I took the liberty of culling the following piece from the Observer
Newspaper. The British ought to be ashamed of themselves for resuming
military cooperation with the callous government we have back home and
helping Yaya sharpen his instrument of oppression. What has changed in the
past seven years to warrant this insensitivity from the British government?
Things have gone from bad to worse. Five months ago Yaya's armed forces
massacred innocent Gambian children in broad daylight The British are in
effect arming Yaya to massacre more children and defenseless Gambians. What
has Peter Singhateh and Baboucarr Jatta contributed to the Gambian society,
with their Sandhurst training? I would not be surprised if this Mendy chap
also come back as an alcoholic murderer. If the British Embassy in Gambia
wants to keep itself busy and in the limelight giving out press conferences,
they should be engineering aid that is more meaningful to the Gambian poor.
Use the money that is going to be used to send this potential murderer to
Britain and give some poor kid a British Council scholarship to go to some
university to study engineering or medicine. We urge the Gambian community
in Britain to lobby the British government and convince them to stop arming
Yaya. They are helping to perpetuate a despot that is worst than Foday
Sankoh. If the British do not want their soldiers to take up another
expedition in The Gambia, they should desist from this shameful exercise of
arming murderers. The instrument Yaya uses to brutalize defenseless
Gambians, i.e. his army, should not be beefed up by any decent government.
Britain should not sit at a table where Yaya sits with the likes of Gadaffi
and Charles Taylor. What is all this focus on the regional peace-keeping
activities? We have ordinary Gambians being brutalized by our own armed
forces every single day and all these diplomats talk about is keeping the
peace in the sub-region. Our army has a more urgent job back home. They need
to get rid of the tyranny being visited on the defenseless Gambians daily. I
respectfully urge our compatriots in Britain to mount a more appropriate
response to this latest monstrosity.
KB
___________________________________________________________________

After 7 years UK RESUMES MILITARY COOPERATION

The British government has resumed its military cooperation with The Gambia,
seven years after it was frozen. The British High Commission, Saturday,
September 9, held a press briefing on the resumption of the military
cooperation, a few hours before cadet officer, Sainey Mendy, of the Gambia
National Army left for UK to participate in the Sandhurst Commissioning
Course, September 2000 to June 2001.
Speaking at the press briefing, British high commissioner, John Perrott,
recalled that the last Gambian cadets who attended the Sandhurst commission
course were Chief of Staff Baboucarr Jatta and Major Peter Singhatey in
1993. Mr Perrott said two more cadets could be sent to Sandhurst by next
September. "Sandhurst is not the only area in which we are trying to help.
I have been working closely with Chief of Staff Jatta and Army Commander
Badjie to arrange good Gambian participation in a regional peacekeeping in a
Regional Map Exercise on regional peacekeeping in Nigeria next month jointly
sponsored by the United Kingdom and France.
The prospects look good. I can assure you that we will continue to assist
you whenever possible in regional and international peacekeeping, both
publicly and behind the scenes," High Commissioner Perrott added. Armed
Forces Chief of Staff, Colonel Baboucarr Jatta, thanked the British
government for the support they have been giving to The Gambia, especially
the army. He also urged Lt Mendy to maintain a good conduct through his
course.
In response, Lt Mendy expressed gratitude and assured both the British and
Gambian governments that he would live up to expectation. The ceremony,
which was attended by serving and retired military officials, was chaired by
the deputy British high commissioner, Bharat Joshi.
Observer



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