Ngorr
I talked to Chongan on my way to Gambia.
He was offered a job at the home office in London.
Part of is job will be dealing with immigrants.
I am suppose to call him today and then i will give you a detail information
on what his job is about.
His wife is now attending the university in London

Talk to you soon
Matarr


>From: Ngorr Ciise <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: The Gambia and related-issues mailing list
><[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Re: TODAY'S QUOTE -- Ebrima Ismaila Chongan
>Date: Wed, 15 May 2002 14:55:32 +0000
>
>In today's quote, Brother Sanusi Owens wrote:
>
><<"Contrary to the intentions of the military, every
>detention against me strengthens my resolve. Every act
>of persecution through police cell or criminal charges
>advances the cause I fight for. Anytime I am arrested
>and taken to the police cell or to the prisons, I am
>not sad and I don't feel inconvenienced simply because
>I am not there because of myself fighting my own
>cause."
>
>
>
>
>Chief Gani Fawehini. Nigeria's Human Rights Crusader.
>
>
>
>This quote is dedicated to all political activists who
>were unlawfully detained in The Gambia during the
>First and Second Republic.>>
>
>Brother Sanusi, with your kind permission, can i be more specific and
>single
>out the brave, heroic and patriotic stance of a Brother, who not only
>selflessly defended constitutionality on July 22nd. 1994 but, most
>importantly, defiantly defended his actions on that fateful day, and paid
>the price of being illegally detained for said stance? The Brother in
>question is Ebrima Ismaila - formerly of the Gambia Police Force. But
>before
>i proceed to say why i think Chongan is worthy of my deepest amiration and
>respect, let me cull yestesday's quote, which you provided, and the
>appropriateness of this exercise would have a better context:
>
><<"It is not the duty of the army to rule or govern
>because it has no political  mandate...... If the
>national interest compels the armed forces to
>intervene, then immediately after the intervention the
>army must hand over to a new civilian government
>elected by the people and enjoying the people's
>mandate under a constitution accepted by them. If the
>army failed to do this , then it has betrayed the
>people and the national interest. "
>
>Dr Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana's First President and Founding
>member of the Pan Africanist Movement>>
>
>When i read this quote yesterday, the mouse that ran in the attic of my
>memory was how this quote aptly described the stance Chongan and his men
>took against the mutineering soldiers, who by quirk twist of fates ended up
>with an unintended "coup d'etat" in their hands. Imbued by the admirable
>ideals of constitutionality, Rule of Law and a grand sense duty, Chongan
>and
>his men valiantly defended first Denton Bridge from the onslaught of the
>mutineers, and when the tide went against him and his small band of loyal
>patriots, they took the fight all the way to Radio Syd. It was only upon
>the
>realisation of the futility of further exchanges with the mutineers, and
>the
>young Gambian lives that could invariably have gone that Chongan -- with
>dignity and his integrity intact -- asked his men to lay their arms downs
>and negotiated a compromise.
>
>For this stance, Chongan and every right thinking individual amongst his
>small band of patriots were illegally detained for months; they tortured,
>harrassed and intimidated relentlessly by such sadists like Sanna Sabally
>et
>al. During those emotionally trying and perplexing times, Chongan stoically
>persisted with the ideals that imbued him to take his heroic stance against
>the banditry of Yaya et al. He never wavered in his belief that the
>position
>he staked on July 22nd. 1994 was the right one, and wholly defensible. Much
>froth and nonsense has been written -- especially on Gambia-L last year --
>about Chongan's motives on that fateful day, to the effect it had been
>erroneously and nastily insinuated that the reason why he defended
>constitutionality on that fateful day was because he (Chongan) was a mere
>PPP operative. This is nonsense on stilts: not only has Chongan taken an
>astringently liberal slant in the course of executing his duties,
>especially
>the executing of the conditionalities of granting permits for political
>rallies in the First Republic, but, most importantly, he had granted such
>then radical groupings like PDOIS permits as and when they applied for one.
>These liberal interpretations and executions of conditionalities for
>permits
>didn't go down well with the PPP establishment; but Chongan was a
>conscientious PUBLIC SERVANT, serving the STATE and NOT any other political
>grouping -- be it the PPP, NCP or PDOIS. It was his understanding of his
>duties as an employee of the State which proplled him to interpret and
>execute his duties as he had sworn to do so when he joined the Services
>decades ago.
>
>Much to the AFPRC/APRC's chagrin, the case they tried to build against
>Chongan failed; and they were forced to release him. As it happened,
>Chongan's resolve, principles, integrity and conscience was further tested
>by the APRC when he was released: he was offered a job by Yaya, and Chongan
>turned down the offer. Chongan knew then, as now, that men of conscience,
>principles and impregnable integrity are incapable of a worthy relationship
>with Yaya's. But unbeknownst to him, by refusing this job offer on grounds
>of incompatible principles with the APRC, this stance was to be used
>against
>him when he left the Gambia for the UK, and sought political asylum there.
>Indeed, the job offer was used as anecdotal evidence to the effect that if
>his life were under threaten by the APRC, he would not have been offered a
>job the APRC. Luckily for him, his one-time boss in the police and former
>Mile Two detainee, Pa Sallah Jagne, who did accept jobs from Yaya with
>disastrous consequences, defected from the APRC and bolted before the
>stable
>doors were locked on him. Signally, Jagne's fall from grace in the scheme
>of
>APRC politics, and subsequent defection to the US rendered obsolete any
>such
>claims that Chongan will ever be safe in a Gambia under the tyranny of Yaya
>
>Even in the UK, life was never as easy as he may have anticipated. With
>much
>brio and principles, Chongan literally went through countless setbacks,
>seemingly never-ending trials and tribulations that invariably comes with
>migrations, especially migrants migrating with a young family. An instance
>of Chongan's self discipline, hard work and sheer knack for sticking to
>principles under considerable strain was how he got his first degree. The
>Brother paid his first year through university from his own pockets, whilst
>weathering the emotional and financial storms of bringing up a young family
>on his own in an alien country by working full time at night and studying
>full time during the day for his degree. As with stories of perseverance
>and
>dignified struggle against the odds, Chongan's trials and tribulations paid
>off handsomely: he's now got his LLB Honours Degree under his belt; a  new
>career in the British Civil Service; and a family integrating with him in
>their host society -- a society that has shown time and again that it is
>relatively tolerant, fair-minded and rewards hard work and self-discipline.
>
>I hope that by going this far to commemorate the dignified trials and
>tribulations of such an admirable and inestimable fellow like Chongan,
>others who know of specific individuals -- who stood against the tide of
>tyranny in the Gambia -- will name names and deeds.
>
>Finally, i wish Chongan and his young family all the best in the new
>Odyssey
>they've embarked upon in the UK. I have no doubt in my mind at all that his
>life from July 22nd. 1994 to date is a vindication of the admirable
>principles he defended valiantly on that regrettable and fateful day.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>_________________________________________________________________
>Chat with friends online, try MSN Messenger: http://messenger.msn.com
>
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