News coming from Banjul is quite disturbing. The Ebrima Barry case (that sparked the April 10 and 11 massacre) is not going in a way that favors the Gambian public. There is still no justice for the victims of the April massacre. Lalo, Dumo and others are still held incommunicado. Ordinary citizens get abducted by Yaya's security officials, get tortured and get the lives of their lawyers threatened. We have not heard anything about the investigations of the Radio One arson and attempted murder attack. The November elections are still in limbo. The catalog of problems go on and on. I was always suspicious of the prosecutor the AG choose to try the Ebrima Barry case. I queried months ago when this man would not show up in court the first day of the case. We saw how few days ago the man called a witness (Dr. Sam) that ended up sabotaging his case. Now the latest news is that the defense want the case to be thrown out of court without even having to put out a single witness. The parents of Ebrima Barry were hoist to court and called all sorts of names and labeled as liars. This is pitiful. Now the poor parents are the culprits and the firemen that murdered their son are now being hailed as heroes for helping to get Ebrima Barry back to school. This is really disgusting. Ebrima Barry is dead and the firemen are boasting about the revocation of Barry's suspension from school. Yes, Barry is not suspended from going to school, all right! That's because he is dead. I knew these people were stupid, but frankly I did not think the level of their stupidity would come to this. The simple question to the authorities is: why go through all this in order to protect the firemen that murdered Ebrima Barry? The ineptitude of the government in their handling of this matter caused over a dozen innocent children to lose their lives on April 10 and 11. Why repeat the same mistake? I would not even go through the rigmarole of showing that the defense lawyer's latest application in the Ebrima Barry matter should fail. It is obvious that the defense at least have a case to answer. But if the judge in this matter drops the ball and set these criminals free, he would be held responsible together with the AG and the prosecutor for the repercussions. The massacre of April 10 and 11 is still an unsolved mystery in the eyes of the coroner and that bogus commission of inquiry. I have not read the commission's report, but I know that there is little in that report apart from blaming the students for their massacre. How can there be damning evidence against the authorities when government officials went to the commission and told blatant lies with impunity? Even the chief justice at one point rhetorically asked whether the gunmen came from the skies to murder our children. I would be shocked if a single person is named as having pulled a trigger on April 10 and 11 to murder our children. If such a person has been named, then logic demands that the AG set the ball rolling for the prosecution of that person. It is not Yaya's role to decide who should be prosecuted. That is a legal decision that should be made by the AG and his director of public prosecution. Yaya's only role is to 'study' that bogus commission report and see if there need to be certain policy changes as a result of the massacre. The changes that need to be implemented by the government in light of the April massacre are quite obvious and we do not need a commission of inquiry to tell us that. I have been saying this for the past five months. There is little or no nexus between the commission findings and the prosecution of the criminals responsible for the massacre of our children. So Yaya and his AG are taking the whole country for a ride asking them to put their fate in the hands of a toothless commission of inquiry. This is just incomprehensible. Innocent children are murdered and the murderers are roaming the streets scot-free. So long as opposition leaders do not step to the plate and defend the rights of the weak in the society, nothing will come out of this. This is the worst crime that has ever happened in our country. When would enough be enough? When Yaya massacres 100 children? Coming to the November 'elections', can the politicians please tell us what is going on? Am I right in thinking that parliament has adjourned without passing the necessary legislation for implementing the elections? Gambia is in a pathetic state and the sooner we do something about it, the better. KB _________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com. 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