Andy, no-one could have said it better.This piece is definitely going in to
my archives.
You've hit the nail exactly on the head!!!!


>In trying to answer my question, I've looked back to the days
>of, and since, the coup and it appears to me, that according to
>Jammeh, it must be that:
>
>* "homegrown principles" deprive the free speech of all the
>   Gambian people,
>
>* "homegrown principles" allow for the detention of innocent
>   people without trial,
>
>* "homegrown principles" denies free press by not allowing
>   Gambia news reporters to report what they see or hear and in
>   one instance, allowed for the deportation of a certain
>   newspaper editor,
>
>* "homegrown principles" allow the kidnapping of opposition
>   party members
>
>* "homegrown principles" deny the right of the people to elect
>   their own village and religious leaders by rejecting the
>   peoples vote and forcing them to accept new non elected
>   leaders,
>
>* "homegrown principles" allow the brutal killing of a minister
>   and the fabrication of such an astounding story about the
>   circumstances of his death , that no Gambian citizen, in his/
>   her right mind, could believe,
>
>* "homegrown principles" allow for the unwarranted search,
>   seizure and arrest of people, often times from their homes in
>   the middle of night, to be taken to the N.I.A office for
>   interrogation,
>
>* "homegrown principles" deny certain Gambia citizens the
>   opportunity to join, or form, an opposition party,
>
>* "homegrown principles" allow for the detention of a certain
>   solider (a former coup leader) for four years without trial,
>
>* "homegrown principles" allow terrorization, beatings and even
>   murder of opposition members while coming from campaigns or
>   from meeting places,
>
>* "homegrown principles" allow Government leaders to be elected
>   by the people but only under threats and force by the
>   military.
>
>I ask myself, am I right? I looked back again into the old
>newspapers, I remember the radio reports and I talked to so
>many others who experienced those days and then I am able to
>answer...YES!!! I am right!!
>
>In another Internet site I discovered an article from the
>Washington Post, dated February 18, 1999, and in that article
>Jammeh was quoted as saying that "not even a dog died" [during
>the 1994 coup d'etat]. Now, I don't know who wrote that article
>but he/she must surely have been blind or else was absent from
>the country during those days. It may well be true that "not a
>dog was killed" (as most of us remember, during those days
>there was certainly no time to check on the fate of animals)
>but the same cannot be said about humans. Were all the grieving
>family members and friends lying or crazy? Is it true that
>there were no killings at Mile 2 or at the Army camps in Bakau
>or Yundum? Were those people lying, who witnessed trucks coming
>from the Bakau camp and said they saw bodies in the back of the
>trucks?
>
>I was there...I know what I am saying is true. But, so many of
>you were there too. Are we going to accept Jammeh's "home style
>democracy" when we vote in the year 2000? Or are we going to
>vote for true democracy, which is for the people, by the people
>and of the people?


Alieu


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