Mr Dibba,

Thanks a lot for picking up the pieces from where you left them. My only advice this 
time is never allow yourself to be distracted by some unscrupulous Gambians who are 
benefiting from Jammeh's killing spree. Your writings always touch a cord in the hearts 
of all true Gambians.
Once again, thanks a lot for waking me up from my slumber.

Prince

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Kebba Dibba" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Saturday, March 25, 2006 10:19 PM
Subject: Brothers and sisters remember our beloved friend, husband, brother and son 
Gibril Saye


Again we are withness Yahya Jammeh leveling the ground to murder our brothers and 
sisters
  We are equally saddened about Gibril Saye or Lieutenant Saye.

  Pleased in the sense that his case needs to be told which I shall attempt to do the 
way I understand it. But am also quite sad to remember every thing about this fine 
soldier who was too good to die the way he did. Everything you mentioned about this 
soldier, especially his devotion and love to promote sports in the GNA-had a keen hand 
in football, basketball, volleyball and everything-made him more so a victim to be 
mourned and wept for until that day when his body is exhumed from that toilet pit and 
given a decent burial. We can classify Saye as the real soldier with difference. He was 
nice, respectable and highly competent. But above everything, the young man was soft 
hearted, couldn't hurt a fly when it comes to killer instincts that we saw among the 
ranks of the army since 1994. The guy had conscience and would rather die than see the 
truth twisted and remain indifferent to it like so many APRC lackeys we see today. One 
of the reasons I later learnt for the AFPRC's decision to
 eliminate him was among other things his constant challenge to all of them over our 
detention at the central prisons without any credible reason or explanation for it. I 
understand he had openly and constantly protested to the council members to try us if 
they had anything against us or set us free. But death row at Mile Two prisons was not, 
as far as he was concerned, a place for good officers like us. He had even gone against 
all odds one day by coming to the prisons to see us with encouraging words to the effect 
that they were working hard for our freedom. He had brought us provisions and toilet 
articles as well. It was shocking to learn few days later that Saye was dead.

  So you were right Dampha in stating that the 11th November event found me in jail. 
About thirty-five of us were detained for nothing we did.  But I can still remember how 
devastated Saye's family was over the death of the man who solely provided for them. 
They even had to send a secret inquirer at Mile-Two prison to find out whether Saye was 
detained with us. His father cannot still get over what he new was a murder of his son, 
because he saw his son when he was leaving for work the morning after the so-called 
abortive counter coup. Soldiers who were present at the camp that day also took the 
trouble to go to the family house and explained to them what happened at Yundum that 
weekend afternoon.

  I personally conducted my private investigation over the case and came out with the 
concrete evidence that these men were murdered when they least expected it from these 
cowards. A man like Saye would have never dreamt about Sana Sabally taking a direct role 
in his slaughtering. They were very close job associates, sharing the same office where 
Saye was his deputy in the heavy-weapons platoon. They were always together in their 
small office by the fuel storeroom. Before the coup one would easily mistaken them for 
brothers given the way they used to hang closely together. On the flip side however I 
think that was the reason why Sabally freaked out after the 11th November massacre. 
Killing a human being out of no justifiable reason could be psychologically very 
traumatic to the mind of the killer but when the relationship between the killer and the 
victim was bonded by that human factor bordering on friendship and love, the tragedy 
turns into a clinical nightmare.

  Anyway, that's another trivial story that I may come back to in later discussions. But 
as I said I started my investigation about 11th November in the jail with special 
interest in Saye's case. The first opportunity I had to know what exactly happened was 
when in February surviving soldiers arrested and accused of complicity in the counter 
coup were brought to Mile-Two prisons under heavy armed guard. The notorious Staff 
Sergeant Kanyi was part of the guards. They had to be transferred from the Yundum cells 
to death row at Mile Two. They were WO-2 A Trawelleh, Sgt. N kabareh, Sgt. S. Manjang 
Cpl. A.Jallow, Cpl. M. Saidykhan, L/CPL M.O. Njie, L/CPL K. Kamara and PTE. B. Manneh. 
When they were first brought in, they were so much convinced of being lesser criminals 
than we were that for a while they refused to say anything pertaining to what bought 
them there. Every one of them thought his arrest or detention was a mistake because, as 
far as they were concerned, they did not have a
 clue about any organized counter coup as such. As a result they all thought sooner 
rather than later they were going to go home.

  Then on the22nd February, 1995, each of them received a letter from Baboucarr Jatta's 
office (then army commander) warning them to brace up for a general court martial 
scheduled to start on 25th February 1995. That was to say that they had barely thirty 
hours to face a court martial on charges of treason. For their defence, they were not 
allowed to have any representation from professional legal officers or practitioners. 
The following officers' names were forwarded to them as the only available persons they 
could choose their legal representatives from: Captain M.B. Sarr, Captain S. Fofana, 
Captain JP Jasseh and Lt. Seckan. These were men who were big time legal illiterates. 
For the prosecution however, Justice B.Akamba a Ghanaian solicitor was the head of the 
team. It was clear to all the accused that it was after all a kangaroo court martial 
that awaited them and they also knew that Baboucarr Jatta was a genius at it. It was a 
lost course to all of them. That was the time they
 really started talking. By the time they were hastily tried, found guilty and all 
sentenced to nine years imprisonment with hard labour, they had told us everything they 
witnessed and knew about the murder of their colleagues. Most of them were arrested 
after Barrow, Faal and Nyang were killed but well before Saye was arrested. They were in 
the Yundum cells when Saye reported for work the following morning and was placed under 
arrest by the military police. Every clothes he was wearing (he was in working uniform) 
was taken off him and was left with only his underwear before the military police forced 
him to join them in the cells. He was stunned and tried to ask for explanation but was 
simply told that the orders came from the council members of the government. Who were 
they? Of course the cowards: Yaya Jammeh, Sana Sabally, Edward Singhateh, Sadibou 
Haidara and Yankuba Touray. Anyway like all of them who were detained Saye had felt that 
the error would be corrected and that he
 would soon be set free.

  Then the next day while Major Frazer Joof, commander of the military police unit was 
taking their statements at the military police office, they received orders to stop the 
investigation and send them back to the cells. They were informed that the council 
members were at the officer's mess discussing their fate. It was lunchtime, so they 
decided to have their meals. Half way in their eating they heard some strange movements 
out side. Then a voice they could not recognized started calling for all those officers 
arrested to come out now. Sorting out the officers from the other ranks was, according 
to them, very scary. All the officers were handcuffed the moment they stepped outside. 
Then they loaded them like sheep in the back of an army Land Rover and covered them with 
tarpaulin.

  The windows of the cells at Yundum were not quite high, so those in the cells could 
clearly view the activities going on outside. It was from there that they saw the convoy 
of council members departing with the officers including Saye. Baboucarr Jatta was with 
them too. For two to three hours they sat in silence praying and hoping that things were 
not really what they thought they were, until they heard the convoy roaring back into 
the camp with the green tarpaulins all soaked in blood. They drove them back to the 
toilet area where they stayed for another twenty to thirty minutes. Then they came back 
and called for Sgt. E.M. Ceesay and Sgt. Basiru Camara to follow them to the back. Few 
minutes later they heard burst of automatic gunfire twice. They were the last two to be 
murdered. It was a nightmare of unprecedented proportion that shocked every person with 
human emotion that evening. The second part of my investigation, which filled in the 
blank spaces left by the accused men,
 was completed when I was freed from detention after ten months. After being released 
and reinstated back to the army, I eventually became very close to Baboucarr Jatta who 
in his non-stop effort to clear himself of any wrong doing that day told me the missing 
details.

  Anyhow taking stock of what Jatta had in mind could be extremely elusive. Sometimes he 
would echo as if Lt. Barrow had really planned a coup; but at other time it is as if, 
the AFPRC government, in order to eliminate the officers and soldiers who felt they 
betrayed the nation and the army, framed everybody. For example when Lt. Barrow was 
arrested that night, Jatta's explanation was that he had found him surrounded by Sabally 
and his guards after he was severely beaten up. He said that Sabally showed him a list 
of names of government officials Barrow and his partners had planned to execute if they 
had succeeded. His name Jatta was on top of the list. But he said upon scrutinizing the 
paper he had discovered that the list was forged to justify their desire to execute 
them. As a matter of fact, he confirmed the forgery in the paper when he noticed that 
his own name on top was quickly scribbled in pencil while the whole list was in ink. He 
said he took the list from Sabally and walked
 up to Barrow and asked him why he wanted to kill him. But as soon as Barrow started 
swearing that he did not mean to kill anybody, Sabally turned around and hit him on the 
mouth with the wooden butt of his AK47 rifle, breaking all his front teeth.

  "The torture they subjected Barrow and Faal to", Jatta had said, "even if they were 
not shot and killed finally, they would have most likely died from their injuries". 
Jatta also explained how all those arrested were later taken to Mile-Two prisons first 
and then to Fajara Barracks that night for execution during which a good number of them 
took the risk and ran away into the dark. Almost all of them escaped to Cassamance 
including Lt. Minteh, Lt. Jarju Lt. Bah Lt. L.F. Jammeh, Sgt Jadama, Sgt. Joof and 
others. The dash for freedom happened when the captives were forced in line at the 
middle of the field and then ordering some selected soldiers to open fire on them in a 
typical military execution style. Three times the order was given, and three times the 
soldiers aimed and fired above the heads of the victims.

  Then Edward Singhateh soon got frustrated with the firing team, walked up to where 
Barrow was standing, held him by the wrist, pulled him away from  everyone and then 
fired two shots at him. One bullet hit Barrow on the leg and the fatal one went through 
his ribs. He fell down on the ground kicking and moaning until his whole body was 
reduced to weak involuntary twitching of his muscles here and there. "It was then that 
everybody woke up to the reality that they were dealing with real killers", said Jatta. 
There was total chaos. Some running for their lives others dumb founded by Singhateh's 
action while most of the soldiers suffered total shock. However, Faal was unable to move 
because of the injuries he had sustained that crippled him altogether. The bullet that 
finished him was fired from the late Sadibou Haidara's handgun. After that Staff 
Sergeant Kanyi was left with his sadistic pleasure of pumping more brass into poor 
Faal's body.

  However let us not forget that in the heat of all this commotion, Lt. Gibril Saye was 
at home perhaps helping his wife nurse the three-week old son they just had. So to even 
say that he was seen that night around anywhere the coup was staged was ridiculous much 
more being killed in a firefight that night as the cowards tried to sell to the world. 
With the number of soldiers supposedly killed in that single incident that night, it is 
practically impossible or mind boggling to imagine that it was a fire fight where all 
the enemies were shot and killed while no one in the friendly forces got a scratch on 
him. That must have been the cause of the bitterness from Saye's family members 
especially from his dad. It should have also been a wake up call to the entire Gambian 
population that the so-called soldiers of difference were nothing but sadists with 
death. But as Dampha rightly put it the civilian population in most cases hardly show 
any interest in what happens in the army or have
 little sympathy to the soldiers in active service. The general concept is that they are 
all the same, so whatever may happen among them good or bad is their own business. On 
the contrary, most soldiers are ordinary people, the typical Gambian type who sees his 
work as a source of earning income. Although the salary is very limited, the majority 
work hard to manage their lives with it, get married, raise and support good families 
hoping to survive the danger of being killed in the job or avoid the evil of killing 
unnecessarily until such time when they finish their signed contracts and leave for 
something better.

  However, talking about the summarily execution at Yundum in which Saye was murdered 
Jatta had explained it all in the way he experienced it. As it was weekend, he said he 
was at home when he received a call from an officer at Yundum Barracks reporting the 
presence of the council members at the officers' mess. And the way things appeared they 
did not seem to mean any good towards the arrested officers and soldiers in the cells. 
He immediately drove to the camp and found them in the mess as reported. When he 
entered, they instantly stopped talking. But after a short while they informed him of 
their decision to execute everybody in the cells for their role in trying to overthrow 
their government. According to Jatta, he tried to talk them against the idea in every 
way to no avail. At one time he said he almost got Sabally, the vice-chairman then, to 
understand, but Singhateh called Yaya at the state house to inform him about the 
situation. When Singhateh returned from making the call
 at an office close to the mess, he said that Yaya's decision was final-death for all 
the officers.

  That was when everybody moved out to get the officers from the cells. It was lunchtime 
just like the survivors inside the cells explained it later at Mile Two. Anyway 
everything was the same except that those in the cells missed what happened in the 
killing process. When the officers were handcuffed and covered with tarpaulin in the 
back of the Land Rover, Staff Sergeant Kanyi was ordered to ride with them at the back. 
By the time they arrived at the execution ground behind Njamby Forest, Kanyi had 
severely hurt most of them with bayonet stabs all over their bodies. He was that 
instruction to Kanyi originated from Singhateh. Jatta had claimed to follow them all the 
way to the killing field to put more pressure on them and to still try to talk them out 
of it.  Well, he must have done a perfectly disgusting job in convincing them not to 
kill, anyway. The officers were as soon as they arrived at the ground lined up in a 
firing-squad formation to be shot. It was another tense moment
 where it appeared as if everyone was waiting for the other person to commence the 
shooting. Then as if it was an accidental discharge from Kanyi's weapon who was standing 
very close to Singhateh, he fired straight at the officers hitting Saye and killing him 
instantly. After that, it was a matter of finishing the rest since one had already died. 
It was the final green light for the butchering orgy to start. Jatta went on to explain 
how confused the council members felt when the killing was all over. They were 
altogether confused with what to do with the bodies.

  They finally arrived at the stupid decision to have their guards bury the corpse in 
the bushes somewhere. Jatta said he talked them against that for fear that people will 
soon find the bodies. That was how they were eventually taken to Yundum Barracks, to the 
toilets. He talked about how Sgt. E.M.Ceesay and Sgt. Basirou Camara were also killed 
that day. He could particularly remember Lance Corporal Batch Jallow, Singhateh's driver 
at the time pulling the trigger on those two. He further gave the gruesome details of 
how Saye's long legs (he was about 6ft. 8ins. tall) could not fit in the ditch together 
with the others and how Kanyi and co used a machete to cut off his legs before 
force-fitting the body in the mass grave. It was the mother of all evil that I know the 
culprits will account for someday. It is hard to comprehend how brutal these demons were 
on people who did not hurt anyone in their existence. Why was it impossible for anyone 
among them to stand up and say that this
 must stop, for it is all wrong? Where was god in the hearts of these GAMBIANS? Jatta 
said Saye's father made a final attempt to know about the fate of his son after Sana 
Sabally and Sadibou Haidara fell victims of their own creation on the 27th of January 
1995.

  He had gone to the ministry of defence to ask Singhateh but the old man was referred 
to his office at the army headquarters. All that the father wanted to know was whether 
his son was dead or alive. He said he frankly told him to give it up in ever seeing his 
son alive again because he was really dead. The old man, he said, thanked him for the 
information and left with high emotions. Now back to where I stopped in my last piece 
COUP IN GAMBIA. For a brief flashback, I was part of the team of the American guests 
visiting the vice president's office when a GNA officer at the state house told me about 
the soldiers at Yundum Barracks on their way to Banjul to overthrow the PPP government. 
However, because of my duty that day to escort the guests upstairs to Mr.Sahou Sabally's 
office, I tried to calmly perform it without raising any alarms. Yet I was very worried. 
The whole thing was really scary. Upstairs, Mr. Sabally welcomed the team in few nice 
words and then said. "Gentlemen, I am
 afraid to inform you that we just received a report that the soldiers at Yundum 
Barracks were on a rampage again".

  He had sounded as if the matter was a familiar thing that may die out soon. It was 
pretty much possible that Mr. Sabally had thought that it was one of those 
demonstrations from Yundum again which the TSG could stop like they did before. Whether 
Mr. Sabally understood the imbalance of power between the two forces caused by the 
Nigerians lately could be anyone's guess. Whatever he was thinking at that moment, he 
appeared very calm about the matter. Anyway Mr. Winters the ambassador before stepping 
into the office immediately asked whether it was not better for them to go back to the 
ship until the situation was under control then they come back. The vice president 
insisted that there was no need for that. He told them to stay indicating that it was 
possible that their help may be needed. While they stepped into the office, I took 
permission to go and find out what was going on. It was granted. Downstairs, the same 
officer who first announced the trouble at Yundum was still at the
 spot I left him. I wanted him to tell me more about what he had heard and whether it 
was not mistaken for the exercise rehearsal the GNA was supposed to hold with the 
American marines that morning. It was not a rehearsal or anything like that. The way 
they got the report, the soldiers had broken into the armoury sharing all the weapons 
among them and were coming down to Banjul. Asked whether names of any leaders were 
mention in the report, he said no. I did not know whether it was only the other ranks 
again like the past two demonstrations before or whether the officers were part it this 
time. I looked at the state house environment again especially the security situation 
and felt very insecure there. I had my office there and had been working there for 
almost two years but the officers and other ranks of the presidential guards were like 
clowns. These people never trained, did not understand section, company or battalion 
battle drills. They did not know the difference between
 camouflage and concealment in the language of battlefield tactic.

  Combat fitness did not exist in their vocabulary. They were overfed, better paid than 
all the security forces in the country, spoiled and generally very rude towards GNA 
officers. Their only reserved powers were linked to the crazy "jujus" they carried in 
abundance making think that they were bulletproof charms. The charms were only for 
bluffing, because if they had strongly believed in those powers the majority would not 
have thrown their weapons at the last minute and jumped over the tall state house fence 
and disappeared into Banjul. Those who remained, Musa Jammeh and others, simply opened 
the gates and surrendered. But how could we blame them if their main commander who 
should have taken charge of the critical situation Captain Lamin Kaba Bajo chose to 
abandon the camp and joined former president Jawara on board the USS Lamour County? What 
was there to protect in a president who had lost his nation? Perhaps if he had stayed 
the majority of his men would not have had the nerve
 to run away with their tails between their legs. What else would you expect from such 
men, anyway? I knew that staying with the state guard was unwise or even suicidal. 
Beside, they only had AK47 rifles and most of them hardly used their weapons for 
training or anything.

  If it was true that the soldiers had actually broken into the armoury, I thought, and 
was bent on taking the country by force, there was no force that could challenge them in 
the country. The GNA armoury was jam packed with super deadly weapons such as the 
RPG-7s, AAMGs, 81MM and 60MM mortars that excluded the medium range machine guns and the 
Chinese-type LMGs. Truthfully the GNA was not quite trained on how to employ these 
weapons in combat, but I know by merely firing them at the direction of any enemy force 
not exposed to even the sound that comes out of their barrels was enough to chase them 
away or make them surrender.

  I therefore told the officer what I believed could have been a possible way of pulling 
something. The Gambia Marine, commanded by Major Antouman Saho had new 50 Caliber 
machine guns delivered by the Americans that very morning for the patrol boat. The 
firepower of those weapons was enough to make the soldiers from Yundum to listen if 
fired back to them out of necessity. The ballistics of their projectiles has the 
capability of piercing six inches of homogeneous steel and was meant to kill armour in 
battlefields. They are so deadly that they're in an international law forbidding anyone 
from shooting it directly at humans. With the men at the Gambia Marine who had some 
pretty good experience with similar weapons of the Chinese type mounted on some of their 
other patrol boats, it was possible to assemble a counter force that could challenge the 
soldiers from Yundum. The gentleman agreed with my analogy; hence I took off to the 
Marine Unit base. Major Saho was there, but he would not
 buy my idea. He was in his office and was fully aware of what was going on but had put 
it to me that he did not even want his men to know about the coup situation because he 
did not trust them.  " I don't want to have anything to do with this trouble", he had 
continued.

  "Was it not the Nigerians who were being paid fat salaries to defend the country? 
Let's leave things with them to solve." Nothing was going to make him involve himself in 
the problem or his men or weapons for that matter. Anyway when I heard him talking to 
the concerned citizens calling him from various offices in the country asking to know 
what was going on, and he kept on assuring them that special plans were underway to 
arrest the situation, then I realized that I was at the wrong place. Banjul was an 
island and the last thing I wanted was to be cornered in the city in an armed conflict. 
After all most of our family members were at the other side of the bridge. I decided to 
drive alone via Bond Road towards Yundum. I had had no reason to fear any soldier from 
there. As for the officers, leaving the Nigerians out, there were Major Davis, second in 
command of the battalion, Captain Badjie (now colonel) commanding "C" company, Captain 
Sonko Commanding "B" company, Captain Johnson,
 AHQ Camp, Captain Dibba Band, the late Captain Baldeh Band, Lt. Ndure Cham (now major) 
engineering section, late Lt. Barrow MT section, Lt. Sheriff Gomez, battalion adjutant, 
Lt. Yaya Jammeh MP commander, Lt. Mbye platoon commander, 2LT Haidara platoon commander 
and 2lt Singhateh, platoon commander. 2Lt Sabally was supposed to be at Farafenni at his 
new parent unit. Going by anything in the past present or even future, I could not see 
what I could have done wrong to any soldiers or officers for me to be treated otherwise 
than with respect and understanding.

  Terrible thinking in a coup situation, as I learnt later. In the first place, I was 
later made to understand that Major Antouman Saho had reported me to all the council 
members that I went to the marine unit to get his weapons to counter the coup but that 
he drove me away because the coup was an absolute necessity. That, I suspect, 
contributed to my arrest and detention four days later. Betrayal by people you trust is 
another coup malady. So in trying to draw some basic principles for any soldier caught 
in a coup situation, my first ones will include this one: NEVER TRUST ANY PERSON IN 
UNIFORM AROUND YOU. However, my trip to Yundum stopped at Denton Bridge, where the TSG 
commanded on the ground by Majors Chongan and Swareh were making frantic efforts to 
prevent the soldiers from crossing over. I will deal with that crucial encounter next 
week. In the mean time I want to commend all of you in the struggle for your tireless 
efforts to liberate the Gambia. This is a fight for freedom,
 and I know that we are winning one battle after another but the war is yet to be 
finished. Dampha, Saul, Kujabi, Hamjatta, Jabou, Conteh, Joe, Ebrima, edrissa, Jobe, the 
Movements in NY and UK and all those combatants in the front line, I salute you for your 
diligence and endurance to sustain the struggle. I also want to take a special moment to 
welcome an impressive new member, Abdou Touray, whose contribution is so far fantastic.

Keep up the great work. We shall win.

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