Mr. Momodou Ceesay:
Excellent and powerful letter. Keep up the good work.
Abdoulaye
Momodou Ceesay wrote:
>
> List Members:
>
> Below is a copy of the letter we The Gambians in Atlanta sent to The U. N.
> Secretary General.
>
> Mayor Bill Campbell
> 55 Trinity Avenue SW
> Suite 2400
> Atlanta, Georgia 30335.
> Dear Sir:
> Certain events are unfolding in The Gambia which compel us to write with a
> sense of urgency and ask for your help. The pages of human history are
> littered with accounts of man's mistreatment of man, yet certain species of
> misconduct are so vicious, so offensive to the code of decency, they shock
> the conscience. Thus murder is murder, yet it is all the more shocking to
> the human experience when committed by a mother against daughter, father
> against son, or by one loved one against another. Surely we are no less
> appalled when a government decides with full deliberation to turn its
> instruments of war upon its citizenry for no other reason than to quell their
> determination to exercise their democratic and constitutionally guaranteed
> rights.
>
> On April 10, 2000 the government of The Gambia committed such an offense
> against its citizens of the most innocent age when it ordered fire on a
> peaceful demonstration of students as young as 3 years of age. Some were cut
> down instantly and still others sent home with their garments dipped in
> blood.
>
> >From all indications on the ground, we have determined that the peaceful
> demonstration undertaken by the Gambian students on April 10, 2000 was
> entirely justifiable and wholly consistent with their democratic right
> guaranteed by The Gambian Constitution, and the Universal Declaration of
> Human Rights. From all accounts, the following events transpired:
>
> 1. On March 9, 2000 Ebrima Barry, a student enrolled at Brikama School,
> entered into a dispute with his teacher over his seating designation at the
> school
>
> 2. The Brikama Fire Department was called which promptly arrested Ebrima
> Barry and detained him. In the course of his detention at the Brikama Fire
> Department, he was stripped of his clothes, his head shaved, his body covered
> in wet cement and made to ingest the same. Furthermore, Ebrima was compelled
> to carry from one location to another no less than 40-60 bags of cement, one
> at a time. Ebrima subsequently died from the injuries he received in the
> course of his detention.
>
> 3. A man in uniform presumed to be a police officer raped a student Binta
> Manneh, at the Stadium, on March 10, 2000.
>
> 4. The Gambian Student Union (GAMSU) was outraged and properly communicated
> the concerns of its membership to the authorities at the failure to arrest
> and prosecutes culpable persons.
>
> 5. The government's inaction convinced students that the invocation of their
> democratic right to peaceably gather and express their concerns was necessary
> to demonstrate their resolve that justice should prevail for their two fellow
> students.
>
> 6. On the morning of April 10, 2000, GAMSU membership was to first assemble
> at the GTTI where their placards were stored. However, on arrival,
> paramilitary forces chanting "peace by force confronted them."
>
> 7. The paramilitary fired in the air at the GTTI, however it is not clear
> whether it was live ammunition, blank shots, or rubber bullets that were used
> at this time. What is certain is that the paramilitary fired in the air in
> an attempt to disperse the students.
>
> 8. Even though the students at GTTI were dispersed after a brief skirmish
> with the paramilitary, other students en route got word that their colleagues
> were being fired upon and they scattered. Clusters of students throughout
> the Serekunda area encountered paramilitary forces in pursuit.
>
> 9. In an effort to keep the paramilitary at bay, students burned tires and
> defended themselves with stones as they marched on.
>
> 10. When the demonstration reached the paramilitary base at Bakau and at The
> Red Cross Headquarters, live ammunition was fired into the students on orders
> from someone still not disclosed killing Omar Barrow, and wounding several.
> Omar Barrow was a media practitioner at Sud FM Radio Station who was acting
> as a Red Cross Volunteer.
>
> 11. At no time was any student armed with anything other than stones.
>
> Our very humanity, our right of domicile within the realm of human decency is
> violated and our objection must be emphatically registered no matter the
> cost. And so it shall be.
>
> However, we are determined not to surrender to the temptation of vengeance as
> comes most naturally to any human being confronted with such calamitous
> circumstances. Though our blood is turned to bile, we prefer to draw a lesson
> from the pages of our own prophets like Martin Luther King. Those whose
> blood has been shed shall not shed blood; and those who have known tears
> shall wipe them from the faces of others. In the quest for justice, the
> bravest offer their lives and lay claim to no one else's.
>
> We will survive this. However, we shudder at the specter of Somalia,
> Liberia, or Sierra Leone lurking in the twilight. A government determined to
> rule at all costs, costs a lot. Eventually, the totality of its misdeeds
> will grind down the very fabric of human endurance and shatter it.
>
> Dissent exists in all known societies, human and otherwise, and must be
> allowed peaceful expression. That is a necessary condition to peaceful
> co-existence. Gambians will reclaim our country, how this occurs is entirely
> dependent on the conduct of the renegade government. As in all critical
> moments like this a battle rages within each citizen; a battle between
> peaceful resistance and bloody vengeance. A government that insists on
> brutality aids the latter and not the former. And then God help us all. We
> must all work together so that that day never arrives.
>
> To this end we respectfully request that you:
>
> 1. Join us in a peaceful demonstration on April 27, 2000 to commence from the
> CNN building and proceed to the Georgia State Capitol Building.
>
> 2. Assist us in presenting a draft resolution to the Georgia State
> Legislature and the United States Congress condemning the brutish murder of
> Gambian children.
>
> 3. Immediately dispatch a letter to The Gambia government condemning the
> atrocities committed against its innocent citizens on April 10, 2000 and
> demanding the immediate release of all persons in custody as a result of the
> events on or about April 10.
>
> _________________________________
> Respectfully,
> Momodou K. Ceesay
> Secretary
>
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