This posting was sent yesterday but rejected because I exceeded the limit. By way of update, the situation has deteriorated this morning. The streets of Abidjan are this time filled with Ouattara's supporters demanding a fresh election in which their candidate will participate together with ALL the others. South African Head of State and ECOWAS have both called for fresh presidential elections to be held. It appears it ain't over until its over. More details later. """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" Beran and Bro.Habib, This piece is just the beginning of self-serving interviews that former members of the junta and supporters will be peddling in the weeks ahead in an attempt to absolve themselves of blame. True, Mrs. Guei has been widely seen as the main driving force behind Gen, Guei. She has also made very inflamatory remarks during the campaign about "foreigners"who happen to be second and third generation Ivorians despite the fact that she is Cape Verdo-Senegalese. But as both of you agree, the ultimate decision to concede defeat rests entirely with Guei as Head of State and not Mrs, Guei. It may be of interest to note that as late as Monday when the votes counting was interrupted by Guei and Gbagbo demanding that power be transfered peacefully to him with all the guarantees cited in the piece, it was this very same Sama who, as Information Minister, retorted that they were in the elections to win and not in the business of handing over power. Sama is the most recent appointee in the cabinet but has managed to be the least popular. General Mathias Doua, on the other hand, has been very popular with the youth of this country. He is noted for both his self-effacing personality and professionalism. He was with the former number two man in the junta, General Palemfo, in Sydney during the Olympics when Palemfo decided to return home when, in his absence, his house was searched in his for incriminating evidence following the attack on Guei's residence. Doua offered to accompany Palemfo on his return journey even though he could have been accused of siding with Palemfo who was already in trouble with the junta because of his alleged clsoe associatiom with Ouattara but he urged him to stay on since it was his duty to stay as the Minister of Sports. During the campaign, Doua assumed an active role in the campaign (nothing surprising about that per se since he was a memder of the military government) But what surprised people was that General Doua stayed on this long without resigning and actually participated in the campaign. He was very uneasy about the entire process although he was one of the most important leaders of the 24th December coup. Indeed, he is considered by many to be the brain behind the December putschists. He is also widely believed to have wanted Guei to keep his promise and hand over power to civilians at the end of the transition. Mathias would not have survived long under Guei's administration should he succeeded in pulling this one out of a rabbit's hat. Duoa is a reluctant putchist. I believe he meant it when he requested Guei to concede defeat. Looking around for some else to blame is not the answer. Decent and honourable men and women are expected to accept responsibility for their actions under any circumstance. Sidi Sanneh _________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com. Share information about yourself, create your own public profile at http://profiles.msn.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 You may also send subscription requests to [log in to unmask] if you have problems accessing the web interface and remember to write your full name and e-mail address. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------