Yero,
I returned home from a tour of middle and High schools on the south bank of 
the river Gambia on March 11th 2000. We were promoting The Gamsu Trust Fund 
and The project for girls education which were part of the manifestoe on the 
basis of which we were elected to office. Immediately I arrived home, my 
wife told me that  a member of GAMSU's executive had been to our house with 
information on some rape case which took place at the sports Stadium in 
Bakau. The death of the
eighteen year old student who was tortured by personnel of the fire and 
ambulance service unit at Brikama had already taken place on March 8th 2000.
The two events took place in different jurisdictions: Brikama Western 
Division, and Bakau Kombo Saint Mary's Division. We accordingly formed two 
groups to  follow up matters in the two jurisdictions. The one that was 
based in Brikama was led by the vice president, and as president I led the 
one that was to look after matters in Bakau and Banjul. We also formed an 
emergency committee which in addition to the members of GAMSU's executive 
committee, co-opted members from all the tertiary institutions in The 
greater Banjul area.
The first phase of our action was all about sensitisation. We made 
representations to the offices of the relevant authorities. Amongst them 
were the departments of state for education and Interior, as well as the 
office of the Inspector General of police. We would talk to them about the 
cases, and endeavour to convince them of the need to expedite the 
dispensation of justice. It was as a result of our efforts at sensitisation 
that president Jammeh became aware of the cases. He personally suggested 
that we discuss the issues with Interior secretary Ousman Badjie, which we 
did, but we could not come to terms.
Thus by the end of the week of Sunday March 13th 2000 every relevant 
authority in The Gambia had been made aware of both the rape and murder 
cases, and above all, were made aware of the concerns of The National 
Student Movement. For a whole week, we did not hear from the authorities and 
the police were seemingly not making any moves to expedite the dispensation 
of justice. Two weeks later, while we were at the funeral of a dear brother 
and friend ( Lawrence Gomez), we received word that the Inspector General of 
Police(IGP) would like to discuss the two issues with us. We went to police 
headquarters in Banjul the following day, but there was total chaos at our 
meeting with the top brass of the police force. The IGP walked away from the 
meeting, and soon as he left all of his officers followed him except 
Thirteen Badjie and Tamsir Jasseh.
The two tried to give us hope, and then Tamsir left While Badjie continued 
talking to us. The department of state for Education was infact represented 
at this meeting. It was at this point that Thirteen Badjie volunteered to 
mediate between us and the IGP. However, his efforts also came to nothing.
You made mention of some of my comrades in the student leadership at the 
time. I will list them again (plus others you have not mentioned) and their 
positions:
Alagie Darbo-----Vice president;
Sainabou Jaye---- Secretary;
Daniel Davis------Assistant Secretary
Ousman Bah-------Public Relations Officer;
Ebrima Ceesay----- Treasurer;
Muhammadou Sanusi-----Auditor
Babucar Ann(deceased)------Chairperson, Advisory Committee;
Ebrima Chongan------External Relations Officer;
Alhagie Camara-----Information Secretary/Editor-in-chief;
Mamour Njai-------- Member;
Alieu Khan------member emergency committee/president Gambia College Brikama 
Campus Sub-union;
Alieu Darboe---member emergency committee/ President UEP Student's Union; 
and
OTHERS.
What I will always remember about Ousman Badjie is that he did not take us 
seriously. That type of attitude was manifested by others including the IGP. 
Thus I was amazed when I later learnt of his experiences in Student Activism 
In Senegal. Even though it was through his intervention that we were 
released from detention at the Police Intervention Unit headquarters in 
Kanifing, if he had taken his charge seriously, we may not have had that 
mayhem.
As for Baboucar Jatta (Army Chief of staff at the time), there is no doubt 
words were put into his mouth. When he arrived at The Westfield Junction, he 
asked for my thought on what should be done. I suggested that The 
Para-military officers be withdrawn, and he gave orders to that effect 
immediately. Before the commission of enquiries into the student riots, he 
said positive things about me, but later, he made a u-turn and started 
making all sorts of statements about my connections with the opposition. The 
fact is Baboucar was a guy in my neighbourhood while he was going to Saint 
Augustine High School. We had lots of respect for each other, but when he 
joined the army, he left the area. I would not totally dispute my 
connections with the opposition (my constitutional rights) as colonel Jatta 
seem always happy to talk about, but it should be emphasized that he has 
always got it wrong since my participation in party politics from 1994 to 
the formation of NDAM, had been on the sidelines. The current interior 
minister has turned his back on basing his remarks about me on what he 
actually knows.
With regard the Department of state for Education, I am not surprised that 
most of them prefer to remain silent about April 10th/11th 2000. The only 
person who broke that silence was the former secretary of state, Ann Therese 
Ndong-Jatta. She claimed that we did our operations underground. This is 
absolutely wrong! Infact at the time I personally took her copy of the 
letter of demands we wrote to the IGP, she was away in South Africa 
attending a conference. Indeed for the best part of the whole episode, she 
was out of town.
Vice-president Saidy's claim that the shooting started from amongst the 
students is laughable. At our last meeting on Sunday April 9th 2000, it was 
decided that students were not to be allowed to bring any kind of firearms 
to the site of the demonstrations. Secondly, only some members of the 
emergency committee knew at the eleventh hour when it was going to be. The 
fact is, it was VP Saidy who transmitted president Jammeh's orders to shoot 
to the officers on the ground.
Indeed while two of the most high profile ladies in the land betrayed 
motherhood, the manifestations at GTTI in particular had a heavy presence of 
girls. My mandate was to personally lead the manifestations. We prepared a 
number of banners which were distributed as the demonstrators took positions 
along the highway. It was the girls who started to chant " Justice". When 
the para-military police charged at our lines, the student leadership did 
not move. We were immediately arrested, and the vast majority of those 
arrested with us were girls. The Boys merely retreated to avoid the batton 
wielding Paras.! When they realized that their sisters and the majority of 
the student leadership had been arrested, they also charged
My brother Yero, I am already in too much pain to go on. At this point, I 
would like to repeat that those behind The Gambia Echo Story, that I was an 
agent of The A(F)PRC regime should come out with their evidence. If they 
cannot, decency requires that they apologise.
God bless you all in this holy month of Ramadan.
Omar Joof.







>From: "Yero Jallow" <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: [log in to unmask]
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: [>-<] Att. Omar Joof, April 10th/11th
>Date: Mon, 09 Oct 2006 19:19:22 -0500
>
>[ This e-mail is posted to Gambia|Post e-Gathering by "Yero Jallow" 
><[log in to unmask]> ]
>
>
>Don't assume that everyone knows about what happened-(Birago's advice to me 
>at a time.)
>
>It is your duty to narrate to those that didn't withness the sad incident.
>
>Start from the consultations with FRI Jammeh,the correspondence letters, 
>your team (Ousman Bah, A.Khan, I. Ceesay, Nyabally, the ladies, etc...), 
>etc.. Don't spare Ousman Badjie (then interior), Babucarr Jatta (then 
>Defence chief of staff), education ministry.
>
>Tell us about the oozing souls of pupils in the kanifing area, around GTTI 
>campus.
>-At Saints
>-At the RVH etc...
>-VP Saidy's memorable comments that it was the students that started 
>shooting.
>(Isn't this one funny pal? How can a pen or pencil shoot?)
>
>Please quit this topic, i am already in tears. May the souls of all those 
>students rest in perfect peace.ameen.
>
>Take care!!
>Yero
>
>_________________________________________________________________
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>
>
>
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