Brother Modou Sidibeh,
 
I meant to respond to your comments long ago, but time did not  allow me.
 
You wrote:
quote
"Well Sis, my point of departure is simply that the threats  themselves
were the effects of President Jammeh's knowledge of the  purported
forgeries. So again, whatever means he finds to make good on his  threats
will have been indirectly produced by the decision by the  Senegalese
authorities to make him privy to the contents of documents of  dubious
origin and authenticity. Consequently, even now, when NADD should  have
been strategising for the campaign, consolidating it positions  in
different constituencies, selecting its flag bearer, the  little
resources they have in terms of money and time, are going to  be
channeled into securing the unconditional release of its  leaders."
unquote
 
 
I agree it is unfortunate that NADD is going to spend resources they  clearly 
do not even have to defend the three arrested officials, but let us not  lay 
the blame on Senegal, that is far too easy and self medicating. Instead, let  
us realize that we cannot look to other nations to put Gambia's  interest 
first  and their's second. It is both unrealistic as well as  symptomatic of our 
lack of understanding of how the World really works. 
 
The NADD leadership cannot also hide behind this incident as the reason  they 
have not named a flag bearer. That should have been done long ago if the  
truth be told. We have to be willing to do a retrospect and be willing to tell  
the truth and let the chips fall where they may because in that lies the 
greater  good for all and unless we realize this, we are doomed to always repeat the 
 past. 
 
We had 30 years of the Jawara regime with their corruption and nepotism but  
today, because we have Yaya Jammeh, some of those same people from that  
corrupt government have re-invented themselves and are presenting  themselves as 
part of the solution and we happily accept that without  question. Perhaps 
tomorrow, if another regime should present itself because  those in office have 
become power hungry as those in power in Africa are wont to  do, and start to dig 
their heels in and kill people to stay in power, some of  the Jammeh gang we 
simply slapped on the wrist and let go will re-emerge and  present themselves 
among a new band of saviours and some of us will be singing  their praises. 

Brother Modou, the most important point here is that  there still needs to be 
clarification as to whether these "documents of  dubious origin" are the work 
of some over zealous supporter of NADD,( which I  doubt because NADD needs 
that kind of support like they need a hole in the head,  and anyone who did this 
knew what the results would be) or if this was a  situation concocted by 
Jammeh to get the results he wanted which is the most  likely scenario. 
The jury is still out on whether this was a plot and who the  players were 
and which issue by the way I do not think should just be set  aside and just 
taken lightly as some have suggested.
 
Now, are we to believe that what was expected of  the  Senegalese was that 
they just sit on the information in  order to protect Gambian politicians and 
assume that their national security  does not come into play in the matter? Or 
that they  would undertake to do the job of investigating this matter for The 
Gambia?  Or perhaps they would just jump for joy upon receiving such documents 
and  then proceed to trust and secretly proceed to cooperate  with the people 
who sent it to them?  Any of  these would be grossly simplistic conclusions 
that no country whose  leadership is worth their sale would adopt.  .
 
What we must understand is that nations act on self interest and  to ensure 
their national security. Did we really expect that Senegal would  just sit on 
such information and not confront the Jammeh regime with it, whether  directly 
or through the U.N, ECOWAS or the AU? 
Even the argument that they should have investigated the matter more  
thoroughly before acting is weakened by the fact that one cannot investigate a  crime 
without going to the source, the crime scene so to say and this should  
definitely have been an urgent matter for the Senegalese to attend to if they  
cared about their own national welfare.
 
Further more, there is no way that the Gambia government would not have  been 
privy to this information ( if they did not invent it) even if Senegal  went 
through these organizations listed above to bring this matter to light, and  
bring it to light they should have, so it can be investigated and refuted  by 
the Gambia government.  Somewhere down the line, Gambia would  have had to be 
informed of it if they really did not know and as for  Senegal not to have 
reacted to this in order to safeguard our politicians  or national interest before 
their's is unrealistic.
 
What is important to note is that Senegal, like any other nation in  this 
situation, has the obligation to ensure their national security  and therefore, 
they did exactly what any country who cares about their own  welfare would have 
done in this case, give first priority to the welfare of  their own 
government and state as opposed to just sit on this information  in order to protect 
even opposition politicians in The Gambia. 
 
Despite what some of us may assume, or no matter what empty rhetoric is  
spewed out about the international community coming to our aid or issuing  decrees 
against dictators and tyrant, no country in the World puts the interest  of 
another country before their's, especially when it comes to matters of  
national security and economic interest and they only act  if this  interest is 
negatively impacted by the actions of that country, and in  some cases, such 
actions are sometimes clothed in a semblance of  coming to the rescue of another 
nation or it's people, but that is never  really the entire story. The proof of 
this is that there have been and there  continues to be many tyrants in the 
World with whom countries that sell  themselves as the bastions of democracy are 
working hand in hand because such  cooperation serves either their  political 
or economic interest  while untold atrocities are being committed against the 
people  in those countries even as this cooperation is taking place.
 
For example, the United States has now branded Saddam a tyrant, but he  was 
once a tyrant they supported with the tools he used to commit some of the  
crimes he is now being vilified for. Why? At the time he was the ally of the  
United States in their efforts to fight Iran and what made the U.S act now is  
that he stood in their way to get the oil lying under Iraqi soil, and the  
acquisition of which they deem vital to their national interest and  security. So 
suddenly, the human rights violations on his people are remembered  and used as 
the reason for invading them and turning their lives into a living  hell.
 
Before that, the U.S was well aware of all the atrocities Saddam was  heaping 
on his people just like they are well aware of everything that is  happening 
all over the World. The country reports the CIA puts together from  detailed 
information they gather every year on every country in the World is far  more 
comprehensive than any information anyone can give them. Likewise, the  
British, French, Germans, Russians, Chinese etc have their own intelligence  
gathering apparatus that does the same thing, and the number one reason these  
countries have this machinery is to protect their national security and  interest 
first and foremost,  and not because they want to police the World  so they can 
go to the rescue of the people whenever some despotic tyrant emerges  somewher
e. 
 
So in this case, the United States used the same methods  that governments 
can utilize and hide behind to attain their goals and which  unfortunately for 
us, our tyrants have also become aware of, they  went through the motions of 
going through the U.N which in truth they  control, to give a semblance of 
exhausting all diplomatic means before they  let the bombs fall on the same people 
they say they are bringing democracy to  while Saddam escaped the mayhem. He 
is now on display complete with a show-case  trial and charges that are 
carefully crafted to avoid any risk of exposure  of any information regarding where 
he got the gas that he used to kill  the Kurds for example. A quick conviction 
and execution will follow no doubt  because dead men don't talk and the U.S 
can then get on with the business  of setting up a new puppet regime that will 
allow them to accomplish their  real reason for going to war in Iraq, which is 
to secure control of  the oil in that country for American oil companies. So 
the good guys going  out to save the people from oppression is never the reason.
 
Anyone with even a rudimentary knowledge of International law and  diplomacy 
is well aware that the United States or any other western  power to whom we 
are asked to look to as saviours from the tyrants that ravage  our countries 
only get involved in the affairs of another country or act to  supposedly protect 
them if the activities of that country impacts or has  the potential to 
impact their national security or economic well being, no  exceptions. 
 
Unfortunately, the tyrants and their helpers also come to learn how to  play 
this game very well, so they can invent lies and traps and then use  
internationally accepted methods and code words to give a semblance of  legitimacy and 
get away with all kinds of illegal acts.. 
 
These tyrants also know that they can hide under the banner of National  
Sovereignty which ensures that no other country's leader can issue any decrees,  
write any letters or pick up the phone and order the leader of another  country 
to do anything because that would be interfering in the internal affairs  of 
that country. These so called decrees and acts of intervention when done, are  
clothed in carefully crafted excuses and unfortunately, The Gambia does not 
hold  any precious deposits or have a large population of ex-colonialists in 
the  country whose private property holdings, albeit illegally acquired, are in  
danger of being taken from them such as in the case of the Ex-Rhodesians in  
Zimbabwe.
 
The U.S and other western nations who present themselves as the champions  of 
freedom and democracy all have embassies in The Gambia and all of them have  
been right there on every occasion that the Jammeh regime has openly engaged 
in  acts against the people that require no interpretation to label them  what 
they really are, and which acts are completely unjustifiable under any  
democratic principle, and yet, not one of them has interfered in any form or  manner 
all these years, we are still crying to the international community and  some 
are blowing smoke screens at us to make us believe that the so-called  
international community can just march in and rescue us. 
 
Unless we want to apply to be a protectorate or revert to being a  colony of 
another country or to invite them to invade us, there is no government  that 
can intervene on our behalf. With enough attention to our cause,  boycotts or 
sanctions may be possible, but what market share or what precious  commodity 
does The Gambia hold to make that a credible threat and sanctions hurt  no one 
but our people. Sanctions and decrees are issued in the case of countries  like 
Zimbabwe because of the White Minority that is impacted by Mugabe's  
decisions or actions and not because anyone cares about the plight of the  indigenous 
people in Zimbabwe. In the case of Sierra Leone, the U.S government's  concern 
that terrorist groups will use the diamond trade to launder funds they  
cannot pass through the Federal Reserve banking system ( which by the way  is not a 
U.S government entity, but a private enterprise set us and controlled  by 
monied families in Europe and United states years ago, families like the  
Rotschilds, Morgans, Rockerfellers etc) and in the case of Liberia, some U.S  
business enterprises are stake holders in that economy.  There was no  worse atrocity 
than apartheid and how many years did that evil system survive  with the 
money flowing from South Africa's  wealth into the pockets of  major financial 
stake holders all over the World and the Africans were being  murdered and 
treated like slaves all the while? Sanctions and the ANC resorting  to giving the 
Boers an eye for an eye is the only reason that evil system came  to an end and 
not because the international community rode to our rescue  there.
 
You also wrote:
 
"Yes, it is unfortunate that we should call Senegal a foreign  country,
despite our ethnic affinity with its people. But I have no doubt  that
the regimes in both countries will be pursuing their national  interests,
or rather the interests of the power elite,  even if that  should be
detrimental to the wishes and hopes of large sections of  their
populations. Senegal, has shown time and again that it has little  regard
for the security of ordinary Gambians:
The second most violent  student demonstration in Gambian history was
prompted by the severe beating  of Gambian villagers by armed Senegalese
soldiers in the early seventies. The  soldiers crossed the border and
attacked villagers in the North bank.
Days  after the tragic killing of Eku Mahoney in October 1980 at the
police  depot,  Senegalese air force personnel landed at Yundum
international  airport and forced its closure. (And you know, I was a
trainee communications  officer at the airport, and I was on duty, and a
certain colonel Ngom, a  graduate from the university of Dakar, said to
the air traffic controller and  myself that he could not explain the
reasons behind the order; that he was  simply following them).
Others had embarked and occupied MacCarthy Square in  Banjul. It was
nothing short of an invasion. President Jawara went on the air  and lied
that their presence was on account of a joint military  exercise!
Then came the Kukoi rebellion, and perhaps more than a thousand  Gambians
were killed by Senegalese soldiers; and then the Confederation and  its
lopsided arrangements in favour of Senegal..

Senegal will pursue  its strategic objectives irrespective of who is
Gambian president. So while  Jammeh-bashing is in vogue, it is perhaps
all the more necessary to cast a  glance across the the border once in a
while."
 
We must be honest in admitting that in 1981, the Senegalese army did not  
just decide one fine morning to invade Gambia in pursuit of some national  
agenda. They were invited by Jawara whose government was in the throes of being  
overthrown, and they came in to resolve the situation and regain control of his  
government for him. I think we can all agree that in such a situation, an air  
communications tower at the airport such as the one where you brother  
Momodou were a trainee is one of the most strategic points in a situation of a  coup 
d'etats. Therefore, a Senegalese soldier commanding control of such a place  
was to be expected I would say unless the assumption is that the soldiers 
should  have come in and work with the rebels instead of to honour the security 
pact  between the two countries and work to contain the attempted coup which by 
the  way they did.
 
The behaviour of the Senegalese soldiers in such an instance should have  
been outlined within the agreement between the two governments and there should  
have been allowances made to address any improper behaviour if such occurred  
while the Senegalese were in The Gambia to quell this uprising, and The Jawara 
 government should have investigated and addressed those issues after the  
incident if they cared about Gambians and their welfare as well as the  
sovereignty of the country under such a pact, but I expect they were just happy  to 
get their kingdom and power back, so we really cannot just lay the blame  on the 
Senegalese. 
 
Also, during the attempted coup of 1981, all of the people who died  were not 
killed by Senegalese soldiers. Did the coup makers not open prisons and  free 
and arm prisoners? In such a situation, who knows how many were killed by  
these culprits? Did the police not arrest masses of people some of whom they  
locked up in places that lacked proper ventilation resulting in the deaths of  
many, including a near and dear friend of mine?
 
In addition, some of the coup makers were armed with machine guns and went  
into neighbourhoods looking for certain individuals who they considered helpers 
 of the Jawara regime. I know this for a fact because one of these  people is 
an individual who grew up in the same neighbourhood with me  and the person 
he was looking for was none other than my own grandmother who was  a Yai Compin 
for the Jawara regime, a position that pitted her against many a  member of 
my own family to no avail but that is another story. This  individual in the 
company of two other young men armed with machine guns went to  my grandmother's 
house three times asking a young female cousin of mine in the  house for her 
whereabouts. My grandmother and the likes of her are pawns  for the regimes 
that use them and to me looking to shoot such people is a  misguided effort. 
They are victims who are in the lower echelons of the food  chain in these power 
hungry regimes who will use anyone, and the sad thing  is they do not realize 
it. They need to be educated, not shot, but that is only  my opinion and not 
just because it was my grandmother.My mother by the way was  being hidden by my 
own mother because that was her mother, and if that  individual had known 
that, he may have gone to my family compound near by  and which was full of all 
kinds of people including families who were our  tenants and if they opened 
fire in such a situation or attempted to, who knows  how many people would have 
died and maybe their deaths would have also been  attributed to the Senegalese 
and has the Jawara regime ever set up any  commission of enquiry to find out 
who killed whom and to address any possible  violations of the military pact 
they had with Senegal? I bet the Senegalese  would have set up such a commission 
to address and resolve such an issue for  there people if they were on the 
receiving end of this.
 
If Gambia and the rest of Africa wants to take their place among the  
community of nations and earn respect, we must first have both leaders and  citizenry 
whose main objectives are to protect the interest and security of  their 
country and people instead of adopting a course that is geared to the  protection 
of just their own personal quest for power and then blaming others  when they 
act to protect their own national interest. We must also begin to see  the 
World realistically so as to be able to asses our place in it and to be  able to 
know how to proceed effectively to secure our own national  interests and that 
of our people but it has to start with genuine conviction to  want for 
ourselves what we want for everyone else or it will never work.
 
We have to do away with what I call Africa's lost little boy syndrome where  
the combination of power hungry leaders and an ever present line up of  
potential successors ready to follow in their footsteps leaves our people  crying 
out to the World to come save us. These leeches keep alive a culture  that is 
along the lines of the old adage that in the land of the paupers, it is  easy to 
be king. They keep alive a culture that says that political office is a  
private enterprise for the purpose of enriching oneself and to attain it, one  
must avoid telling the truth by all means, especially when that truth may  
jeopadize our chances of some personal gain or even political office God  forbid. 
And when we succeed in gaining that political  office, we then contribute our 
quota by just posturing in our  positions and letting the country rot and the 
people suffer, keeping people  ignorant and poor so that the pre-occupation of 
daily survival by the masses of  our people ensures that no one has time or the 
courage to think about their  rights while the real business at hand for 
those in power is the  concentrate of one's efforts towards the sustenance of the 
mafia-like  organization in place to ensure personal gain and there is never a 
 shortage of cronies lining up to get a piece of the action. These would be  
successors have also learned to play the game well after years of observance 
of  those in power and they know all the right code words and rules of the game 
and  how to play it.
 
The people who had colonized Africa and carved her up into all the pieces  we 
are comprised of today are now forming unions like the European Union and in  
the Americas, efforts are ongoing to forge trade and other treaties to foster 
 economic and political well being, and in contract, it is only in Africa  
that we have people fighting to hold onto their own piece of fifedom even  when 
it not economically viable, because they see any attempt at unity as  
something that may prevent them from holding the ever important post of  president, or 
secretary of state which our people are ready to kill for. It  is this same 
thing that prevents us from even genuinely pooling our  efforts together for 
the greater good of all  because we always  undertake these efforts with one eye 
 on the effort and another on the lookout for any possibility that we  can 
make it on our own thereby ensuring more personal gain as opposed to  something 
for the greater good of all.  What a sad state of affairs  for our people. 
There is clearly a need to create  opportunities for people to make their mark in 
life through other  avenues.
 
 I am sorry  I have rambled on and on and included all  manner of things that 
I have had on my chest and needed to vent. 
 
Hope you are having a good Sunday
Sister Jabou Joh
 
 
In a message dated 12/1/2005 10:34:49 A.M. Central Standard Time,  
[log in to unmask] writes:

Sister  Jabou wrote:

"...Jammeh would have found other means of making good on  his threats
against these men. He made the promise himself for all Gambians  to hear
and record. He stood before Gambians and dared to say that some  people
will not witness the 2006 elections".

Well Sis, my point of  departure is simply that the threats themselves
were the effects of  President Jammeh's knowledge of the purported
forgeries. So again, whatever  means he finds to make good on his threats
will have been indirectly  produced by the decision by the Senegalese
authorities to make him privy to  the contents of documents of dubious
origin and authenticity. Consequently,  even now, when NADD should have
been strategising for the campaign,  consolidating it positions in
different constituencies, selecting its flag  bearer, the little
resources they have in terms of money and time, are  going to be
channeled into securing the unconditional release of its  leaders.

Yes, it is unfortunate that we should call Senegal a foreign  country,
despite our ethnic affinity with its people. But I have no doubt  that
the regimes in both countries will be pursuing their national  interests,
or rather the interests of the power elite,  even if that  should be
detrimental to the wishes and hopes of large sections of  their
populations. Senegal, has shown time and again that it has little  regard
for the security of ordinary Gambians:
The second most violent  student demonstration in Gambian history was
prompted by the severe beating  of Gambian villagers by armed Senegalese
soldiers in the early seventies.  The soldiers crossed the border and
attacked villagers in the North  bank.
Days after the tragic killing of Eku Mahoney in October 1980 at  the
police depot,  Senegalese air force personnel landed at  Yundum
international airport and forced its closure. (And you know, I was  a
trainee communications officer at the airport, and I was on duty, and  a
certain colonel Ngom, a graduate from the university of Dakar, said  to
the air traffic controller and myself that he could not explain  the
reasons behind the order; that he was simply following them).
Others  had embarked and occupied MacCarthy Square in Banjul. It was
nothing short  of an invasion. President Jawara went on the air and lied
that their  presence was on account of a joint military exercise!
Then came the Kukoi  rebellion, and perhaps more than a thousand Gambians
were killed by  Senegalese soldiers; and then the Confederation and its
lopsided  arrangements in favour of Senegal..

Senegal will pursue its strategic  objectives irrespective of who is
Gambian president. So while  Jammeh-bashing is in vogue, it is perhaps
all the more necessary to cast a  glance across the the border once in a
while.

Many  thanks,
Momodou

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