MR. EBOU COLLY:

Where have you been hibernating? We really missed you. I was really
wondering where in the World you were? I also read this story on the PANA
NEWS last night, and the moment I saw it, I knew that the INDEPENDENT
NEWSPAPER had not vividly clarified the meticulous details of the entire
story; they should have done a more thorough job in compiling all the facts
of the story in order to give their readers a more clearer picture. In any
case, this kind of inhumane treatment of decent human beings, especially
those with whom you were comrades in the Military is absolutely pathetic and
sheer wickedness. I was talking to some who was in the Military together
with these soldiers who are suffering in MILE TWO PRISONS who told me that
in some instances, they have been denied food, water and medical treatment.
Frankly, in this 21st Century, I could not believe that such a situation of
human maltreatment and animal behavior is prevailing in my beloved country.
This is ridiculous and unacceptable. I wonder what those so-called GNA good
soldiers are doing? I am not a military man, but I wonder how MORON JAMMEH
has been able to survive all these years without even a much tougher
opposition in the GNA. This is heartbreaking my brother. As history just
taught us yesterday, one of the World's crime committers against humanity,
SLOBODAN MILOSEVIC of Yugoslavia, has been arrested and is now behind bars.
I think this should be a lesson to the MORON, but the thing is the MORON's
mediocre brain does not allow him to even comprehend basic human decency; he
will continue to commit crime against humanity till the time is ripe for him
also to face the Courts to answer his deeds.

My brother, another heartbreaking development in The Gambia today is the
Elections results currently emerging from the BADDIBOUS and KIANGS. I could
not come to terms that APRC has WON in the KIANGS, whiles only narrowly lost
in the BADDIBOUS. Frankly, if these election results were fair and square,
then it is absolutely frustrating, taking into account what may happen in
the PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS, come OCTOBER. But any how, let's wait for more
details to emerge form these areas. But, on the other hand, if what has
emerging, VOTE BUYING, becomes true, then this is a clear indication of the
fact that MORON JAMMEH has succeeded in MENTALLY ENSLAVING even our local
people. I had believed in what BROTHER SAUL KHAN said about the honesty and
integrity of the local people as opposed to the City dwellers; but in this
case, that analyses doe not hold water any longer. It is POVERTY that had
opaqued the minds of the local people. This has all been as a result of
MORON JAMMEH'S strategy, ie make people to suffer, so frustrated and hungry
till the gasp for breathe. Consequently, even a bag of rice could make them
sell their votes. The country's economic condition is so terrible that even
three daily meals becomes a problem for many. Therefore, considering the
fact that a head of a household could not even afford a bag of rice, giving
that head of household a D1000 or more could obviously buy votes of the
entire household. To put it in a nutshell, POVERTY beyond an bearable point,
does seriously impinge on HONESTY and INTEGRITY. Imagine that even our
so-called intellectuals like JOSEPH JOOF could not stand test of time. They
could not bear the little hardship and frustration they experienced,
consequently, their HONESTY and INTEGRITY could not stand it. It is
absolutely heartbreaking to see that despite the TORNADOES of INTIMIDATION,
TORTURE, KILLINGS and ARRESTS without warrants, still our peoples could get
it. This is a clear indication that WE have a very rough road ahead. To that
end, EBOU COLLY, welcome back. We really missed. Good to see you back.

Ansumana Kujabi(THIRD- Truth Telling, Honesty, Integrity, Responsibility and
Democracy)


>From: ebou colly <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: The Gambia and related-issues mailing list
><[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Re: Fwd: "Coup Plotters" Languish in Jail
>Date: Sat, 31 Mar 2001 14:30:46 -0800
>
>DEAR SISTER JABOU
>
>I first read this article from PANA news last night.
>And as Mr. Lamin Conteh somewhat put it, it was a
>pretty disturbing story. Disturbing in the sense that
>I don't think the Independent publishers did a very
>professional job in this case before letting it out to
>the public. Looking at the gray areas surrounding the
>logic of the text and the usable existing information
>regarding the background of these captives/ detainees,
>I am left but to guess that the Independent publishers
>threw this one around more for the purpose of probing
>for the actual facts than reporting a story they
>really understood its general implications.
>Unfortunately, however, the Gambia government would be
>the last institution to clarify matters of this
>complexity  which deals with what I may term this
>international political mess that at one point cost
>the GNA the lives of six innocent soldiers murdered in
>Farafeni Barracks in 1996; thanks to the naiveté of
>former President Abdou Joof and Yaya Jammeh.
>Interestingly, the attack on Farafeni Barracks in
>1996, which had a direct bearing on the case of these
>Liberian-trained mercenaries being detained at Mile
>Two Prisons, is part of my last chapters in the
>compilation of my memoirs intended for publication
>sooner or later.
>Anyway like so many outrageous misconceptions
>developed by so many people from the inaccurate
>stories spread all over the world about the 1994 coup
>in The Gambia , this story also surfaced as another
>flawed article requiring detailed clarification. I
>will do that now for the purpose of straightening out
>the records and sharing an aspect of history long
>overdue for telling.
>As for the Independent publishers, I think they would
>have done a better job if they had put a little extra
>effort in their investigation before writing such a
>half-baked story. Going through it may easily impress
>the ordinary reader into thinking that innocent
>Gambians living in Senegal were wrongly accused of
>coup plot by the notorious Jammeh regime in which
>former President Abdou Joof may have been manipulated
>into believing in the false coup story, extraditing
>these poor guys through the torturing hands of Sakung
>Badjie the current IGP and Samsideen Sarr the former
>GNA Commander who is now in exile in the USA.
>Swanding Camara was referred to as one of them who
>fought his case and won his freedom through the
>courts. As a free man now, the Independent could have
>compiled a more accurate story from Mr. Camara if they
>had done their homework properly.
>In 1996, after the attack on Farafenni, a press
>conference was held at the Army Headquarters in Banjul
>where the captured attackers were paraded before the
>public and private journalists for open questioning.
>The Independent may claim that their paper was not
>then in circulation or even established yet,
>nonetheless the images and confession of those deadly
>mercenaries still remain clear in the minds of those
>who cared about the murdered soldiers at Farafenni
>Barracks. Sulayman Sarr one of the most eloquent
>speakers among them elaborated on an evil story
>involving a scheme they had hatched together with
>Kukoi Samba Sanyang from the jungles of Liberia to
>come to The Gambia and destabilize the country like
>they helped Charles Taylor did in his country. During
>that interview captured in many tapes lying in several
>archives today, Sulayman Sarr and others revealed the
>active role played by people like Swanding Camara a
>well trusted aide to Kukoi and a former Gendermarie in
>the confederal armed forces, the late Yaya Drammeh and
>Ablie Sonko their leader in the Farafenni attack
>On a memory refreshment, if one could recall, it was
>explained that when Kukoi and the seventeen of them
>arrived in Senegal in March 1996, ready to attack The
>Gambia with the hope that the Senegalese government
>was going to give them unconditional support just like
>their leader Kukoi had convinced them to believe, they
>split the large group into two for tactical reasons.
>One group was based at Tambacounda and the other at
>Sokone while Kukoi, Swanding Camara, Ablie Sonko and
>Yaya Drammeh remained in Dakar. They were to link up
>with General Wane who was supposedly coordinating
>everything about them and the Senegalese government.
>The captives further revealed that after the
>Senegalese government started arresting their men in
>Tambacounda for trying to acquire weapons and Kukoi
>eventually abandoning them in Senegal for no specified
>destination, it was Swanding Camara who volunteered to
>go and face General Wane to find out why. Swanding was
>arrested that day. All these stories were told before
>the Gambian journalists in an honest and free
>environment of questioning and answering.  If the
>Independent publishers had any doubts about it, they
>could consult the veteran reporters of the Point such
>as Pap Saine and Daida Haidara who were present at the
>press conference.
>Having said that and still on the poor job done by the
>Independent publishers in this issue, there was
>another gray area on the matter, which should have
>triggered their curiosity for a little more
>investigation. The Point News Paper first reported the
>case of armed Gambian rebels captured in Tambcounda by
>the Senegalese government in the summer of 1996. The
>report indicated that the rebels were from Liberia but
>at the time, it had attracted little attention to the
>Gambian public or the Armed forces. But guess what?
>Those captured were none other than these Ansu Wally,
>Ebrima Waa Drammeh (Bamba), and Gibril Jallow,
>Abdourahman Baldeh and three more whose names I cannot
>remember.
>A little more effort in investigating this story would
>have given the Independent a more realistic story to
>tell.  For instance if they had searched for the
>missing link from the Point article reported in the
>summer of 1996 to the confessed stories by the
>captives in the Farafenni attack and then wondered a
>little more over why these men were not extradited
>throughout until in 1997 well after Kartong Camp was
>attacked by ex-GNA soldiers living in Cassamance, a
>bigger and more interesting picture would have
>appeared before them.
>Anyway the whole story is more complex than what I may
>expect an average reporter from the Independent to
>produce out of it just like that. But as I said
>earlier I will start telling the whole story as I
>experienced it. I was part of the investigation team
>in this particular case which I was very bitter about
>because of the preventable deaths it caused at
>farafenni Barracks. Abdou Joof and Yaya Jammeh could
>be justifiably accused of being the very culprits
>behind that crime. LOOK FOR MY NEXT PIECE.
>
>Ebou  Colly
>
>--- Jabou Joh <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> > The Independent (Banjul)
> >
> > March 30, 2001
> > Posted to the web March 30, 2001
> >
> > Alhagie Mbye
> > Banjul, The Gambia
> >
> > Highly placed sources close to both the Department
> > of State for the Interior
> > and the Central Prisons Department have confirmed to
> > The Independent have
> > described as appalling the condition of four
> > Gambians who were extradited
> > from Senegal in 1997 accused of attempting to
> > overthrow the APRC
> > administration.
> >
> > Also family members of the detained men, the four
> > including one who was
> > released were extradited from Senegal since July
> > 31st 1997 and were held
> > incommunicado for three years until last year when
> > they were allowed to meet
> > with members of their families. Ansu Wally from
> > Wuli, Ebrahima Waa Drammeh
> > alias Bamba from Tujereng, Suwanding Camara from
> > Bondali, Abdurahman Baldeh
> > from Basse and Gibril Jallow, alias Paco from Buiam
> > are said to be held in
> > "very stressful and inhumane conditions" without
> > being charged in any court.
> >
> > Concerned family members called on the authorities
> > to charge the accused
> > persons and try them or release them for the sake of
> > "humanity and justice."
> >
> > However sources close to both Departments
> > acknowledged that one of the
> > accused persons, Suwanding Camara, hired a lawyer
> > who challenged the
> > government on the legality of his continuous
> > detention without legal
> > backing. After a court battle Mr. Camara was
> > subsequently released and is
> > now said to be a freeman.
> >
> > The sources explained that the four detainees who
> > did not contract the
> > service of a lawyer like their former fellow inmate
> > were allowed only an
> > hour's rest for a whole day and given poor food
> > rations and "appalling"
> > toilet facilities.
> >
> > "They re not always given chance to bathe at times
> > and refrained from eating
> > food from family members an open empty gallon is all
> > they use as toilet" one
> > of them claimed.
> >
> > The accused five who were in Liberia were reportedly
> > arrested in Dakar when
> > the Gambian authorities convinced former President
> > Abdou Diouf that the five
> > were urgently wanted in Gambia "for trying to gather
> > arms to overthrow the
> > Jammeh administration." Despite the accused persons'
> > persistent denial of
> > the claims, the current Inspector General of Police,
> > Sankung Badjie, and the
> > former GNA Commander Samsideen Sarr who is currently
> > in exile in the United
> > States including five paramilitary officers went to
> > Dakar to effect their
> > extradition to Banjul. Sources claimed that the
> > accused persons were always
> > "harassed, beaten and tortured" by soldiers and
> > prison officers at Mile II.
> >
> > It added that late last year, the ICRC were allowed
> > to visit them and
> > provide them with two blankets each, a two inch
> > mattress.
> >
> > The sources added that despite numerous complaints
> > by the detainees, an
> > Interior department top-notch only conduct a visit
> > to the prisons twice a
> > year but pay no heed to their complains.
> >
> > Family members of the men also complained that their
> > detained relatives who
> > were held in Senegal for a year, were detained at
> > Cent Meter Camp (100m
> > camp) in Dakar Central Prison, where they were
> > reportedly freer and better
> > looked after. They were provided with proper food
> > from friends and family
> > members and allowed to rest from 8 am to 5 pm
> > outside the prisons a family
> > member of one of the detained men said. They noted
> > that in Senegal the coup
> > suspects were also allowed to listen to news and
> > read newspapers, drink
> > 'ataya' and smoke cigarette. "But in The Gambia any
> > officer, who brings a
> > copy of a newspaper, magazine or a radio set or
> > offer them cigarettes are
> > sacked with immediate effect" they noted.
> >
> > Family members who said they were shaken by the
> > experience called on the
> > international community and human right concerns,
> > such as Amnesty
> > International, the donor community and The Gambia
> > Bar Association to
> > intervene so that the suspects are either released
> > or charged.
> >
> > When contacted, a senior official at the Interior
> > Department who refused to
> > be named confirmed the continuing detention of the
> > four men. "I have just
> > been reading it in the papers. It is true that they
> > are being held there but
> > don't ever quote me in your newspaper" he said.
> >
> >
> >
>------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > --
> >
> > Copyright © 2001 The Independent. Distributed by
> > AllAfrica Global Media
> > (allAfrica.com).
> >
> >
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