This message is from my brother Rolf Christensen.  I think it reflects the
way we are all feeling right now.

Astrid/

My sincerest condolences to the families of the young souls we have lost in
this saddest of national tragedies. We who are in a position to help should
do something to assist the families at this most painful of times.

We must do something to restore the soul of our nation. For too long we
Gambian's abroad and at home, have been silently disapproving of the regime
and its methods. We have watched as they operated with complete
impunity,callous disregard for fundamental human rights, looted the treasury
and embroiled the nation in countless scandals. We have silently watched as
they engaged in what can only be described as barbarism in murdering
opponents under the guise of suppressing coup attempts. Yet through all of
this we have convinced ourselves that as long as the killings and the
brutality remain contained within the ranks of the forces, somehow it did
not and would not affect us and our loved ones and we could conveniently
turn a blind eye to this blithe.

Now that the violence has spilled over to unarmed civilians, we can no
longer afford to be silent. There can be no plausible explanation or
justification for such a heinous act of complete cowardice and wanton
lawlessness on the part of the security forces and their leaders.  I for one
have arrived at a point where my conscience will no longer allow me to sit
on the sidelines and do nothing.

I am deeply ashamed to admit to myself that my complacency in allowing my
nation and my heritage to be hijacked by a group of despots may have
contributed to the deaths of innocent school children. Young children, who
had the courage to express what I and countless others have not had the
courage to do, and that is to publicly voice our disapproval of the current
regime and its methods.

As I write this, my sense of anger and frustration is only matched by the
feeling of complete helplessness to effect meaningful change in what is
clearly an intolerable situation. We need a solution and we need it quickly.
What can we do?  Where do we go from here?  I do not have the answer, but I
want to be a part of the solution. We can no longer afford to ignore what is
going on in the Gambia.

Rolf Christensen
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