Ebou Colley, If what I wrote, in any way, insinuated that your naration may not be true, I sincerely extend my apologies. For your information, soon after this incident of November 11th happened, I travelled to namibia. There I was for six weeks. When I came back, some people intimated some of what you narated, but most of these versions I could verify as they were all based on rumours. Nobody provided any reliable references evidence. Secondly, when I wrote "Why has Ebou Colly's version surfaced almost 6 years later? Could any of you have imagined that the picture he painted about this fateful day and the following day could have really taken place in the Gambia of all places?" It was not to doubt your version of what happened. I am sure you'll agree with me that, for anybody's story to be believable the listener must be convinced of the narator's sincerity. Your opposition to the regime is quite understandable to me. Now if I am reading this version of events of that fateful day from a former victim, who is vehemently opposed to the regime about 6 months before the anticipated elections, then I am sure I may have my doubts about your objectivity especially if I profess my support of this regime. Thirdly, the last sentence from the above plus another I have reproduced a few times earlier concerning your observation of our then field force, was to highlight the linkage between who gave the order to shoot and who shot. to clarify this please allow me to narate an incident I witnessed in a navy pub in Devonport, Plymouth in the 80s. Around that time, an American officer was being desciplined for insurbordination. His crime, it was alleged, was not to have properly saluted 5 star General Kolimber of the central African rebublic. While some marine officers were discussing this incident, one of them, a black officer, said the following: Some of these African officers are a disgrace to our profession. How can this man, the president of a small landlocked country promote himself to the rank of a 5 star general when the Nato supreme commander at the time was only a 3 star general. The conversation went on for a little while when a white officer said that sandhurst has lost some of its credibility as the finest institution for training officers. He posited that in the recent past, Sandhurst has trained some of the worst despots around the world. He said that prior to the 50s, only aristrocrats were trained there as officers. He went on to say that officers of the British army of the past were selected and trained at Sandhurst by breed. He said officers come by breed and that commoners don't make good officers. I was reminded of this, when you wrote this Of Good Officers: "They are generally well cultured, Properly educated and tested to meet the set standards; they have self-esteem and definitely understand that the country equally belong to them in the very way it belongs to any president". and this of the then Field Force: "None of these virtues prevailed in the Field Force where the service men were literally social outcasts in terms of origin, education, social status, family background and self-esteem.. So instead of having fine warriors prepared to lay their lives for the defense of their nation, we ended up grooming angry jealous armed men full of hate and destructive tendencies ready to follow any deviant or criminal into a path of national destruction". To me, I was just cautioning on the notion that Yahya Jammeh is solely responsible of the massaccre of our kids those fateful April 10th and 11th days. To me, holding him solely responsible is like blaming the fever for the death of someone who dies of malaria. My idea of a just society, like I have said before, is based on the notion that those who pass obnoxious laws, those who enforce those laws as well as the people who refused to condemn such laws are equally responsible when those laws cause any harm to the people. My objective of coming to this forum and joining it, is to highlight as much as I can, some misgivings I have about what is considered wrong in our society. In that endeavour, there is no one here who can honestly say that I did not condemn evil when it is told. If my believe that for The Gambian people, reknown for our peaceful co-existence, generosity and kindness towards each other, is to have a system of government that befits us, then there is need to expose all the evil and the good to see the bigger picture. One of Senegal's famous singers says, Assan Mboube has this to say about a good organization/ society "Mbotai lucie gaine, moi njeat gu jupp and mbollo mu gorre". In other words, what is best in an organization/society is to have a straight leader and an honest following. For this reason, it is important that we accept our mistakes and accord to others what is due to them. Then and only then, can we boast of a Gambia that we truel deserve. To conclude my response to your reception of my commentary of part 3 of coupe in the Gambia by stating as follows: 1. I did not mean to discredit your version of events but was just raising questions that needed clarification on my part. If however, that is what it implied, I once again offer my unreserved appology. 2. I again wanted to highlight the apparent blinkered view some of us have of certain issues i.e our refusal to have a proper look at the desease but instead focusing on the symtoms only. 3. The stubborn refusal by some to accept that we have some inherently unstable and potentially very wicked people in our midst. Have a good day and bye 4Now, KB Jobe. >----Original Message Follows---- >From: ebou colly <[log in to unmask]> >Reply-To: The Gambia and related-issues mailing list > ><[log in to unmask]> >To: [log in to unmask] >Subject: COUP IN GAMBIA FOUR >Date: Sun, 13 May 2001 14:56:21 -0700 > > COUP IN >GAMBIA FOUR > >I want to briefly look at Kebba Jobe's statement on my >last piece before proceeding to the next segment of my >story. Kebba wrote: >"On the alleged cold-blooded murder of some members of >our security forces, >The only tangible explanations given so far have been >the official version >and Ebou Colly's recent report. Now the question is >which version is true? >Why has Ebou Colly's version surfacing almost 6 years >later? Could any of >you have imagined that the picture he painted about >this fateful day and >the following day could have really taken place in the >Gambia of all places?" >Actually it seemed as if Dampha took most of the words >I had in mind for Jobe's statement directly from my >mouth. So I thank you Mr. Dampha very much for telling >Jobe the facts. Without doubt I was going to ask Jobe >where he was during that massacre to have missed the >fact that several family members of the affected >victims came forward to deny his government's >"tangible explanation" that the soldiers were killed _________________________________________________________________________ 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 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. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------