Washington DC April 25, a group of Gambians mostly from the Washington Metropolitan Area, staged a demonstration at The Gambian embassy. In the wake of the student demonstration in The Gambia, which left 12 dead including a Red Cross volunteer and scores wounded, Gambians in the diaspora have been expressing their disgust and total outrage in the form of petitions, protest marches, telephone calls to condemn the atrocities committed by the Jammeh administration. 32 Gambians, including 4 from Georgia, 1 from North Carolina, and 1 from California participated in todays protest. At the beginning of the protest, 2 Secret Service Agents ( from the uniform division ) on scooters asked how long we planned to stay and then they helped themselves with coffee and donuts and took position watching our every move. It was cold and raining ' cats and dogs ' , but we stood our ground, formed a circle and chanting for an hour, exposing " His Holiness's " regime or whatever is left of it and then 22 of us went upstairs to deliver a petition and to seek an audience with Ambassador Bojang. Approximately 12:05 pm, we entered suite 1000 and asked to speak to the Ambassador. Consular Juwara emerged and led us to the conference room. Needless to say, it was a ' full house ' . According to Mr. Juwara, Ambassador Bojang was out attending a book fair. Barely 5 mins. into the meeting before you could say " PA SEY ", the Feds ( secret service agents ) a dozen of them appeared everywhere. After a word with the embassy officials, they stood patiently in the receptionist's office. Apart from the exhange of words between a protestor and the commanding officer ( a lady ), both sides exercised a great deal of restraint ------- in total contrast to what happened in The Gambia. All the speakers condemned in very strong terms, the Jammeh administration for its poor Human Rights record, most notably the recent student massacre. Mr. Juwara was informed of our intention to occupy and disrupt all services in the embassy unless and until we meet with the Ambassador. That we were ready to be arrested and charged with a misdemeanour ( punishable by a fine of $ 50.00 ). An hour into the meeting with Consular Juwara, Ambassador Bojang was seen talking to the Feds. Mr. Juwara then excused himself to talk to Mr. Bojang or what I'd call a 3 min. briefing. Both men then came to the conference room. We re-iterated our position : That we came to demonstrate our solidarity and support for GAMSU; That our petition be transmitted in its entirety. The meeting with ' His Excellency ' was raucous at some point as tempers flared, but it ended peacefully. Ambassador Bojang was given our petition and he promised to follow " Protocol " and send it immediately. The turnout was good ( 32 ). We had anticipated a larger crowd, but due to the inclement weather condition, many thought the demonstration was cancelled. Thank God, we weren't out there to vote, but to deliver a message. Hence, our " friends " on the other side can't down play the significance of the protest by playing the numbers game. During the meeting, a gentleman sitting next to me using his cell phone, called his wife's doctor to re - schedule an appointment. He said succinctly, " This's history in the making and I wouldn't want to miss a minute ... Coming here is the least I could do. The real Jambarrs are in The Gambia ". Musa. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html ----------------------------------------------------------------------------