The quotation below was dug from the archives of G_L. Inter alia, it reads:

"Believe me, the President wants to know the full story, the whole truth and
nothing but the truth. I do not see any thing wrong for the President to
visit the wounded at RVH. He went there alone (not Secretary of State or
security chief) to talk to the students in private and to wish them well. He
went to visit them because he cares. The coroner's inquest has started and
as far as I can recall, this is the first time such an inquest has been set
up to find the truth. It is open to the public and no body will be
prosecuted or intimidated because of evidence they gave in this inquest. The
coroner is expected to submit his report by May 15th 2000. As the Attorney
General stated on many occasions, it is the judiciary system which is on
trial here and things should not only be done in a transparent manner, but
Gambians should see it being done in a transparent manner. The commission of
enquiry is already set and will be announced next week. Membership to such a
commission should be made of people with good reputation, independent mind
and people who are not pro or anti Jammeh, but people who would look for
nothing but the truth. I know the members and I would have liked to reveal
the names here but since it has not yet been announced by the Attorney
General, I would wait for him to announce it to the public. You will
definitely agree with the team that would make this commission. The
President has said in his speech that he will not leave any stone un-turned
in the search for the truth, and those who are responsible for this tragic
day, will be dealt with accordingly. I do not think we should rush into
taking decisions and making judgement before all the facts are laid in front
of us. The justice we are all looking for will be done. We need peace and
justice and that we will have in The Gambia."

The man begged us to believe him way back in April 2000. Do we believe him?
Did what he told us come through? Should this man be taken seriously
henceforth and his words taken as his bonds? You be the judges.

We were assured by someone very close to Yaya in April 2000 that Yaya "wants
to know the full story" of the April Massacre. I say that the person was
close to Yaya because this is someone that admittedly knew the composition
of the Commission of Inquiry even before the 'common' citizens of the
country learnt about the identity of the commissions. This man vowed for
Yaya and knew about the happenings of 'hospital visits' that even
secretaries of state and Yaya security personnel were not privy to.

When this man sent this message to us on G_L, I told him that one day, I
will remind him of his very words. This is the first reminder. One day when
it is all said and done, and Yaya is gotten rid of, we will remind him again
of his participation in this massive cover up to deny the Gambian people
justice. When we remind him then of their treacherous activities, he will
not be reading our message from a computer screen or a piece of paper. He
will be listening, while sitting behind the dock in a court room, like any
common criminal being tried for a heinous crime as the one that this regime
continues to commit against the victims of April 10 and 11, 2000.

According to Yaya's propaganda apparatus, the coroner was "to submit his
report by May 15th 2000". We were assured that all the proceedings before
the coroner will be transparent and no one will be persecuted for giving
testimony at the inquest. Here too a major fraud was committed against the
Gambian people. When the coroner was being touted as a repository for
justice, what the writer did not say (perhaps because of ignorance of the
law, which by the way, is no excuse), was that Ousman Jammeh (the coroner)
had already decided that he was not going to do his job. Ousman Jammeh had
already decided that he was not going to recommend that indictments be
handed down to the perpetrators of this heinous massacre. So, when these
people were telling us to 'believe them' and trust them to dispense justice
through a coroner's inquest, they already knew that they had no intention of
bringing the criminals to justice.

We were reassured that justice will be done because the Attorney General
(Pap Cheyassin Secka) has on many occasions said that "it is the judiciary
system which is on trial here and things should not only be done in a
transparent manner, but Gambians should see it being done in a transparent
manner." What empty words when looked at one year down the road. If the
judiciary was indeed on trial, it has failed abysmally. The case never made
it to court. Yes, members of the justice system (Chief Justice of the Gambia
Supreme Court and Joseph Joof, then president of the Gambia Bar Association)
were part of that bogus Commission of Inquiry, but these mental midgets
compromised their integrity the moment they agreed to serve on a commission
with the toothless terms of reference this one was endowed with.

Those lawyers disgraced their profession when they will allow nonentities
come to the commission and tell blatant lies or refuse to answer pertinent
questions. The members of the justice system (including Pap Cheyassin Secka)
that participated in this fraud failed the judiciary. As of now, the jury is
still our on the judiciary. If and when this case makes it to court, we will
then try and judge the judiciary on this matter. Suffice for us to say that
when the above quoted writer tried to focus us on the judiciary (pretending
that this matter was headed for trial) another fraud was being perpetrated
on the Gambian people. It was never the intention of these vermin to try
this matter in open court.

We were also told that "membership to such a commission [as the one looking
into the massacre of our children] should be made of people with good
reputation, independent mind and people who are not pro or anti Jammeh, but
people who would look for nothing but the truth". Emphasis mine. Lofty words
indeed. People might want to know that one of these supposedly independent
Gambians is now Yaya's Attorney General; who can now be heard at the top of
his voice supporting every illegality this government has engaged in. The
writer said 'believe me'. Do we believe that when the commission was
constituted, Joseph Joof was NOT a Yaya supporter?

I will not even deal with the area where the author said that Yaya promised
to leave no stone "unturned" and he wanted to get to the bottom of the
matter and hold the culprits accountable. Many people have addressed that
issue before when this government promised to investigate other heinous
atrocities committed against the Gambian people. Ten year olds in Banjul
know that when a vermin like Yaya promises to investigate his crimes, the
twerp is lying. When this message was first posted to G_L, everyone knew
that both the author of the piece and Yaya were telling blatant lies and
worst still, they knew they were lying.

The author counseled us to be patient and not to rush to judgment before all
the facts were in. From the body of his message and other postings he sent
to G_L on this matter, one could discern that the author wanted us to wait
for the coroner's inquest, the commission of inquiry and then the
appointment of an independent prosecutor in order to get to the bottom of
the matter. Well, the dice is already cast. People have been more than
patient. The coroner sent a report to Yaya since time immemorial. The
commission finished his work and handed its report to Yaya. What did our
patience yield for us at the end of the day? Contempt from Yaya and Pap
Cheyassin Secka. We waited for almost a year just to be told that the lives
of our children counted for nothing. Instead, the children (who did not kill
a single government security person) are the ones that are under jeopardy of
being convicted of crimes resulting from the atrocities of April 10 and 11,
2000.

I ask, where is the justice our friend promised us in the penultimate
sentence I quoted from him where he said that "the justice we are all
looking for will be done"? Is this their idea of justice? It certainly is
not our idea of justice. I also want to believe that when the author wrote
that piece, the current outcome was also not his idea of justice. Who would
have thought that one year down the line, the only people that will stand
trial in this matter, will be the students themselves? I believe I am a very
cynical person, but even I did not think that at this stage of things, not
even one government official will stand trial in this matter. I knew there
was going to be a cover up. But I thought that may be it would be to save
Yaya's head and that some people lower down the ladder will be sacrificed.
But this shows us that Yaya values the animals that carry out his despicable
orders more than he values the lives of our children. If Yaya and his
cohorts can perpetrate this fraud against the Gambian people in order to
save firemen (in the case of Ebrima Barry) or the PIU (in the case of the
April Massacre), we the people should be prepared to do more for our
children.

Well, as far as Yaya is in power, the only people that are going to be
punished by the courts for what happened on April 11 and 12, 2000, are the
students that allegedly destroyed Gamtel installations. Now vandalism is a
worst crime than murder in The Gambia.

I deliberately left out the identity of the original author of the above
quoted message in order for people to form objective opinions about the
words people say and the things they do. I did not want for people to read
his name and 'rush to judgment'. We will upset the author if we do that.
Although I know that this gimmick will not work for most of our subscribers
that were following the debate last year. People with good memories like
myself will only need to read the first sentence to realize who authored
these fraudulent statements that promised us the justice we never got.
Having said that, I will not be surprised if the author does not recognize
himself.
KB

_________________________________________________________________
Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L
Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html
You may also send subscription requests to [log in to unmask]
if you have problems accessing the web interface and remember to write your full name and e-mail address.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------