Thank you once again Mafy. Nice Piece, and YES, let Burama Manjang be
resuscribed!

Tra.

>From: Malafy Jarju <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: The Gambia and related-issues mailing list
><[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Ebou Colly: No place for ethnic intolerance.
>Date: Mon, 7 Feb 2000 06:08:41 -0800
>
>In the wake of all the overpontifications, questionable first hand follies,
>and fallacious accounts of the circumstances leading to the most recent and
>previous coups, one common denominator is the fact that most of the story
>tellers are refugee passport holders who were either in the inner-circle of
>the AFPRC or were former ranking army officers who absconded because of
>thievery or participation in  uncovered coup plots.
>
>One such person calls himself Mr. Ebou Colly.  A former Lt. Colonel now
>masquerading as  Ebou Colly. The Lt. Colonel has all the rights to restate
>his observations while in the GNA.  My contention with his uproar  is
>twofold;  a) Why hide behind a fake name; b) Why deal the ethnicity card.
>He carefully picked a Jola name - 'Colly', which is clearly an attempt to
>convey the illusion that he could not harbor any rooted resentment toward
>Jolas.   He used a check-list of names/victims of false-coups, to incite
>and justify contempt for the Jolas.
>
>Well Mr. Colly!  as the newest member of Gambia-l, please be advised that
>this forum, as reflected by the ethnic composition of the Gambia is not
>Anti-Jola and so I don't think you can succeed in inciting a reprisal
>against Jolas.  The fact that  all of the attempted coups in The Gambia
>since July 22, 1994 are committed by non Jola's does not imply that 'all
>Jolas are benefiting from a Jola President and thus the docility'.
>
>On the late Lt. Almamo Manneh and Lt. Landing Sanneh, I don't wish to
>elaborate on the former because the dead deserve a peaceful 'RIP'.  The
>latter is an acquaintance of mine and I stand to tell Gambia-l how
>disappointed I am that he heeded to outside interest to embark on a
>suicidal fantasy of staging a two man coup. The highlight of my involvement
>with Lt. Sanneh includes computerizing his State House Office and
>familiarizing him with basic computer skills.  Lt. Sanneh is no stranger to
>me.  Folks,  I have no doubt  that Lt. Sanneh and Lt. Manneh intended to
>stage a coup.  Sanneh himself, under absolutely no duress confessed his
>involvement as the ring leader and asked for a chance to apologize on
>National TV.  The truth my friends will eventually unfold.
>  This man practically grew up with Yahya Jammeh, went to the same school,
>and was as close  to The President as anybody can get.  Folks, Ebou Colly
>need to be reminded about the Bob Marley lyric that says "Your worst enemy
>could be your best friend and your best friend your worst enemy".  The
>assassination of Thomas Sankara by a close friend  and confidant ( Blaise
>Campore ) and the assassination of the Niger President by the head of his
>Presidential guard shows that  trust cannot go unabated.  This theory of a
>fake coup conspiracy is pure nonsense.
>
>During the shoot-out at Lt. Sanneh’s residence, his wife  yelled out -
>"hand  yourself over before they kill us all!!!:  This upon hearing the
>leader of the soldiers give firm orders and said "cease fire, there are
>children inside, cease fire I say!" Lt. Sanneh gave himself up at that
>point thus saving his life.  If these soldiers were butchers or
>blood-thirsty, they would not have cared about the welfare of Lt. Sanneh’s
>wife and children.  Folks, all these facts are on record, I am not
>fabricating anything here.  The intelligence agency has almost completed
>its investigation and most of you will be surprised when the revelations
>are on air!
>
>In fact Mr. Ebou Colly - are you not part of the coup plot?  Are you not a
>former Lt. Colonel? There is a network that’s ready to reveal your identity
>while you hide in the Bronx and incite civil war in the Gambia.  Lt. Sanneh
>will very soon appear on TV and give his version to the Gambia public.
>This regime cannot be called "butchers" when all of us have seen what
>happened in Accra Ghana in 1979/80.  Is Rawlings not your darling now?.  We
>all remembered when Jawara ordered Sgt. Ousman Jallow to liquidate some
>rebels in a professional serial killer style!  Those of us crying foul
>today were cheering this very man.  You are saying that there are graves
>behind toilets. Yes, say it!  But, wasn’t it during Jammeh’s era that the
>bodies of two Gambian soldiers who were buried in Liberia exhumed and flown
>back to Banjul for the usual military burial?  Mr. Colly,  I believe you
>are only angry because your role as a soldier was more politically-oriented
>and as such you were eventually ejected from the Army because of your own
>virtue.  The Captain Cherno Jallow you mentioned is currently serving in
>Sieraleone with the UN peace-keeping force.
>
>How can we contact Mr. Cherno Jallow on the phone when the man is not even
>in the country, let alone call a seven digit number 4722121 when all phones
>in The Gambia are six (6) digits.  I suggest you provide us with ‘more
>credible’ stories next time.  A smear campaign with distorted facts will
>not win you any sympathizers.  I know these officers you mentioned.  You’re
>deliberately mentioning their names so as to indirectly stain their
>characters in a forum where they don’t have access.  Yes Yahya’s power base
>is in the Gambian people.  He is serving the Gambian people as mandated by
>the constitution by virtue of being democratically elected as President.
>
>If all your allegations are right,  how can a few soldiers make Yahya stay
>in power for all these years?  How can a few soldiers stand against a Fully
>Trained Army of your caliber?.  Wow, this is mind-boggling, a few soldiers
>against mighty Ebou Colley and his Battalion!!!  With all the information
>that you have, don't you think you owe it to Gambia-l to tell us your role,
>title/rank in the Army and your subsequent fallout with the regime and
>subsequent fleeing into exile.  You're too busy calling Yahya Jammeh,
>Yankuba Touray, Edward Singarteh, and Kaba Bajo bastards, thugs, cowards,
>and empty heads.    I challenge you to tell Gambia-l what your
>qualifications are. What University/College or Military institution did you
>attend and what qualifies you to call anybody an empty head.  What skills
>do you have and what job if any did your A-1 resume got you in the real
>world.  It is always interesting that those who always want to come across
>as more intellectual have little or no proof/title to back it up.  THE
>ABILITY TO READ AND POMPOUSLY WRITE in the Queens language does not,  by no
>means, make one an intellectual or worthy of the title 'Learned'.  Even
>having a Ph.D doesn't automatically qualify one as an intellectual.
>
>You stated that  Yahya Jammeh is a coward.  Folks, It was the same Yahya
>Jammeh who on the night before the coup was disarmed and risked being
>apprehended and put on death row.  It takes a man of great courage and guts
>to lead a coup in broad daylight the next day.  He led the march to Banjul
>to rescue us from thirty years of corruption, tribalism, and
>marginalization  in the highest degree.   All of you writing nonsense now
>against this regime are the same people who were scrambling for positions.
>Your colorless and opportunistic characters are the very baits that hooked
>you up during the course of events.
>
>On the issue of tribalism, the last time I checked, Eleven out of thirteen
>secretaries of state are non Jolas and that's not because there are no
>qualified Jolas.  If Jammeh is playing the ethnic card, all of these
>secretaries of state would have been Jolas, and surely, he could have
>filled all these positions will Jola intelligentsia even from this Gambia-l
>alone.
>
>If President Jammeh is tribalist, he would not have publicly stated that he
>won the presidential elections mainly because of the 56% percent of the
>larger ethnic groupings that he carried, including a majority of the
>Mandingos.  It is easy for the likes of Ebou Colly with refugee passports
>to incite ethnic hatred in the comforts of their new found status thousands
>of miles away.  We at Gambia-L should ask ourselves who the real victims of
>a civil war in Gambia would be. Over 90% of Gambia-l subscribers are in the
>diaspora and would not be personally affected by an all out civil war but
>some of us still have our loved ones back home.  If Ebou Colly also thinks
>that a civil war in the Gambia would result in a swift and decisive
>massacre of all Jolas, I am here to tell you that you must be living in a
>dream world.  We are all brothers and sisters in the Gambia.  I for one
>cannot raise a finger of hatred toward any Gambian because of his/her
>ethnicity.
>
>I suggest Mr. Ebou Colly, or whatever you choose to call yourself to take
>your simplistic fiery rhetoric to another forum.  Besides, if the
>Jolanization syndrome that you so tirelessly try to portray is real, then
>even the SOS for foreign affairs position would have been given to Mr. Mbye
>Sagnia who is at the EU in Brussesl.  Some of us on this Gambia-l were
>taught by Mbye Sagnia  who is arguably the best French Scholar from The
>Gambia.   He was born at Kombo Berending and he is a Jola.  He was
>frustated out of the Jawara regime after having been left to inhale chalk
>for years at Armitage School.
>
>THIS PRESIDENT  ( YAHYA JAMMEH ) IS HERE FOR ALL GAMBIANS REGARDLESS OF
>LANGUAGE AFFILIATION.  QUITE A CONTRAST FROM 30 YEARS OF MARMARGINALIZING
>THE FONIS ESPECIALLY AFTER THE KUKOI COUP. This is not a fabrication
>because even  ex President Jawara  said, and I quote, " how can Yahya
>Jammeh, from a minority tribe, rule over the majority tribe ."  I am not
>making this up because I was one of only seven attendants at a meeting held
>for the express purpose of seeking support for his return to Gambia ‘As
>President’. The meeting was held at the campus of The University of Miami
>(Ohio ) moderated by Dr. Abdoulie Saine.  For the record, under the current
>Yahya Jammeh regime, the fact remains that  99% if not 100% of all rural
>development projects are in areas other than the Fonis.   The Foni
>constituents never complained then (during Jawara) and are not complaining
>now.  So what’s the basis of Mr. Ebou Colly uproar.
>
>Let me remind you Mr. Ebou Colly - that you’d have to wipe out all the
>Mandingos, Fulas, Akus, Serrers, Manjakos, Serahulays, Wollofs, along with
>the Jolas if you want to achieve your goal because this government is
>represented by all the ethnic makeup of the Gambia.  So, my friend who are
>you really taking on here?
>
>I cannot conclude without touching on (a),  the NIA stuff and (b),  the
>Crude oil stuff.  On the NIA stuff let us be reminded that the Security
>council is chaired by the Vice President.  It controls the security
>apparatus of the Gambia.  The NIA is directly under this umbrella.  The
>main objective and role of the council is to assess, analyze, and report
>all matters concerning national security to the President.  I am not a
>French scholar but I believe this what they call ‘malsaisance’.  The level
>of ethnic tolerance that we enjoy in the  Gambia in unsurpassed.  No ethnic
>group can claim to be marginalized  or flushed out of the system.  No
>ethnic group has a lock on the Presidency or any other office for that
>matter.  Public office is a revolving door.  You’re in today and you’re
>gone when God’s time arrives.  The big picture is that we need to let the
>bells of tolerance ring from Banjul to Koina.
>
>On the crude oil rumor/saga,  we need to be careful not to jump to
>conclusions.  I remember fully, a few weeks ago when the Gambia media, The
>Independent Newspaper in particular wrote that The Gambian First Lady Madam
>Zainab Yahya Jammeh returned to her native Morocco after a divorce from
>President  Jammeh.  They went further to swear that the new bride is from
>Sintet and a Native Jola.   Some members of this  list swore to the Holy
>Quran that the Independent newspaper account was correct.   Folks, I am not
>an expert in oil trading but common sense dictates that uplifting raw crude
>oil, refining that oil, finding a reasonable selling price, and drawing
>contracts involves some intricate decisions to make.  The fact remains that
>The President has proved that the proceeds of the crude oil is not in a
>Yahya Jammeh account.
>
>A key figure in the oil transfer scandal Mr. Smith, said that all he know
>is that the oil was uplifted but doesn’t know how the funds were used.
>Folks, the perception that the oil proceeds were deposited in a private
>account is purely speculative, ESPECIALLY WHEN PROJECTS WERE BEING
>COMPLETED ALL OVER THE GAMBIA DURING THIS PERIOD - Hmmmmm.  Making sense!!!
>  You bet !!!
>
>The oil proceeds along with money from other sources were intended and used
>for the promotion of rural electrification, the Bwiam Hospital, the Kerawan
>Bridge,  etc. etc.
>
>I KNOW MY CRITICS ARE WAITING WITH THEIR USUAL BLIND CRITICISMS BUT , HEY,
>I HAVE THICK SKIN AND BESIDES, THAT’S THE NATURE OF THE BEAST -  UNLESS  OF
>COURSE YOU THROW INSULTS AT ME THEN ALL HELL BREAKS LOOSE !!!!
>
>WE CAN BE CIVIL ABOUT IT OR WE CAN THROW BRIMSTONE AND FIRE !!!.
>
>BTW.  Where is the cry for subscribers to use their real names.  Katim
>Touray - What’s up.  Why the silence?  Oh!!!  I know why! - they don’t have
>to reveal their identity as long as they ‘re Anti-APRC.  Talking about
>double standards...  WOW - WHAT A FORUM!!!
>
>!!!!! RESUBSCRIBE BURAMA MANJANG - NOW !!!!!
>
>Good Day,
>                                 Malafy "Mafy" Jarju
>                                 Software Engineer
>                                 Delta Air Lines
>                                 Corporate Offices
>
>
>
>
>___________________________________________________________________
>Get smart - get your FREE email at http://email.looksmart.com
>
>----------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L
>Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html
>
>----------------------------------------------------------------------------

______________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L
Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html

----------------------------------------------------------------------------