Friends, The blame for the "Balangbaa" error should be entirely on me and I apologise sincerely for any inconvenience. When the petition was distributed here there was a need to update it especially since the time of detention mentioned in the petition was far exceeded. Therefore I took the liberty of adding a covering letter: Annika Renberg c/o Boka Loho Organisation P.O. Box 4153; Bakau; The Gambia Tel: (220) 371630 e-mail: [log in to unmask] To . . 12 August, 2000 Re: Petition on unconstitutional arrests and detention. Dear Sir/Madam, On behalf of the organisers, the Balangbaa Group, I hereby wish to forward an international petition regarding the arrest and detention of Mr Modou Sarho and others. Today it is seven weeks, while Mr Sarho and the others have been held incommunicado with not even lawyers allowed to see them or even know where they are kept. I now appeal to you/your organisation to take note of this petition and help to convince the government to follow the constitution and laws of The Gambia by charging Mr Sarho & co or releasing them if they cannot be found guilty of any criminal offence. While held in custody, they should also be granted their right to legal counselling and visits. Looking forward to your kind understanding and intervention in this regard. Sincerely, (Annika Renberg) Co-founder and volunteer of Boka Loho; wife of Mr Sarho I am awfully sorry, my own understanding was that the petition was initiated by members of the 'chat-group' of Balangbaa and that others supported the idea by contributing to the writing and - of course - the signing. Not to forget the good work done in the distributing of the petition. For your information: Today I received a letter from 'The Ombudsman' explaining that since the case has reached the courts they are unable to intervene or even investigate. Once again, Sorry for the misunderstanding. Today copies of the petition will be given to the political parties here - without my covering letter. Annika ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html You may also send subscription requests to [log in to unmask] if you have problems accessing the web interface ----------------------------------------------------------------------------