I wonder if Gambian reporters are aggressively pursuing this Foday Makalo case. I honestly don't know what they've done to this guy, but I have no doubt that Makalo -wherever he is, isn't a free man. There simply isn't a cockier, or more vocal character than Makalo. If he were anywhere outside the country, he would have made a lot of noise by now. Makalo's voice never fails him! The guy -whatever his failings, has guts. When I attended Pakalinding School in the mid 70s, Makalo was a senior teacher at the school. Dembo Jatta, who later became Education Minister under the PPP, was Head Teacher. The manner in which Makalo openly defied the all-powerful local Seyfo -Buwa Kinteh, and Dembo Jatta (who at the time had open political ambitions,) was what propelled him into folk hero status, and later opposition MP from Badibu. He actually taught Yorro Jallow (Independent editor) in Primary Five, if my memory serves me right. Yorro probably remembers some of Makalo's confrontation with Dembo Jatta and the ruling PPP clique in that part of the country (which was almost un-heard of as far as school teachers go in those days.) I've heard rumors of this story for a while now, and keep hoping (against hope?) that it isn't true. But knowing this criminal govt, It's becoming increasingly certain that Foday Makalo is the latest high profile official to be butchered by these savages. What type of govt prefers killing it's functionaries rather than leaving their fate to the justice system? When will the madness end? But someday, we'll get to the bottom of all this. Saul. ________________________________________________________________________ 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 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------