In a message dated 9/2/00 12:39:47 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:

<< UNITED NATIONS, Aug 31 (IPS) - UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan
told a conference of parliamentarians that democratic and human
rights cannot be guaranteed simply by holding elections.

 In an implicit reference to recent political developments in Asia,
 Africa and Latin America, he said that attempts to ratify the
 illegal seizure of power through flawed elections should be seen
 as what they are: ''attempts to gain international recognition for
 illegitimate rule by pretending to observe democratic
 principles.'' >>
***********************
This sums up the Jammeh regime in a nutshell, and I do hope that Kofi Annan
will not only convey this in a speech, but will tell it to Yaya Jammeh and
his delegation, and that the nation members of the United Nations will start
to implement joint efforts to force dictators like Yaya Jammeh to their knees
and get them off the backs of their people, instead of just engaging in these
meaningless ceremonies and endless empty rhetoric, while the people in these
oppressed countries continue to suffer even as they wine and dine delegates
at the U.N
It is high time that the United Nations stops hiding behind protocol as usual
when they are fully aware that these illegitimate leaders are wrecking havoc
in their respective countries, even as they welcome them to address the
United Nations body.

We have to begin to question the usefulness of organizations such as the U.N
if they cannot listen to and provide a concerted and tangible effort towards
the plight of countries whose governments have been hijacked by incompetent
and mindless dictators. Instead, the U.N seems to engage in gestures that
tend to legitimize these people while professing to be on a cause to
safeguard peace and justice.

A portion of the United Nations Charter reads thus:

" The first purpose is to preserve World peace and security.The second
purpose is to encourage nations to be just in their actions towards each
other.The third is to help nations cooperate in trying to solve their
problems.The fourth purpose is to serve as an agency through which nations
can work towards those goals."

Without peace and justice in our respective countries, there will not be
peace and justice in the World. Martin Luther King said it a long time ago,
when he said that

"injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."

It is time that the rest of the World refrains from rhetoric, and gets down
to the buisness of addressing the plight of the human condition in every
country on an equal basis. Some of us have now become convinced that the rest
of the World thinks that Africa is dispensable, and we need to see some real
efforts on the part of our peers on the international scene to regain our
confidence that this is not so.

The members of the United nations, whom make up the bulk of the countries in
the World, need to take stock in order to give true meaning to this
organization's charter, because it is the internal political organization of
a country, and the manner in which it is implemented that translates to the
wellbeing of it's citizenry, and which in turn translates to the overall
welfare of the World. Therefore, it should be the business of every nation,
even in the absence of a joint body whose purpose they say is to safe guard
this wellbeing, to make sure that a concerted effort to fight  political
turmoil and oppression in every nation is absolutely essential and
implemented, and must be undertaken without the least resvervation.That this
effort is not implemented on a selective basis, but on a conciensious one.

I wish I could be in NY, but I do urge those who will be there to relay Kofi
Annan's words back to him, and the rest of the international delegation at
this conference, as well as the news media, that our present government is a
classic example of this statement of Kofi Annan's.That it is not just enough
to pronounce the evil, but that it is imperative to act on implementing all
that is necessary to bring it to an end for the sake of all humanity.

Jabou Joh

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