Gambia-L,

I am forwarding these extracts from an e-mail I received from one of my
sources.

Ebrima Ceesay

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Ebrima,

I do not know whether you are aware, but your Internet List (Gambia-L)
is very popular in the Gambia nowadays. In fact, some of the articles on
Gambia L are so good that they are now being photocopied and distributed in
town.

So I wouldn't be surprised if the Government tries to enact a new law to ban
the distribution of Gambia L postings in Gambia. I mean it!

I cautioned you in earlier e-mail not to bite the bait thrown by Tombong.
Well, some on Gambia L did and I swear I could hear some one burp. Amadu
Kabir Njie is one of the few who read the fine print.  His "Good over Evil"
was a master piece.

Anyway, the Imams were invited yesterday to State House to WACHE KAMIR or to
recite the Holy Quran. I did not see Imam Muntagga Fye in attendance and was
told that he had declined the invitation. But I couldn't confirm this
information from Imam Muntagga himself.

I'll try to find out from him why he was absent if possible. Also, a roll
will be compiled of all those Imams who participated and I'll send it to you
later this afternoon.

Meanwhile, just keep the pressure so that the students who are detained will
be released. They are still languishing in detention without charge and yet
they are not released.

By the way, President Jammeh is trying to shift the blame to Ousman Badjie
and Isatou Njie-Saidy in order to divert attention, but he doesn't know that
Gambians are far smarter than him. Anyway, don't be surprised if he
sacrifices Ousman Badjie and Isatou Njie-Saidy by sacking them so that he
can get the public siding with him.

However, the fact of the matter is that it was the President, I am quite
sure about that, who ordered the shootings: in reality the two officials
only executed orders from the boss.

Even after Isatou Njie-Saidy told an emergency Cabinet Meeting that the
President had asked her to order the security forces to "open fire on the
students", both Ousman Badjie and Army Chief of Staff Jatta had to cross
check what Isatou said, with President Jammeh in Cuba to make sure that the
orders indeed came from him.

So who is President Jammeh fooling? In fact, the Army Chief of Staff Jatta
personally was reluctant to go ahead with the idea of shooting the kids, but
it was President Jammeh who insisted that they should shoot before more
properties were damaged.

To him, his "APRC projects", including his pet, Gambia TV, were more
important than the lives of the students. Once he learnt that the TV was
being attacked or targetted by the students, he (Jammeh) then authorised the
shootings.

For your information, the president is leaving Banjul today for Kanilai.
Banjul is too hot for him; and he is surely missing Kanilai.

Tombong said only 12 people were killed and I told you 14 were killed which
he denied. Now, the statement issued by Hamat Bah and Lawyer Darboe said
over 15 dead. It would be interesting therefore to know what Tombong would
say to the oposition figure for the dead.

Also, the appointment of Ousman Jammeh as Coroner is not a popular one here.
Ousman is a man of integrity, but he is a from the Bench. What people want
is an independent person, preferably from overseas; not someone from the
Bench whose arms can be twisted.

I'll stop here, but expect my next update soon.

Signed: "An honest Permanent Secretary".

______________________________________________________
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