Latjor, I agree with your suggestion of writing petitions but sending them to Gambian missions will not help. The petitions, which must be mobilised, have to be sent to the folloewing: the UN Human Rights Commissioner, Mary Robinson, UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan, and the Commonmwealth Secretary General. What happened in the Gambia was abuse of human rights and if enough Gambians petition these three international figures, i can assure you that the incident will be investigated and the international pressure will be brought to bear on the responsible culprits. Have'nt you seen what is going on in Yugoslavia. Those who abused the rights of Bosnian muslims are now being brought to book. We must take our fight to the international level and all we need to do that is enough petitions to those who have been appointed as international watch dogs for human rights. Lets do it. >From: latjor ndow <[log in to unmask]> >Reply-To: The Gambia and related-issues mailing list ><[log in to unmask]> >To: [log in to unmask] >Subject: Re: Massacre of Students in The Gambia >Date: Mon, 10 Apr 2000 16:44:32 PDT > >Greetings: >I join the rest in expressing my condolences to the families of the >deceased >students. >I also express my indignation to this attrocities perpetrated by the >officers. All reports being received indicate that only students and >civilians died, killed by 'law enforcement officers'. While some have >cautioned to wait for the full details of this attrocity to come out, one >cannot deny that at the very least, the officers over stepped the >boundaries >of human dignity. >If they were provoked by the students, assuming that was the case here >(there was reporting of looting by the students), the officers ought to >have >simply arrested the students using restrained force. I am sure they have >other less deadly tools of their trade that would have been more >appropriate. But using deadly force??? No! No! No! >What do we do? Certainly move in the direction suggested by Dr. Saine, >Alpha >and others. >My suggestion is to also mobilize our respective communities, draft a >protest letter to be signed by as many people as possible and submit it to >the Gambian Missions abroad, while also following through with the other >suggestions being developed here. >Latjor > >______________________________________________________ >Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.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 > >---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.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 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------