Our heartfelt and sincere condolences to all those who lost their
                   little ones, and to the family of our young colleague Omar Barrow.
                   They all died in the field of honour.

                   In the events we just lived through and are still living, the actors
                   could be categorised into three groups: the good ones, the bad
                   ones and the ugly ones. The good ones were the peaceful
                   students who were sincerely demonstrating for government to
                   address their demand for speedy justice in the two cases that
                   they had clearly lamented over and over. And the security forces
                   that showed restraint.

                   The bad ones were the students? and vandals who engaged in
                   wanton destruction of properties. This was unwarranted and has
                   been condemned by all and sundry.

                   The ugly gave the orders and the others carried them out,
                   causing  the unwarranted maiming of innocent school CHILDREN
                   with guns fired from, by Gambian standards, their fathers, uncles,
                   brothers and cousins. This use of live ammunition has been
                   strongly condemned by the public. But how did we get to that
                   Order to Fire Live Ammunition? The Shoot to Kill Order! In fact,
                   who gave that drastic order?

                   For us, the way the security services handled the matter was
                   wrong, very wrong indeed! Imagine just 5, sometimes 10 security
                   operatives facing hundreds of children; the result was obvious -
                   they were outnumbered and so overpowered by the students and
                   had to flee sometimes to avoid the rains of stones and other
                   objects.

                   The government will not tell us that it didn't know about the
                   planned demonstration, as it warned against it. If we were the
                   ones, with our little knowledge, giving out orders, we would have
                   lined up hundreds of security forces and offered a security
                   cordon to the students. Should things get out of hand, as
                   happens elsewhere, the hundreds officers  already at hand, on
                   the spot, could deal with the situation USING ONLY TEAR GAS!
                   and that would have in the end disperse the students. The late
                   Jallow Jallow's associates and other students who faced the
                   colonial administration and later the 1st Republic know what we
                   are talking about. 10, 16 or even 20 isolated officers could not
                   have contained the various groups of students and vandals.

                   If this right approach was taken, there wouldn't have been any
                   deaths. International conventions and humanitarian law forbid
                   security forces entering shelters like the Red Cross premises, so
                   why kill Barrow in that premises? What was the use of all the
                   resources put to organising seminars on humanitarian law for our
                   security forces?

                   It beats our imagination that government should at this point in
                   time attribute the responsibility of what it called "the carnage" to
                   the UNARMED GAMSU. Government must be up there and
                   assume responsibility for any commissions and omissions
                   committed by its servants; in other countries, resignations would
                   have been tendered by now.

                   The way forward is to bring to book all those, who have one way
                   or the other played a role in this ugly matter by mishandling the
                   situation. That is what the rule of law requires. That is what the
                   dignity of Gambians demand.

                   Our hearts bled the whole of Monday evening and continue to
                   bleed even now as we visualise, after we were told the picture at
                   the morgue of the bodies laid there, with their little faces covered,
                   their school socks and shoes on.