they must know "how to
load [the weapon] and what to shoot at."

This is a very important lesson we never teach in Africa. So we come out of
school pumped full with ideas of this Western "free press", and so, we do
our best to reproduce it in Africa often with catastrophic results.

"Publish and be damned" then becomes a principle to die for. It makes us
feel good if we are seen to "uphold" press freedom by being hostile to our
governments. It makes you a "good journalist" whether what you write harms
national interest or not. In fact, many times we are not even conscious that
we are harming national interest".

2.(Ebou Kolley, G-L archives, April 22,2001 - Coupe in the Gambia – part1).

"Another critical factor often neglected but very important in command
stability but was and is still lacking in The Gambia's security institutions
is the personality and caliber of persons recruited and entrusted with the
defense of the nation. The westerners that introduced modern military
concepts in The Gambia built their own forces from men and women committed
to the fundamental course of defending their national sovereignty because of
the stake they have in the society. They are generally well cultured,
properly educated and tested to meet the set standards; they have
self-esteem and definitely understand that the country equally belong to
them in the very way it belongs to any president. None of these virtues
prevailed in the Field Force where the service men were literally social
outcasts in terms of origin, education, social status, family background and
self-esteem.. So instead of having fine warriors prepared to lay their lives
for the defense of their nation, we ended up grooming angry jealous armed
men full of hate and destructive tendencies ready to follow any deviant or
criminal into a path of national destruction".

3. (Kebba Dampha, G-L archives, 6 Nov 2001)

"if you just consider the behavior of certain people, you will end up
giving up on the Gambian people as a whole. So, I respectfully counsel
you to ignore people that treat their enemies as friends and their
friends as enemies. I have a learnt a long time ago NOT to pet a mad dog
with rabies simply because he is a dog.


I hope this gives you a better understanding of my stance concerning
Alhaji's and other peoples' cases.

Jabou Joh, you wrote:

"“i had promised to respond to /gassa's email but have been extremely busy
due to business related matters and Ramadan. however, i will get to it with
a brief reply becuause it is apparent that we are not dealing with
intelligent people here who are motivated by a sense of
wanting to  improve the lot of our people, but rather people who want power
just for the sake of it, and will maim and kill to maintain it, and for any
Gambian totell us to ignore that because of any so called material progress,
even if this progres was impressive, which it is not, is beyoind belief.
people who blindly support this regime must have a disdain for their
cmpatriots that i will never understand and that i hope never to
understand”.

Jabou, in May 1, 2001 I wrote:

“The objective of showing the good and the bad nature of this government is
to, at the end of the day, show that my choice of supporting the APRC
Government is neither due to ignorance nor intimidation. After that who
knows. May be those of you who are determined to get rid of Jammeh and his
government can convince the likes of me or those who are less determined
than me in the support of the regime to change allegiance. I might convince
some of you also. The debate is about our country and we must listen to each
other's opinions. After all is said and done each will be guided by his/her
conscience”. (Why I can still support the APRC despite…part4.)

Later in June, in an answer to Sanusi Owens about my opinion of the 1997
constitution, this is what I had to say:

"As to whether the 1997 constitution is the best for the country, I would
say, over all, yes. However there are several sections of it that are
outright dangerous and not to the best interest of our people. Amongst these
are decree 45, the indemnity clause and the absence of any term limitation
for the presidency. I hope to dwell on this more as I continue to justify
why I can still support the APRC Government despite... June 2, 2001".

Earlier in April when the constitutional amendmends were being discussed in
the National Assembly, this is what I had to say:

"One of the amendments deals with the right of individuals to be charged and
brought before a court of law within 72 hours of being arrested or be freed.
The new amendment to this particular legislation allows the incarceration of
any one for an indefinite period as long as that person has been charged
within 72 hours. Unfortunately, this piece of legislation was rubber stamped
by our NAMS as usual. This is indeed very sad".

Jabou, I have absolutely no reason why I should lie about anything
concerning our country. Fact of the matter is that our priorities and
circumstances are not the same.

Momodou Olley Mboge:

I am sure you will find all the answers you want about my attitude to the
government and country from my answers to Joe and Jabou. By the same token,
can you confirm whether you really mean that government's projects such as
the construction of schools, hospitals, skill centres, roads, fisheries
plants, bridges, rural wells, boreholes, watering holes etc, etc are all
silly projects? I await your response.

Have a good day, Gassa.




_________________________________________________________________
Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp

<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>

To view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface
at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html
To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to:
[log in to unmask]

<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>