Gambia-L,
The killing of defenseless students is savage, cowardly and a
manifestation of absolute dictatorship and paranoia. Like most people I
am speechless as the cold sweat runs down my spine.
I am sure that this day will not only go down in Gambian history, it
surely marks a new era. Oppression will indeed always be met with
resistance. Ten years ago, I had friends from Indonesia at Karlsruhe
University in Germany. To talk about anything political in those circles
resulted to isolation, for the students were so scared to even think
politically in those days, not to talk of talking or acting politically.
No one could imagine that those students would contribute as they did,
to changes in Indonesia. Yet, when the right moment came, those scared
students displayed bravery hardly seem before in that country's history
and yes, they made history.
I am not sure whether the riots which led to the shooting are closely
related to the death of Ebrima Barry and the rape of a schoolgirl by
some officer in uniform, for which the students have been seeking
justice. I have, however, been following developments on these issues.
From the information I have gathered so far, the students have been
responsible in their actions. The executive of the Gambia Students'
Union (GAMSU) organised a press conference on Friday, 24 March to
explain their position. They talked about the incident which took place
at the Brikama Fire Station, when missiles were exchanged between Fire
Service Officers and Students demonstrating for justice for Ebrima Barry
and the raped school girl. They answered questions asked by journalists.
The Information Minister of GAMSU even wrote an article in some
newspapers further clarifying their position. According to this letter,
they interviewed several people including the teacher who reported the
matter to the Fire Service, Ebrima barry's class teacher and his
father.
When I read about the efforts of the Students I felt that they were
indeed trying to get at facts. They seemed to have been acting in a
mature manner while at the same time demanding for justice. I admired
their courage and their apparent skillful approach to crisis resolution.
I felt that this was a healthy beginning for students' participation in
the democratic process.
As I am writing these words, it appears that getting through to The
Gambia by phone is very difficult, so of course I do not have all the
facts, but I am sure we will all agree that no matter what happened and
what caused it, shooting unarmed students and demonstrators asking for
justice deserves no less than outright condemnation. I have heard
unconfirmed reports of crowd related violence, but even if that should
be true it does not justify shooting with intent to kill. Why are the
perpetrators of these criminal acts not brought to justice in the first
place? Why has the Government not intervened to enhance dialogue between
the students and the officers of the Brikama Fire Service? Could this
not have been prevented by timely intervention and administration of
justice? And just why on earth did the riot police or whoever did the
shooting not use tear gas, water cannons or similar equipment to
disperse the crowd as a last resort?
As we are waiting for more news, our hearts filled with grief while we
try to grapple with this unfortunate tragedy, we should prepare for
common action. These children of The Gambia cannot just die in cold
blood while we standby and watch. The idea of a petition, as proposed by
Dr. Saine is certainly worth pursuing. We should think about the
addressees of the petition and its message. I believe, it will be good
for us to get as holistic a picture as possible, discuss the content and
message of the petition briefly. One way of getting signatures together
is to specify one address where anyone willing to sign the petition can
send a mail with the subject "petition signatory". We should also think
of other avenues through which we can contribute from the distance. For
instance, we can collect some money to pay for legal bills, should one
of the victim's relatives etc. decide to take the matter to the courts.
The law enforcers and those entrusted with the running of the countries
affairs should remember that no repression machinery has succeeded in
keeping a people oppressed for ever. If the sophisticated instruments of
repression which were available to South Africa under Apartheid, the
German Democratic republic under Honecker and so on had to give way to
the will of the people, only a person in deep slumber will believe that
The Gambia with one thousand or so military men and women can deny the
will of the people by way of force. And let all perpetrators of
injustice know that there is no hiding place for killers and dictators.
I hope we can look back to this day in future and say "they did not die
in vain".
Alpha Robinson
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L
Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
