Saul,

Your last piece to Hamjatta dated 18 December 1999 is making it very
difficult for me to take you seriously. Initially, I had the intention to
deal with all your concerns in a chronological order. This was dubbed as
deviation tactics. I acknowledged your fears and then promised to deal with
your immediate concerns by taking a two-pronged approach to the issue. Even
though I have dealt with the issue about Koro, you are still accusing me of
employing deviation tactics. Does this not show that you are simply
interested in empty chatter? Who can be more feeble minded than a person who
simply writes for the sake of saying nothing?

Hamjatta has accused me of evoking what he termed as Hobbesean state of
fear. I am addressing his coincerns piece by piece, yet you proceeded to
accuse me of not providing any iota of evidence to prove what the true state
of the country was during the period. You then proceeded into your usual
pedantic conclusions that only feeble minded persons would swallow such
stories before any story is told. How can any serious minded person who
wants to be taken seriously pass judgment without waiting for evidence?

The enclave of assumptions and presumptions that Hamjatta tried to build on
the concept of a Hobbesean state of fear shall be razed to the ground by the
batteries of facts that I would present. However, my concern with you now is
not the question your are raising; it is the question of the level of your
intellectual maturity. I hope you know that you are dealing with very
serious matters and that you are not engaged in a school boy debate.

The death of Koro is still fresh in the minds of people. Many things that
happened during the coup period are still having weight on the lives of
people. Our perceptions of personalities and the political evolution of this
country still depend on the interpretation of events which occurred during
the period. What we need are Gambians who hold no prejudices; Gambians who
preserve openness; Gambians who are concerned with the accuracy of
statements and who exercise discretion with objectivity and who are inclined
to dispassionately weigh evidence before they pass judgment. This is the new
Gambian that the new millennium asks for.

Despite my busy schedule, I thought your concerns are an open invitation for
us to engage our destiny and begin to look at events that affect our lives
with maturity and  sincerity so that we can have a common understanding of
what is truth and what is false. I, therefore, do not expect that you will
continue making false allegations and then jump to conclusions before I give
any evidence. This will only serve to convince me that your mind is starved
of explanatory capability and this leads you to draw erroneous conclusions
from erroneous assumptions.

Let me just take you on the issue that there were no civilian challenge to
the AFPRC. May be yourmyopic vision does not permit you to go beyond the
assumptions that you have unquestionably held. In this way, you make
assertions without making a fleeting glance at what actually obtained in
reality.

Let me ask you this simple question: What happened to the following people:
Corporal Essa Keita; Private Ebrima Manneh; Staff Sergeant Lamin Badjie;
Private Bkary Sidibeh; Private Ebrima Bojang; Corporal Saihou Sidibeh after
the Presidential election in 1996 and before the National Assembly elections
when Gmbians had thought that the transition period had almost come to an
end? Did few civilians not break into the Farafenni army barracks, slit he
throats of two soldiers and took over the armoury without firing a shot, and
before the other soldiers disappeared from the camp to take refuge four
others had been killed? These civilians took over the whole town of
Farafenni and for hours they were in control of the camp. They were ready to
train young people on the spot but did not have anybody to join them.

Can you imagine what would have happened if Jammeh was still resisting
elections? Where these people going to call Jawara to come to take over his
reign, or would the country have been plunged into a bloody warfare where
those who mastered the art of war will not hesitate to slit throats just
like the throats of those two soldiers at the Farafenni camp? Do you see how
utterly childlish you sound by claiming that there were no civilian threats
and that there was no basis for thinking that the country could sink into a
Sierra Leone-like or Rwanda-like situation.

I personally went to the scene while some of the perpetrators were on the
run. We spoke to many villagers on the road. Despite the fact that the
attackers did not have people to join them, their military prowess amazed
many villagers.

It is, therefore, important to abandon your paltry remarks which are fit
only to come from the minds of simpletons. I want to take you seriously and
please try to conduct your side of this engagement in a serious manner.


Greetings.


Halifa Sallah.




-----Original Message-----
From: saul khan <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Saturday, December 18, 1999 02:12
Subject: To Hamjatta: Halifamania


>Hamjatta,
>
>This is a good summary of our situation. The part about Halifa claiming
>credit for averting a Siera-Leone/Rwanda type of situation only makes me
>laugh. Why? Only feeble-minded people can fall for puff like that. It's
>exactly the type of excuse that the PPP used to campaign (especially in the
>country-side) in the olden days: Don't you hear about the wars going on all
>over Africa? Look at the peace we have in the Gambia. Can you imagine what
>would happen if Jawara were to leave? You should thank Allah that we have
>someone so committed to peace etc, etc.

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