I took the liberty of culling the attached article from a Gambian newspaper
on line. Am always reluctant to do that because of my lack of comprehension
of the copyright rules involved here. Anyway, because I hate talking about
elections and elections campaigns under Yaya, I did not have the desire to
paraphrase what I read. See for yourself. I repeat my message from
yesterday. This is what proponents of elections should be concerned about.
Elections are being rigged in broad daylight. If we wanted to name all the
people that have been murdered by this regime, we would not leave here
today. So we have certain realities facing us. What we have not had yet is a
bloody coup led by professional soldiers. So it is just commonsense that
rather than wasting precious time and brain-cells predicting something that
is unlikely to happen, we should be tackling immediate problems like the
ones posed by this clear affront to democracy. Colly has not killed a single
Gambian yet and has no intention of killing innocent Gambians. On the other
hand, in the last killing spree of Yaya and his cohorts, they murdered 15
children. Let us try and stop him from murdering more children. That should
be the challenge.
KB

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Police Refuse To Give Us Permit For Meetings
- Ousainou Darboe

Lawyer Ousainou Darboe, UDP leader, yesterday told the press about a letter
received from the Inspector General of Police refusing his party permits to
hold political meetings anywhere in the country.

He said the IGP's letter alleged that the UDP had been violating the
conditions attached to their approved permits.

The UDP leader then read in full the IGP's letter, as follows:

"I am directed to inform you that your application has not been approved due
to the fact that:

a) The UDP have been violating the conditions attached to the approved
permits.

b) From the police view, UDP political rallies always violate conditions of
the Public Order Act, by using abusive words on government authorities or
individuals within the government.

There is already an alleged criminal charge for murder against the party
leader Mr. Ousainou Darboe and 24 others and the case is before the High
Court.

The application for a permit for the use of public address system at mass
rally at the Sixth Junction near to Serrekunda Primary slated for Saturday
15th July 2000 will not be considered  until you are prepared to comply with
the conditions attached to permits as stipulated under the Public Order Act.

Sorry for any inconveniencies it may cause. Signed: The Inspector General of
police."

Darboe told the press, "We gave the letter of the IGP to IEC, the minister
of the Interior, and our lawyers are also working on the IG's letter. We
have not yet decided what to do. When we get their response then we will
know what to do."

Darboe also told the press, "The charges against me and the others are meant
to silence the UDP. The APRC has lost  grounds everywhere, even in the
Fonis. The kind of letter sent to me will not come during the  time of Rex
King or Pa Sallah Jagne. Sankung Badjie the present IG is biased, he is
affiliated to the APRC."

"Sankung is not fit to be the IGP because of his political affiliation."
The UDP, Darboe said, will continue to castigate Jammeh's government for
corruption, lack of concern for Gambians, the failed economy and its lack of
regard for human rights. We will not apologize to anyone. Anyone holding a
public office, a high post, is subject to scrutiny by the public.

Among other things, he said that "in many government departments either the
majority is UDP, or a sizeable number is UDP. Some of the ministers and top
government officials are UDP, they are only with the APRC government because
of their positions." "UDP is now in the majority in this country," he said.

"We appeal to Gambians, especially APRC supporters, to bring sanity, their
members should be law-abiding."

"The Gambia is at war with itself, July 22nd movement members are thugs
terrorising people," he declared.

"With the recent alleged coup plot, there was no member of the UDP, only the
rank and file in Jammeh's government was involved," the opposition said.

"We condemn the July 22nd Anniversary. Jammeh's government came by coup and
maintained the coup in the1996 elections. He used the army and other
security forces, and stole our results. It's still a coup d'etat government.
It's an irony to celebrate the 1994 coup."

"What OAU did to General Robert Guei of Cote d'Ivoire was good; it expelled
him from the OAU summit in Togo," Darboe pointed out..

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