Well Hamjatta, Jabou and Karamba, do not struggle with your emotions and principles vis-a-vis the calling for the use of force to defend oneself against tyranny. I espoused the same views as you did until I saw the havoc Yaya was wrecking on the Gambian people and the hopelessness of trying to remove him through free and fair elections. Like I said before, elections are not won or lost on elections day. Yaya is currently sowing the seeds of deception. He is rigging the elections right now in broad daylight. Politicians are forbidden from reaching out to their constituents. So it is incumbent on all would be participants in this process that is going to further legitimize Yaya, to make sure that the elections is fought on an even terrain. I am almost certain that none of the political parties or the proponents of elections can guarantee that there will be free and fair elections. Even Bill Clinton (a non-Gambian in America) said that the previous elections were rigged and that there were no credible signs that the next one will not be rigged. So why should we sit down and wait for the inevitable? Even if Yaya wants to pack up and leave and does not personally want to rig the elections, you have the Baabaa Jobes, Yankuba Tourays and the Tombongs of this world who are so invested in this regime that they would rather die in battle than let the government lose an election in The Gambia. It is high time we wake up to that basic fact. It's not gonna happen. They would not leave quietly. What happened on April 10 and 11 is by far more outrageous than what happened to the UDP people. As I understand it, UDP supporters were ambushed and one of the Yaya supporters got killed. Compare this with more than 100 casualties (killed, tortured, raped, jailed etc.). That should have been the final straw in my humble opinion. Having said that, I still vehemently denounce the violence that was visited on the UDP entourage. Karamba, you are darn right about the justification of self defense. It is suicidal to turn the other cheek to the likes of Yaya and his cohorts. Turning the other cheek and treating these animals like the civilized folks they are not is one of the major reasons our kids got massacred on April 10 and 11. I would like to introduce you to another concept. The first cousin of self defense. Let us try anticipatory self defense. Under this doctrine, you measure the capabilities of the enemy to determine the nature of his strike. Preempt that strike by striking him first and weakening his capabilities. So you defend yourself by anticipating the strike. You don't wait until he strikes you and then retaliate. There might be no tomorrow. The same concept was used by the Americans in Libya and again when they bombed Iraqi nuclear reactors at Osiraq. By now we all know that Yaya and his cohorts are capable of annihilating the Gambian people in order to stay in power and just govern the few people in Kanilai. It would be foolish for us to wait for him to do that before we pounce on him. We recognize that Yaya must be attacked from all angles and we greatly appreciate the tremendous job the politicians are doing both abroad and back home under treacherous conditions. But we join you in cautioning them not to lie down and let Yaya walk all over them. If the current climate persists, they should boycott the elections like Toledo recently did in Peru. That way, rather than further legitimizing Yaya, they would be isolating him and thus making it easier for us to strike at him. We will use all the means at our disposal to get rid of that monster so that there will never be another massacre of innocent school children. Hamjatta, Jabou and Karamba, you are doing the right thing. These animals do not deserve our mercy. Let us all join hands and in our little ways continue to pressurize this callous and tyrannical government. KB >From: Hamjatta Kanteh <[log in to unmask]> >Reply-To: The Gambia and related-issues mailing list ><[log in to unmask]> >To: [log in to unmask] >Subject: Re: Another act of state terrorism/Jabou >Date: Mon, 19 Jun 2000 01:53:35 EDT > >Jabou, > You have read well into the mindset of the dictatorship. Please >continue >the good work. Like you, I'm having equal difficulty of reconciling my >pacifism with trying to see an end to the tyrannous and murderous regime in >Kaninlai even it is now becoming clear that Jammeh wants war not peace. One >thing though now clear to me is that, force should not completely be ruled >out once ample evidence exists that he blatantly rigs the coming general >election. We must not adopt pacifism at all cost and at all times. When we >are left with no choice but force, then constructive force should be >adopted >by well meaning professionals to rescue our hijacked country. >Have a good start to the week. >Hamjatta Kanteh > >hkanteh > >---------------------------------------------------------------------------- > >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 E-mail from MSN Hotmail 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 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------