I cannot believe my eyes what I am reading on the this forum.This government release is just disgusting. If they call students demonstrating the death and rape of their colleagues as "bad elements and bandits", then I would call those who killed innocent little kids as young as years as HELL ANGELS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This is outrageous. It is really sickening. My condolence to all the families involved. Anna. ----- Original Message ----- From: "astrid christensen-tasong" <[log in to unmask]> To: <[log in to unmask]> Sent: Wednesday, April 12, 2000 9:41 AM Subject: A Gambian Tragedy > This message is from my brother Rolf Christensen. I think it reflects the > way we are all feeling right now. > > Astrid/ > > My sincerest condolences to the families of the young souls we have lost in > this saddest of national tragedies. We who are in a position to help should > do something to assist the families at this most painful of times. > > We must do something to restore the soul of our nation. For too long we > Gambian's abroad and at home, have been silently disapproving of the regime > and its methods. We have watched as they operated with complete > impunity,callous disregard for fundamental human rights, looted the treasury > and embroiled the nation in countless scandals. We have silently watched as > they engaged in what can only be described as barbarism in murdering > opponents under the guise of suppressing coup attempts. Yet through all of > this we have convinced ourselves that as long as the killings and the > brutality remain contained within the ranks of the forces, somehow it did > not and would not affect us and our loved ones and we could conveniently > turn a blind eye to this blithe. > > Now that the violence has spilled over to unarmed civilians, we can no > longer afford to be silent. There can be no plausible explanation or > justification for such a heinous act of complete cowardice and wanton > lawlessness on the part of the security forces and their leaders. I for one > have arrived at a point where my conscience will no longer allow me to sit > on the sidelines and do nothing. > > I am deeply ashamed to admit to myself that my complacency in allowing my > nation and my heritage to be hijacked by a group of despots may have > contributed to the deaths of innocent school children. Young children, who > had the courage to express what I and countless others have not had the > courage to do, and that is to publicly voice our disapproval of the current > regime and its methods. > > As I write this, my sense of anger and frustration is only matched by the > feeling of complete helplessness to effect meaningful change in what is > clearly an intolerable situation. We need a solution and we need it quickly. > What can we do? Where do we go from here? I do not have the answer, but I > want to be a part of the solution. We can no longer afford to ignore what is > going on in the Gambia. > > Rolf Christensen > ______________________________________________________ > 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 > > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- -- > ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html ----------------------------------------------------------------------------