Dr. Saine, Regarding your research on Sir Dawda, I wonder if you've tried old African magazines (from the late 60s to the 80s?) And the reason I ask is, I have a personal recollection of some stories on the PPP govt in some old magazines. To be specific, there was a "West Africa" magazine edition from 1975 (I'm 95% sure it was September, 1975) that had a cover story on Jawara. The title was "Prez Jawara talks tough on corruption." On the cover was a picture of Jawara wearing a white Kaunda suit, and holding a mike. Contrary to the impression one may get from your exchanges with the Old Pa, he was in fact declaring war on indiscipline/corruption in his govt back in '75! He actually used words like "mal-contents" to describe some of his underlings. So, you may have to ask what happened between '75 and '94. I remember this mainly because of sentimental reasons. That magazine, together with numerous others were given to me by my dad's younger brother, who was the first in our family to have any real education. He died in 1979. Long story, but though I was in the junior classes in Primary School at the time, he would bet me ten Bututs to read a paragraph in the magazine. Or he'd make me read a story before he gave me the magazine. Of course, he had to explain to me what words like "mal-content" means. I kept most of those magazines thru High School reading them intermittently. But, in any case, you may be really surprised how much you can learn from those old stories. After reading your work last week, I thought about digging at the Library of Congress for those old papers, but I simply don't have the time these days. Or maybe, as an African scholar, you may have some strings to pull at some of those papers. I'll be most interested in reading a thorough analysis of that stage of our history. Regarding Kukoi, I'll go with what both yourself and Kabir agreed to: wait for more substantive evidence. In honesty, my sentiments are more in line with Kabir's. From what I recall about the Kukoi coup, he and his boys left Tallinding at 2:00am in the morning that fateful day in July '81. Some stories said, they only had a single pistol. Others believed they had no guns at all. In any case, they over-powered the un-suspecting guards at the Field Force Depot in Bakau, and took their Self Loading Rifles (SLRs.) Two -I believe was the number. Then, they got those two guards to take them to Sgt. Major Kikala Baldeh's apartment. The short, chubby Baldeh kept the key to the armory at the time. From reports, Kikala, when woken up, thought Kukoi and his boys were joking when they asked for the key to the armory. He tried to tell them off, even after they threatened to shoot him. As it turned out, officer Baldeh became the first casualty of the Kukoi fracas because he simply failed to grasp the seriousness of that band of rogues. So, they killed Kikala Baldeh, seized the key to the armory, woke up the whole Depot, and distributed the guns. A few hours later, that small country woke up to the dreadful "Long Live the Revolution" speech. In short, Kukoi used what the Field Force had at the Depot to hold the nation to ransom for one week in '81. So, the point here is, where were the Libyan arms, or money? Kukoi himself had no military training, neither did Jerreh Kolley, Simon Talibo Sanneh, Junkung Saho, Apai Jatta or the others. (Junkung and Jerreh were police officers at the time. Saho was the only Council member killed a few days later.) So, any evidence you can gather to buttress what Jawara said would help us better understand Ghadafi's role -other than his moral support for anti-Jawara forces. Until I see such evidence, I'm in Kabir's camp. Unless we're missing something here. I thank you for your inquiry into this national episode, and I await your findings with alacrity. Saul. >Kabir: > >Many thanks for your well argued response. The concerns you raised are >important. However, the very nature of the issue under >discussion(covert military activity) does not lend > that Kukoi indeed >received no training, logistical or financial support from > > Libya. It is however interesting to learn that Jawara has said that >"Gaddafi > > jokingly admitted to having engineered the foiled _____________________________________________________________________________________ Get more from the Web. FREE MSN Explorer download : http://explorer.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. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------