Well Sidibeh:
Your ideas make more sense. The functional approach for peace in the region
should be to find a common ground in pursuing common objectives in
conquering our real enemies, poverty and disease and ignorance. Some of the
cruel wars and human disasters in our region even illustrates effective
urgency action of finding ways and means that can terminate the bloodshed
and all the sufferings caused by extreme self-assertion of selfish
individuals or groups. My advice is for countries to abstain from the use of
military violence for any other purpose than defence. Threatening other
states with military aggression as President Kumba Yalla is doing is not
acceptable, sure. But as Sidibeh puts it, there are some diplomatic channels
that one can use.
Thanks for sharing!
SS.Jawara,
Stockholm, Sweden.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Momodou S Sidibeh" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, June 19, 2002 12:04 AM
Subject: Re: FWD:Bissau Opposition Chide Yala Over Invasion Threats
> Mr. Jallow
> Thank you for your posting on this serious question. Nevertheless, I found
> your advice to President Jammeh rather baffling.
> My belief is that President Jammeh and his government must simply respond
> diplomatically to Guinea-Bissau and there are well-established channels
> through which that can be done. Preparing for war by increasing Gambia's
> defensive capabilities is the worst thing for our country and the entire
> subregion; a region that is today witnessing the devastating consequences
of
> senseless and relentless bloodletting, the plight of hundreds of thousands
> of refugees, untold human tragedies and litanies of agonising
> agonies....Liberia, Sierra-Leone (which is just beginning a difficult
> process of healing), Casamance...with no end in sight.
> It is also unfortunate and completely misguided to even make a comparison
> between our two tiny and beggared nations. To engage the poor in a
> who-is-less-hungry contest is to display a panglossian view of the African
> world. Gambian nationalism should not feed off the misery of poor Guineans
> especially if they live less longer than Gambians. Both peoples have
> national struggles to wage and it is our duty to help define the agenda in
> those struggles. President Jammeh, upon his return from the conference on
> food in Italy (a conference that was shunned by Western leaders) remarked
> that it was clear that "...we are on our own". It will be tragic if the
> president is just beginning to notice that. Millions of Africans are
> threatened with famine and disease, and in both Guinea-Bissau and Gambia
the
> struggle for food security, social and economic improvement of livelihood,
> access to primary health care, clean water, education, and the struggle
for
> democratic and human rights must remain the national vocation. And in the
> absence of peace, it will be impossible for us to fight the fights that
> really matter in a world where others are busy designing juridical
> frameworks that should give them legal ownership of even the plants that
> feed the hungry.
>
> If there is anything that Gambia has been blessed with since Jawara's
days,
> it is a sound policy of good-neighbourliness. President Jammeh must build
> upon that legacy.
>
> Sidibeh, Stockholm / Kartong
>
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