In a message dated 7/15/2001 3:52:55 PM Central Daylight Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:


> "That is what we should be
> focusing our attention on Mr. Chongan and not on
> meaningless remarks made by meaningless creatures from
> meaningless streets of Half-Die, Soldier-Town,
>

ebou colley. I have said here numerous times that you are to be commended for
coming forward to relay the information you have on the atorcities committed
by this regime, and that this is one of the authentic sources of evidence
that the Gambian people have against this regime.

I and many others on this forum recognize that to get information such as you
are furnishing requires someone who was in the know such as yourself, and i
hope others follow suit in this endeavour. To me, this is an indication of
courage as I have said before, but it also indicates to me that you love and
care for the Gambian people as a whole, not just some of them who happen to
agree with your viewpoints.

Therefore, it is with a heavy heart that I have to tell you that your
comments above anger me to no end. You see, you should not relegate people to
"non-entities" just because they hold a differing view from yours. Or perhaps
you know something that sets some Gambians above others that the rest of us
do not know.

This reeks of an arrogance that is more synonimous with Yaya Jammeh and his
cohorts. These "non-entities" each and everyone of them, one by one, are the
Gambian people. These non-entities form a nation that you say you love. it is
not a nation of "intelligent people"whose opinion matters, and "non-entities"
whose opinion is to be dismissed. That kind of attitude is what has given us
the Yaya Jammehs of this World and those who support and think like them.
Together, they translate into a nightmare for Gambia as well as Africa.
You say that a soldier of your calibre speaking out is a revolutionary idea
that will benefit Africa and is a marked departure from the actions of
soldiers involved in coups etc on the continent. I agree and again, commend
you.

However, the accompanying arrogance that your above statement reveals is not
consistent with this love, dedication and desire for truth that will uplift
the people that you say you represent. Remember that the nations these
soldiers serve is made up of individuals, most of whom are poor people from
neighbourhoods similar to the ones you desvcribe with such disdain.

I am from Half die, one of the "meaningless neighbourhoods" you mention.
Perhaps my origins and those of other Gambians who come from similar
neighbourhoods makes us non-entities whose opinions do not matter, and whom
you can brush off with disdain.

This makes me shudder and pray that we do not continue to have the likes of
Yaya Jammeh emerge in our midst because it is people like that who have these
kinds of opinions of the people, and that is why they are able to treat them
with such disrespect and disdain, and heap all sorts of abuse on them since
they do not see them as people.

To me, I see absolutely nothing that differentiates any Gambin from the
other. What is there that you can see that separates Gambians into a group
that sees themselves as superior and a group of non-entities?

I urge you to please remember that the justice we seek takes all opinions
into consideration, and dismissing people as non-entities is not part of this.

Without implying that yourself and Mr Chongan do not deserve assylum, I also
want to point out that if investigations prior to granting asylum were as
thorough and influential in granting asylum to political exiles as you think,
then the likes of Mobutu Sese Seko, the Shah of Iran and others who have
wrecked havoc with the lives of people in the countries they governed, or the
economies they plundered, would never have found refuge in the West.

On the contrary, more often than not, these rogues find refuge in the West
all too easily and this is because the West simply does not concern itself
much with those who kill and maim people in the so-called third World, and
plunder our economies. These rogues deposit their loot into Western banks,
and embellish their bottom lines, and that is all that matters to them.

Again, i am dissappointed and sickened by your choice of words, and most
especially because it came from you of all people.

Jabou Joh

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