Ten Reasons Why You Shouldn't Vote APRC I. Since July 1994 to this day, the Gambian peoples - save the exception of a few selected crooks - have continued to be at the brunt of an economic meltdown the AFPRC and its mutation, the APRC, has helped wrought on the Gambia and the Gambian peoples. As a result, Gambians are getting poorer and poorer whilst the criminal syndicate that "runs" the country continue to illegally amass wealth at the expense of the Gambian poor, especially the poor farmers of the provinces. II. The APRC's presidential candidate is not only an oaf but also an unlettered moron. The low-life is intellectually defunct and can never be expected to make wise decisions vis-à-vis carrying out the daily intellectual rigour required of a statesman; especially, such decision making require one to be optimally lettered to be able to decipher the basic meaning of complex documents and agendas. III. The Human Rights record of the APRC regime is the stuff of legend. The regime has and continues to seize the basic and inviolable civil liberties of ordinary Gambians. The regime perversely believes that it giveth and taketh; so that inviolable Human Rights like the right to belong to a political of one's choice is up for grabs by the State. IV. Because of this perverse understanding of basic and inviolable civil liberties, the APRC regime has from a year ago illegally and unconstitutionally incarcerated numerous Gambians like Dumo Sarho on spurrious charges that to this very day it cannot convince reasonable Gambians of the validity of such charges. Instead, based on the evidence of the paranoid fruitcakes of the NIA and the regime's own paranoia, Gambians like Dumo continues to languish behind bars. V. The brutal and continued harassment of journalists and private media practitioners like Mr George Christensen - who was nearly torched alive when APRC sponsored arsonists attacked his radio station wilfully attempting to destroy it and with it, everything that man has worked to help his society through the medium of his radio station - continues unabated. Added to this bleak vignette of brutal repression of journalists, is how the regime - in blatant disregard of international norms - deported a Sierra Leonean journalist back to his home land where he had earlier fled from the persecution of Valentine Strasser's crackpot AFRC. VI. Since July 1994 to this day, the AFPRC and it's mutation, the APRC, has carried out numerous extra-judicial killings of innocent Gambians like Koro Ceesay, Corporal Dumbuya, Basirou Barrow, Dot Faal, etc., etc. Extra-judicial killings that to this day have left numerous Gambians widows, fatherless, the loss of loved ones and friends. Extra-judicial killings that, needless to say, will never be investigated by this regime. VII. These extra-judicial killings reached a heinous and nauseating peak in April 2000 when some 15 students, a Red Cross volunteer and a child as young as three were brutally murdered by security forces on the orders of the APRC regime. To this very day, none has been indicted, rebuked or disciplined for these heinous crimes against the Gambian peoples. Some of those who were at the brunt of the brutalities of the security forces continue to languish in dilapidated hospital wards without adequate medical care. Their trauma has become that of their families and friends as they brave it silently and alone with these young souls tragic and silent trauma. VIII. The APRC's presidential candidate is an internationally proscribed criminal - well, technically speaking. Since one of his criminal partners has been proscribed by a special UN investigation body on the illicit and blood diamond trade that sustains the animalistic insurgency of Foday Sankoh and the RUF of Sierra Leone, the APRC regime has gone into a denial and rebuttal overdrive. What was a proscription meant for a lone criminal, the regime took as an international conspiracy against the Gambia government. I submit that the reason why the regime reacted in such an imbecilic and frenetic fashion has got to with the fact their presidential candidate is in cahoots with the proscribed individual and he enjoys the complete confidence of the APRC gov't. And so it stands to reason that the APRC's presidential candidate is - technically speaking - an internationally proscribed criminal. IX. Since the AFPRC came to power illegally in 1994, the Gambia's international standing continues to plummet as the nation-state, once noted for her respectable, realist and pacifist foreign policy, is now an international pariah. The regime continues to embrace and abet with insurgency movements like the MFDC of Southern Senegal, pariah states and known supporters of guerrilla movements that continue to tear the social fabric of African societies, like Gadaffi of Libya. The APRC regimes continues with this deplorable and misguided foreign policy and as a result, the Gambia's neighbours - notably neighbouring Senegal - continue to view her with suspicion and heightening both diplomatic froideur and tension in that sub-region. X. The AFPRC and its mutation, the APRC, has never been a believer of liberal democracy. Since its illegal usurpation of power from the democratically elected government of Dawda Jawara, it has bastardised all the basic tenets of multi-party and liberal democracy. Even its own toilet paper constitution - which it tailored to suit its illegal ambitions - has not been spared this bastardisation: from the rolling back of the frontiers of an independent and impartial judiciary to complete disregard for good governance, the regime has and continues to despoil all the basic tenets of democracy it continues to parrot but will never believe in. Clearly, and going by the AFPRC/APRC record in office, a vote for the APRC in October is a vote for more tyranny, misery and the death of Gambian decency. Above all, a vote for the APRC in October, is a vote against both the Gambian and Sengambian families. If you believe in a Gambia of liberal decency, tolerance, progress and the Rule Of Law, clearly the APRC is not the party for you to vote for in October. There is a genuine and credible alternative to all that the AFPRC and its mutation, the APRC, has done and stands for since it illegally usurped power from a democratically elected government in 1994. There is an Opposition Alliance that is a credible and genuine alternative to the APRC. You are most definitely better off voting for this Opposition Alliance than, say, the APRC, its closet appendages and allies - come October 18th 2001. 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. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------