This piece was this morning mailed to some senior members of the British Government: the Prime Minister, Tony Blair MP; the Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw MP; the Development Secretary, Clare Short MP. The piece was also forwarded to my MP and the two main Opposition parties of the UK. I hope, by this piece, to renew the clarion call for those who can aid our efforts to defeat the cancerous disease in our country, to remember us as our battle for decency in the Gambia reaches a make or break point as we enter the crucial presidential elections of October 2001. I hope i can succeed in pricking a conscience or two. All the best, Hamjatta Kanteh ****************************************************************************** ****************** The Gambia: The Writings on the Wall On Wednesday 28th February, 2001, three British Labour MPs - Jeremy Corbyn, Diane Abbott, and John McDonnell - delegates from some of The Gambia's local political Opposition, the Gambian Diaspora in the UK, concerned friends of the Gambia, representatives of international organisations interested in governance and development issues on the African continent and representatives of both the British media [interested in African affairs] and the Gambian print media convened at Committee Room 10 at the House of Commons to hear briefings from members of the Gambian Opposition on the rapid deterioration of the social, economic and political situation in the Gambia. This gathering of peoples from all walks of life and diverse opinions marked a watershed in Gambian history; especially, as it relates to the new political assertiveness the Gambian Diaspora has of late demonstrated. The Gambian Diaspora was ready to be part of the diverse stakeholding that accounts for modern political entities in an increasingly submerging world where events at even remote corners of the world have the cumulative effects of pricking world conscience into moral indignation and action. Of fundamental importance here also is that this House of Commons Committee Room 10 gathering marked the inaugural event of a movement that has undertaken a civic response to the catalogue of rapidly deteriorating events - which if left unattended, could amount to another African tragedy. This movement - Movement for the Restoration of Democracy in the Gambia, United Kingdom or MRDGUK, as its acronym goes - has since that inaugural event of Committee Room 10, made it a sacrosanct duty to respond morally to this rapid deterioration of the political, economic and social situation in the Gambia. To understand the philosophical rationale of the movement and how the Gambia got to be where she is right now, a thumb-nail sketch of events that has mutated into this degeneration of things in the Gambia, is well in order. Since July 22nd 1994, when some junior military officers dislodged the democratically elected government of Sir Dawda Jawara, the Gambia had lurched back and forth from the precarious to the uncertain. Indeed, for the first since her existence as a sovereign nation-state, the Gambia began an Odyssey typical of African crackpot military dictatorships: bad governance, economic mismanagement, looting of State coffers, gross Human Right abuses, intolerance of the opposition, the gradual withdrawal of basic civil liberties, disregard of the due process of the law and in extension the rolling back of the frontiers of an independent judiciary. To be sure, all was not rosy with the old order that the military replaced. If anything, the ancien regime was a benign autocratic capitalist functioning pluralist political system - which while deficient on the rigorous machinations of probity, open-ness and accountability of older democracies of, say, Westminster, was relatively equipped to guarantee basic civil liberties, a functioning and impartial civil service and most importantly, the due process of the law. With the military and July 22nd 1994, all these became part of the country's receding past. Initially, the military remained impervious to demonstration on the need to a return to democratic governance as soon as feasible. Indeed, it set up a four-year timetable in which it enumerated a detailed and very ambitious programme for a return to the democratic process. This was unacceptable to both Gambians and friends of The Gambia. And when push came to shove [mainly through the Major government's laudable and effective travel advice, the US and EU suspension of aid to the regime], the regime was literally forced to see sense in reducing their initial time table from four to two years and in the event quickening the pace of the democratisation process. As it happened, the result was a consultative exercise, which saw the reaching of a consensus that will pave the way for a very smooth transition to democratic governance. Needless to say - and this shouldn't surprise anyone - things didn't go that smoothly. The ruling military junta - The AFPRC - managed to manipulate that consensus to its advantage and the result was a Jerry Rawlings [who maintained a mentor relationship with the junta from day one] type of pseudo-democratic set up in which the military junta transforms into a political party and rigs the elections in its favour. On the 26th of September 1996, the military junta held elections and with the stage set for electoral fraud, won hands down. However, elections or no elections, virtually little has changed in the Gambia. To be sure, the inauguration of the Second Republic did to an extent liberalise the tyrannical and despotic impulses of the regime. Yet, the withdrawal of basic civil liberties, corruption, the bludgeoning to death of the independence of both the judiciary and the civil service, disregard of the due process of the law, economic mismanagement and political repression - especially of the political opposition - remained the order of the day albeit the quasi democratisation. The political repression reached a crescendo on April 10th last year when students went out peacefully in the streets to demonstrate their disgust of the regime's handling of two of their colleagues who were abused by security forces; one of whom was raped [a young teenager] and the other also a youth still in his teens who subsequently died as a result of the tortures he received from the authorities. In the event, the head of State and commander in chief of the armed forces, Yahya Jammeh, reportedly told the Vice President to "deal with them" - the students. The result was an unprecedented butchering of some 15 people [mainly students with a child as young as three, a journalist and a Red Cross volunteer], maiming of school children and wanton destruction of property. Even after this, the regime remained remorseless and unrepentant in its tyranny against the Gambian people. Under pressure, it set up a commission to investigate the April incidents, the Report of which - together with that of the Coroner's Inquest - it callously dumped into the bin refusing to prosecute anyone as the Reports advised. To this very day, none has been brought to justice for these heinous crimes committed against Gambian children as young as three. Against such a backdrop, the Blair government, and contrary to common decency, went ahead and re-established military cooperation with the same criminals who gunned down children as young as three. Nothing could be more callous. Coming right after a very repressive military butchering of school children, the re-establishment of this military cooperation with the Jammeh regime was like rubbing salt in a festering wound. When petitioned on the rationale behind this retrogressive move, the FCO took the usual official escape routes. As Nicholas Hackett of the FCO's Gambia desk puts it to a concerned Gambia, "the Gambia has repeatedly proven herself ready to support international peacekeeping efforts under UN auspices in trouble like Guinea Bissau, Sierra Leone, East Timor and Kosovo. This was a key factor in our decision to support Sandhurst training for Gambian Subaltern: we are keen to support Gambian efforts to create professionals capable of carrying out its international and domestic duties to the fullest extent possible." Needless to point out that this is humanitarianism turned topsy-turvy: sending murderers to police potential or indicted murderers. This is just akin to helping train Milosevic's thugs so they can go and help police thugs in, say, East Timor. Be that as it may, it remains to be seen how such military assistance could help things in a country that is under the same yoke of oppression that the mandarins of the FCO believe the likes of Kosovo are suffering from to warrant humanitarian intervention. Perhaps, if Hackett and his seniors read the recent US State Department Report on the Gambia [http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2000/af/index.cfm?docid=799], they will have a rethink on the Gambia. Or better still read the damning UN report on the Blood-Diamond trade, in which the Gambian government was severely indicted and sanctions recommended against it. This is a regime known to harbour, aid and sympathize with insurrectionists fighting for independence in Southern Senegal. Added to this bleak vignette of political repression, is a general economic meltdown that has seen the Gambia's economic performances plummeting from bad to worse. Without a productive base to sustain the economic vandalism of the ruling elites with their total disregard of international law as it relates to foreign investors, the Gambian economy is experiencing its worst ever inflationary upsurge as basic commodities hiked to over 100% whilst consumers spending powers keep dwindling with the aid of a depreciating national currency. This economic malaise is not helping the repressed, increasingly restless and forlorn Gambian populace. It is not too late for the Blair government to rectify its phenomenal foreign policy misjudgment in a country that is ever lurching precariously to what Rwanda was like before the genocide. And like Rwanda, the writings are on the wall. The year 2001 is a make or break year for the Gambia - if left unattended. In October, the country is due to hold presidential elections and all indications are that a repeat of the electoral fraud of the1996 presidential elections is being hatched or is in the making. The only difference is that this time around civilians - morally bolstered by the recent wave of despots being beaten at their own games around the globe - are ready to go that final mile of head-on confrontation should the incumbency steal the elections. That can mean anything; internal civil strife and in the extreme, the Gambian going down the abyss of anarchy - if things are left untempered. And if the Gambia goes down, rest assured it will with the whole sub-region. It will not spare the modest gains that neighbouring Senegal has achieved in her social, political and economic pursuits since the government of Liberal Wade came to power. It is not too late for the Blair government to set an imperium vis-à-vis containing and diminishing the brutality of the regime by ensuring that any form of cooperation is hinged on - and this is to paraphrase a recent Economist editorial - commitment "to honest government, free elections, a tolerance of dissent and the unfettered rule of the law". Also the Blair government should do all that is within its powers to pressure the regime to come to its senses by complementing the decent efforts of the democratic forces in the campaign to renew decency in that part of Africa. In the final analysis - and like all other troubled spots of Africa - the writing is on the wall: Left unattended, the Gambia could unleash another Great Lakes type of situation in that sub-region of Africa. Hamjatta Kanteh ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------