The government has lost all the very little remaining legitimacy it had left. This is the last straw. First, they kill unarmed students and infants, and now they blatantly intimidate and kill members of the opposition by using violent tactics. In my humble opinion, there is no more negotiating to be done. They have to go!!! All the politicians and faux intellectuals should take a hint from this. The precedents that tyrannical regimes in Africa have left is loud and clear. No one has ever successfully negotiated with a tyrannical African leader and achieved any positive outcomes. In short, it has been clearly shown, beyond any shadow of a doubt, that negotiation tactics do not work with these type of leaders and regimes. A brilliantly written letter from the L or any Gambian movement to the APRC regime simply will neither change things nor make any kind of dent on the conscience of the insane and "drunk with power" butcher of Kanilai and his cohorts. Don't get me wrong. I think the Gambia-L community has done a wonderful job, especially after the tragic events of late. But when one considers this latest event, it becomes obvious that there has to be a slight change in the strategy we have already adopted. If the Gambian people allow the perpetrators of this crime to wriggle out of this quagmire with a slap on the wrist, we will again, like many times in the past, be doing a serious disservice to ourselves. In addition to being ousted, the leaders of this regime have to get the death penalty or life in jail. The aiders and abettors of the regime, like the director of information or propaganda secretary, Tombong Goebbels, should also face serious sanctions. Then we have the double dealing and two faced politicians that fill their stomachs courtesy of the present regime yet they turn around and act like they are outraged by what is going on. They sit in their air conditioned offices and write brilliant and technically twisted articles that the average person has no clue about. To make things worse, these brilliant pieces do not actually address any issues at hand. Always missing from these pieces is an outright condemnation of the regime. We need action and not letters. I ask you, G-Lers, of what use are these faux politicians and intellectuals to us? You might disagree, but I think that such people have become corrupted and are out of touch with the reality of the average Gambian. But there is an even more problematic issue here. These faux people are actually collaborating with the government. Their intention is to divert our attention from what really matters, the immediate and unconditional surrender of the dictator and his cronies. Beware of the wolves in sheep clothing!!! So what alternate strategies do we have? One would be to drop a few strategic bombs on either the state house in Kanilai and the few barracks around the country followed by an armed struggle. Or perhaps to bring down his plane with a heat seeking stinger missile. Once the head of the monster that is the present regime is severed, there might be an unconditional surrender. The danger here is that the monster might have several heads and therefore this strategy might backfire. There is also the possibility that our people might suffer terribly. I would therefore urge all outraged citizens to exercise restraint when it comes to violence. To conclude, the strategy we should adopt is to lobby the international community to impose more sanctions on The Gambia. Essentially, we have to adopt a strategy that will choke the supply that feeds the beast. No more peanut trade, no more tourist industry and no more loans until the government resigns and surrenders unconditionally. Some might say that this strategy is self defeating because our people will suffer from it. I counter by saying that our people have suffered terribly already. They do not reap the benefits of any of the business activities of our government, and please don't tell me about the 50 goats that Yahya gave to some village in Foni. Therefore, my belief is that the sanctions will not really hurt the average Gambian, but they will surely hurt the fat cats at the top. Yahya will actually have to dip into Mobutu's hidden gold to maintain his aircraft. So, why don't we expand on the great strategy we have in place? Instead of telling the international community how it is, let us also urge them to impose heavy and unconditional sanctions on the government of The Gambia. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html ----------------------------------------------------------------------------