Katim: From my perspective this is great news. Keep up the struggle and your efforts. Abdoulaye No justice, no peace! > "Katim S. Touray" wrote: > > Hi folks, > > I have some good news to share. Some people might think it bad news, > depending on their perspective, and where they stand on recent > developments in The Gambia. > > This morning (Sunday, April 16), I attended a talk on the Death > Penalty given by US Senator Russell Feingold, a Democrat from > Wisconsin. Sen. Feingold is a member of the Senate Foreign Relations > Committee, and the Ranking Member of that Committee's Africa > Sub-Committee: > > http://www.senate.gov/~foreign/subcommittees.html#africanaffairs > > As it happens, I interviewed him this past January on my call-in > program "A Public Affair" (APA) which I have been a volunteer host and > producer of for over two years now on our community radio station, > WORT FM: > > http://www.netphoria.com/wort > > My program with Sen. Feingold focused on his 10-nation tour of Africa, > along with the US Ambassador to the United Nations, Richard > Holbrooke. The Senator is particularly interested in African affairs > in general, and human rights issues in particular. For this reason, I > thought his presentation today would be a great opportunity for me to > meet him in person, and talk to him about last weeks killings in The > Gambia, and what we are trying to do about it. > > As you can imagine, there were a few people who wanted to talk to the > Senator after his presentation, but I was able to have a few minutes > with him. I introduced myself to him, and mentioned my interview with > him on APA. We talked briefly about recent developments in Africa, > thus paving the way for me to introduce the topic of last weeks > killings back home. I gave him a brief overview of the killings, and > events that lead to them, in addition to a synopsis of other issues > relevant to assessing the Jammeh government. I told him that Gambians > all over the world are mobilizing and responding to last weeks > senseless killings and that we will be needing help from people like > him. > > The Sen. asked me to talk some more to his aide (who was present) with > a view toward scheduling a meeting with his office to discuss matters > more. I gave his aide a little more detailed overview of the issues I > raised with the Senator, and told him that I will be sending him more > details by e-mail to bring him abreast of developments in The Gambia. > I also told him that I will include the URL to the Gambia-L archives > in the e-mail that I will be sending him for him to be able to follow > the debate, and get a sense of the feeling of outrage that many of us > have expressed. > > Senator Feingold's aide told me that he will forward the e-mail I send > him to the person responsible for African affairs at the Senator's > Washington, DC office. We should hopefully be able to schedule an > interview with the official in DC, and at that point, we'll need to > have some people on the ground in DC to go meet with officials at > Senator Feingold's Office. Off the top of my head, I'm thinking of > Karamba Touray and Latjor Ndow (since they are in the vicinity) but > this by no means implies that we should not consider other people to > go speak on our behalf. So this might be a good time to start > thinking about people we should talk to about going to talk to Senator > Feingold's office. > > Still on the issue of reaching out to different organizations and > officials to solicit their support and help, I'd like to say that I > would also be contacting Sunni Khalid, the Communication's Director of > the National Summit on Africa. They have been working very hard at > bringing Africa to the forefront in the US national agenda, and > recently concluded a highly successful National Summit on Africa. I > believe Dr. Amadou Janneh was a member of the Tennessee delegation, > and can probably tell you more about what transpired at the Summit. > For your information, you can visit their Web site at: > http://www.africasummit.org/ > > Again, as luck would have it, I interviewed Sunni just about a few > weeks ago on my APA program on WORT, and we talked about the National > Summit on Africa, and the recommendations and plan of action that came > out of it. I will be sending Sunni an e-mail to solicit their help > ensuring that the Jammeh government is brought to an end, as > peacefully, and as soon as possible. The e-mail I'll be sending Sunni > would be along the lines of the one I'll be sending Senator Feingold's > office, but would place a special emphasis that the gross acts of > violence and corruption committed, or alleged to have been committed > by the Jammeh government will make it incredibly difficult for them to > work toward increasing Africa's credibility in the eyes of American > citizens. Simply put, unless the likes of President Jammeh stop > digging the hole that the National Summit on Africa, and similar > organizations are trying to dig us out of, we'll never get out of the > hole. > > In regards preparing writing e-mail messages to Sen. Feingold's > office, and to Sunni Khalid, I would appreciate it if people can help > with information that can be included in the e-mails. In particular, > I would like the e-mails to be formatted as follows: > > 1. Background - a brief overview of The Gambia, and short > history of the Jammeh government > 2. Human Rights under the Jammeh government (the US State Depts. > report would come in handy here) > 3. Economic Management (or mis-management; take your pick) under > Jammeh's government - I am especially interested in the current state > of the Gambian economy compared to when Jammeh came to power. What's > our balance of payments situation, our currencies exchange rate, > inflation, unemployment figures, etc. A list of key economic > indicators would be really helpful > 4. Unresolved allegations of corruption against the Jammeh > government: The money from Taiwan, what happened to the money that > recovered from the Ebou Jallow thing, and returned to the government?; > the Nigeria oil deal, and any others. > 5. A list of all incidents that have resulted in loss of > life during Jammeh's rule, the number of people killed, as well as the > number of people killed in each incident, the government's > explanation, and other views different from the government's. > 6. A list of actions requested from parties interested in helping > bring a peaceful end to the Jammeh government. I would suggest the > following: > a. That all official financial assistance to The Gambia be > suspended, until all pending allegations of corruption are resolved > b. All those detained in the aftermath of the student riots, and > killings, and indeed any political prisoners the government may hold > in prison be immediately released, or brought to court > c. Help isolate the Jammeh government by refusing it's > top-ranking officials an audience unless genuine efforts are made to > address the issues above, or unless the meeting is for the purpose of > discussing the above issues > > The above are off the top of my head, and I'm sure many of you will > have others you can add to it, or would like to improve it some more. > I should also say that we can use the format above as a template for > developing the freegambia.org Web site, or whatever site we finally > agree on. In this regard, Dr. Amadou Janneh and others have > volunteered to help with developing content for the site, and I would > like to suggest that all those interested in helping pick a topic from > the list above and do some research on it. > > Also, could you indicate whether you would like to lead research on > the topic, in the event more than 1 person volunteers to research a > topic. And I cannot emphasize the importance of getting our facts > straight. We cannot afford to send e-mails with factual errors, and > conjecture to people we want to help. No matter how upset you are > with the Jammeh government, please, please, let's stick to the facts. > > For your information, I would like send out the e-mails by Friday, > April 21. Please let me know if that's an unrealistic target given > the work that might need to be done to research the facts. And by the > way, I would like to appeal to Gambian newspapers to dig into their > archives for information that might be helpful if included in the > e-mails I'll be sending out. > > May I also mention that I would like forward the Press Release put out > by the Gambia Press Union (GPU), and forwarded to the list by Abdul > Aziz Drammeh, to my Freelance Journalists mailing list hosted at > Topica: > > http://www.topica.com/lists/freelance-journalists/ > > I have been running the list for over 2 years now, and it presently > has about 440 subscribers. I'd appreciate it if someone can send me a > contact e-mail address for the GPU so I can included in my forwarded > message to the Freelance Journalists list. > > Please feel free to write to me directly at [log in to unmask] if you > have any questions, or need any more information. Needless to say, > there are other issues such as getting a list of different Gambian > organizations working on human rights and democracy issues, and the > like. Would someone volunteer to collect a list of organizations and > their contacts so we can decide on how best to proceed with the > business of an umbrella organization to work with? > > I guess that's about it. Best wishes. > > Katim ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html ----------------------------------------------------------------------------