Date:       Sat, 1 Jul 2000     

From:       ebou colly <[log in to unmask]
Subject:    PRESCRIPTION FOR RESISTANCE     
    

PRESCRIPTION FOR RESISTANCE 

In 1995 when a government-sent team of killers headed by the notorious Lance 
Corporal Batch Jallow appeared at the residence of Lamin Waa Juwara in Brikama 
and tried to abduct the gentleman by a Mercedes Benz without registration 
number, it was Lamins’s own resistance with the help of his neighbors that 
averted the disaster. By all indications then, the politician was quite likely to 
have met his death that night if he had followed Batch and his men with the hope 
that being the government officials they were they should respect his rights 
and ensure his safety. But Mr. Juwara resisted in the best way and means he 
could, alerting his neighbors in time who scared and literally chased the 
cowards away. Given the Gambia with its smallness as we all know it, where one can 
say with authority that everybody knows everybody, batch was recognized and the 
case reported to the police. For over five years now nothing was done about 
that case. If Juwara was abducted and eliminated, the consequence at most would 
have been an inconclusive government investigation insulated to hide the 
truth forever. 

Those were the outrageous dark days of the transition when the Gambians were 
still adjusting to the nightmare of the deadly presence of the AFPRC bandits 
who had hijacked their nation overnight. It was during that same period that 
the same Batch-led team at Denton Bridge almost killed Dr. Baba Njie after being 
stabbed with a knife and left for dead that night. That attempted murder, as 
every one perceived it was never ever investigated. Yet the terror persisted 
sweeping along the dear life of Koro Ceesay another lingering crime still 
awaiting action from The Gambia justice department. Of course the heinous event of 
11th November 1995 was another AFPRC crime against humanity also documented 
among the chronicles of their evil legacy. It was a subject fully treated in my 
earlier pieces on Yaya’s dubious coup plots occasionally staged like the 
recent one to wipe out the soldiers he fears or found too intelligent for his bony 
head. Yes, signals reaching me indicate that Yaya and his intellectual whores/ 
vampires are cracking their evil heads in order to come up with a twisted 
story justifying the latest arbitrary arrest and detention of Officers Lalo 
Jaiteh and Omar Darbo. Former commissioner Captain Alagie Kanteh is also said to be 
among those Yaya would implicate in the foolish story they might eventually 
fabricate. 

On the abductions and attacks of civilians per contra, it was hoped that such 
actions would stop with the end of the transition; and for a while it had at 
one time appeared to many Gambians as so until Momodou Picka Jallow emerged in 
the post-transition period. The sucker seemed to have taken it from where 
Batch left the terror. When Shygle Nyassi was kidnapped from his house in 
Brikama, Momodou Picka was the ringleader identified to have done the dirty job. 
Again with Dumo Saho’s case the same 22nd July Movement terrorist was still 
reported to have headed the abduction team. To crown it all, Modou Picka is now the 
key terror campaigner in the nation after Yaya and Baba Jobe. This guy must be 
stopped by all means necessary in whatever way feasible. Paradoxically, as 
evil as Picka is, god in his wonderful ways created and deprived him almost 
everything that qualifies humans to be termed intelligent, normal or good, making 
him a very easy target to resist or even eliminate. He is a person very well 
known in Serrekunda and, I assume, in Brikama too. The extrovert takes his 
orders directly from Yaya or Baba Jobe and would do anything, go anywhere to 
fulfil a mission with minimum thought for his personal safety. He doesn’t work for 
any government agency per se making it ever more necessary for the Gambians to 
be prepared to hit this guy with the language he understands. If it could be 
done clandestinely, so be it. That is how he usually operates anyway. 
Amazingly, it is now an open secret that the Picka kidnappings are cases beyond The 
Gambia Police Force powers and all his victims end up traceable at the NIA 
headquarters. How can this be explained in a nation claiming to have respect for 
its constitution and laws designed to protect its people? 

Anyway its about time we looked into my prescription calling the Gambians, 
especially the youth of Serrekunda, Brikama and Bakau, to adopt a modus operandi 
on how to defend their people and communities from Picka’s deadly terror. 
This is not a UDP versus APRC matter, Jolas versus Mandinkas, or soldiers versus 
civilians. This is about mad men on the lose bent on causing havoc to innocent 
and peace loving Gambians with an evil government absolutely sanctioning 
their crimes. Yesterday it was the UDP, today the ex-MOJA activists and tomorrow, 
who knows whether it would be the NRP or the ex-PPP ministers with confused 
Buba Baldeh on top of the list. In one of the latest cherished massages 
forwarded by Ebrima Ceesay, his source has alerted the ex-MOJA personnel, giving them 
point by point precautionary measures on how they must protect themselves from 
the state terror being secretly planned against them. For sure the warning 
tips are wonderful and very much welcomed although I seriously think that the 
warning should be a national one extended to all Gambians in the country. So in 
addition to the tips highlighted by that concerned Gambian, I would like to 
add that neighbors must organize themselves in preparation to face Picka Jallow 
who thinks with Yaya’s instructions he could lead his thugs to any location, 
abduct and torture anybody and get away with it. As the elections draw near, 
Picka will totally go bananas to say the least. As a result starting from now 
on, family members, friends, neighbors, name it should all come together 
prepared to take on this coward wherever he is seen carrying out his dirty action. 
For example if Dumo Saho lives where he used to live at Bundung, that area could 
have been the perfect place to corner Picka and deal with him once and for 
all. That’s the only way to deal with the beast. One of the greatest regrets of 
the Jews of the holocaust era was the submissive manner in which most of them 
followed the Nazi monsters that herded six million of them into gas chambers 
within less than five years. At least if nothing works, persons being abducted 
must scream or call for help so that somebody around would be able to take a 
look at the bandits before they disappear. With that for a positive start, 
sooner or later the people will muster the courage and start hunting for the wild 
animal. It may not be a pleasant thing to say or hear but this is exactly how 
Liberia under Doe, slowly but surely degenerated until Charles Tailor a 
civilian took the risk to wage that bloody war which claimed over 150,000 lives and 
more. Without the soldiers taking the urgent risk of toppling Yaya, a concept 
not quite popular among many pacifists, I would not be surprised if a Gambian 
Charles Taylor, Foday Sanko or Kabila emerges from the wilderness with a 
scorch-earth agenda. 

There has been serious condemnation of the Gambia military to where many 
Gambians now think that a post-Yaya government should finally do away with army. I 
do not wish to argue on that issue because of the negative legacy of the GNA 
since it was formed in 1984. Anyway all I have to remind everybody is that the 
British in 1958 had ventured into such experiment when the Gambia Regiment 
the de facto army at the time was disbanded and replaced by a small paramilitary 
unit named The Gambia Auxiliary force. That unit was just before independence 
in 1965 renamed the Field Force. The rest of that story could be traced in 
our archives with Kukoi Samba Sanyang the civilian international rebel leader 
taking the center stage in the Field Force’s final chapter. I don’t think there 
is anything wrong with having a proper army. What we should worry about is 
having the improper one, which would always pose a threat to the very people it, 
is meant to protect. The main reasons why the GNA failed to perform to society
’s expectation was the abuse of the institutional policies that were meant to 
raise the young army in the right direction by the very authorities entrusted 
with its administration. It’s a long story that could take me volumes of 
writing to explain what I exactly mean. 

But just look at the likes of Chief of Staff Baboucarr Raspotin Jatta and a 
lot of my untold story would be imaginable. About a week before it was made 
public, the Daily Observer printed a headline story pertaining to an interview 
Jatta had with them in which he refuted the arrest and detention of Officer Lalo 
Jaiteh. To support what he said he had added naked lies about how the 
appointment of the president’s ADC was improperly done during the PPP days. 
Everything he had uttered about that procedure was lies, lies and lies. Now that the 
truth is known about Lalo Jaiteh and Omar Darbo, the buffoon chose to avoid the 
Independent journalists when they sought to interview him last week. But since 
he was more comfortable with the Observer I think the editors of that paper 
owe it to their readers to make a follow up of a story that they were so keen 
to put in their front page. No need to “sutura” the pathological liar. He 
should talk again for the benefit of those of us curious to know whether he was 
talking about something he did not have a clue about or merely lying to cover up 
other crime. This is how they have been lying since they butchered our 
children. 

On a final note however, soldiers must be reminded that working for Yaya 
Jammeh in a nation that has long since given up on the need to maintain their 
presence, protect their rights or fight for their fair treatment is like learning 
to swim in a pool of wild crocodiles. Any moment they could be snatched bitten 
and chewed away without a ripple in the waves. Almamo Manneh was not a great 
soldier but looking at the flimsy evidence presented at the courts in Landing 
Sanneh’s trial, as Kebba Dampha would put it, one does not need to attain a 
law degree to know that the case is developing into a foolish outcome. Yet both 
Almamo and Dumbuya were murdered for their alleged role in that so-called 
coup. Are there any Gambians complaining? Certainly not. Lalo and Omar were among 
the most intelligent young officers recently commissioned in the GNA, The 
former is a bomb disposal expert while the latter proved to be an expert in field 
tactics. By academic standards, they are ten times more qualified than Yaya if 
the idiot’s fake credentials are put where they belong, a dustbin. Anyway 
what I suspect is happening at the State House with these Landing Sannehs, 
Almamos, and lately Lalos and Darbos are not coup plotting as such but perhaps their 
discovery of the fact that Yaya is after all just another nonsense person 
they follow around. Some one who live in a dream world that would collapse in the 
very near future, so they try some clumsy moves to distance themselves from 
the superficial glamour and ambiance often associated with being around the 
presidency. What they may fail to realize is that staying around Yaya long enough 
would expose them to many things the animal would term secretive and would 
therefore go to any length to keep such secrets from the public even if he has 
to kill for it. 

From now on soldiers must take their dressing from Captain Alagie Kanteh’s 
method, who battled it out in his own special way and saved himself for his 
family and a possible better Gambia . Run if you smell the danger around you. 
Contrary to what may happen to the civilians, crying for help will not gain you 
any sympathy from the locals or international world. After being identified with 
Yaya and what he stands for, the world has already made up its mind that you 
are all the same demons of similar hearts and soul. To clear yourselves of 
that dirty image, your only last chance is to topple the despot and usher in a 
progressive civil government within the shortest possible time. Only then would 
it come to the open that it was Yaya who was behind all the crimes attributed 
to the soldiers including the order to kill the unarmed school children in the 
10th and 11th April massacre. Our heart still bleed with pain for what 
happened to our dear children. Yet the Kaninlai thing was reported dancing with joy 
for the whole world to see how happy he is. Let him know that the souls of the 
children were also present to take note. 

Ebou Colly 

    

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