Hamjatta, thank you very much for your contributions. If we had just a few
more people like you and Ms. Jagne, we would soon be saying good-bye to Yaya
and his cronies. I especially want to commend your foresight in trying to
complement other opposition efforts by taking on the British opposition
parliamentarians. We will continue our efforts with the other MPs and mount
a campaign for an appropriate response to the letters they sent to Ms. Jagne
and the Gambians in Oslo. This is a great move from your end. We should be
consistent in our attacks and pursue all avenues. No matter how you slice
it, Britain is wrong in trying to beef up Yaya's security apparatus. We are
on a slippery slope here. If we allow them to get away with this one, they
will soon start supplying arms to Yaya. Belief me, this is not as
far-fetched as it sounds. We have to change the attitude of the British
ambassador and by extension, the British government. If the ambassador was
convinced about the evil of Yaya, he would not stand before a press
conference and praise the army and promise them more cooperation in the
future. It is our duty to educate the British and convince them about how
invaluable the lives of Gambian children are. There is something very
fundamental here. The British is siding with Yaya at the expense of
defenseless Gambian children. They opened their boiler-plate letter by
stating that: 'the resumption of Sandhurst training for Gambian cadets by no
means implies a wholesale endorsement of the Government of The Gambia's
performance since the 1994 coup.' They are right. Their action does not just
'imply' that they support the callous government we have, they are in no
uncertain terms telling us that they support Yaya 100%. When you oppose a
government because of human rights abuses, the last thing you do, is restore
military cooperation with that government. Case in point is international
sanctions that are imposed on dictators. When governments ease such
sanctions, you hear about supplying food and medicine. You don't hear talks
about restoring military aid. Here, no one doubts that Yaya possesses a
terrible human rights record. And for optimists that think that this is just
an elaborate plan to get rid of Yaya, I say 'just look at Peter Singhateh
(the most recent graduate from Sandhurst)'. This is not about that either.
The British are pursuing their own selfish national interests. If the
British value the lives of their professional soldiers this much (Soldiers
that voluntarily pledged to defend their country in war and put their lives
on the line), we should value the lives of defenseless Gambian children
more. We should fight for those children by stopping anything that is aimed
at strengthening Yaya. We should ask the British to tell us how many
soldiers Gambia has contributed to these peacekeeping missions to justify
receiving this military aid. The figures will be negligible. Again,
Hamjatta, I thank you for your efforts.
KB


>From: Hamjatta Kanteh <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: The Gambia and related-issues mailing list
><[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Re: THE BRITISH FOREIGN AFFAIRS CABINET'S REPLY CONCERNING THEIR
>            RESUMPTION OF MILITARY CO-OPERATION WITH THE GAMBIA.
>Date: Fri, 20 Oct 2000 12:08:10 GMT
>
>KB,
>If there is anything that you can safely rely on from the pen-pushing
>Mandarins of the FCO, it is their shameless and sanctimonious drivel on
>policies as ignoble as the resumption of military aid and or assistance to
>a
>regime that cold bloodedly murders children as young as 3 and remain
>unrepentant. Notice the uncanny resemblance of the text in both Sister
>Sigga's response and that of Brother Kabir's; could it be that the FCO had
>it coordinated from London: That all questions on this issue should be in
>similar dodgy fashion? I had shrewdly guessed that such a platitudinous
>response is all you can squeeze out of the FCO or the British gov't for
>that
>matter hence i directed all my energies in lobbying the opposition
>especially the Liberals. I am supremely confident that Charles Kennedy will
>expose the shambolic and insensitive decision of the Blair gov't to resume
>cooperation with an unrepentant murderer like Jammeh.
>As you wisely observed, the sole purpose in resuming such tacky cooperation
>with the Gambia gov't is premised on the policy drive of limiting the
>participation of British soldiers in international peace keeping duties.
>Since it doesn't sell well to a cynical and ambivalent electorate back home
>to keep bring home body bags from foreign conflicts, it makes sense to
>train
>and arm "third world" citizens where they shrewdly guessed that for the
>crack-pot dictators hell-bent on perpetuating themselves in power at all
>cost, life of such peace keepers means nothing and even if it does, there
>is
>no one worthy their attention to account to.
>Most shameful in my view is the absence of Gambians in the UK from this
>protest. There are well over 20 of them online yet they are as silent as
>door nails. What shame. When i floated the idea of a petition a month ago
>to
>this day, i have yet to see a word or syllable of support from any
>constituent. Some of them might be calculating that the murder of the
>school
>children has nothing to do with them since they have lost no close
>relatives
>there, ergo, they don't give a monkey's. I hasten to caution such
>narcissism. For like the swinging  pendulum of a grandfather clock, none in
>it's is immune from its blow that ensues from such swings.
>Hamjatta Kanteh
>_________________________________________________________________________
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