Sanusi, thanks for your contributions. See, yesterday when I responded to Dr. Saine, I had not even read Gambian newspapers (written by Gambians on the ground) reporting illegal NIA activities in Brikama at a seminar organized by UDP. I got more pissed off after reading that. Newspapers were reporting that UDP was ready to stage the seminar come what may. According to the reports, people were being intimidated to prevent UDP from meeting at the original site they wanted to meet. So, NIA is still alive and kicking. Did we hear self-appointed reporters from Gambia reporting about NIA’s shenanigans in Brikama which was happening right before their very eyes? That is what is relevant and newsworthy. Who cares whether a certain doctor went to Gambia and was not abducted by the NIA? In the first place he should NEVER be abducted. Therefore, in actuality if he is not abducted, that should not be news. That is no testimony that the NIA is NOT disregarding civil contracts and government licenses and taking the law into their own hands (running a police state). People should be honest in their reporting especially when we are dealing with life and dead issues. As we speak, we have political prisoners in the country. Any Gambian can find his back in jail any minute for bogus accusations of plotting to overthrow Yaya. Tell me that that is NOT a police state. All these people know that Gambians are sitting on egg-shells. The whole country is held hostage by these thugs. Why attempt to deny that obvious fact? Why do you think an educated fellow like Dominic Mendy would be abducted by the NIA, get railroaded through the courts, and all he did was come out in the public and say that he supports the government 100%. You believe that kind of person to be a genuine APRC supporter, then I can sell you a bridge. You are right to point out that had the UDP participated in the Parliamentary elections there would have been more reports of NIA/APRC atrocities. Then you will also have APRC sycophants blaming the Opposition. Did we not see reports of Halifa Sallah supporters being attacked in Serrekunda? No one made that an issue. Was it PDOIS’ fault that they were attacked? The constant here is APRC thugs attack people they think threaten their power. Do you know how many civil servants get dismissed and do not get their plight reported on the newspapers on G_L? That is what we are talking about when we talk about a police state. People live in a state of fear in that country because they see what happened to people like Dumo et al and our children on April 10 and 11, 2000 (to name a few). I thank you again for your contributions. KB >From: Sanusi Owens <[log in to unmask]> >Reply-To: The Gambia and related-issues mailing list ><[log in to unmask]> >To: [log in to unmask] >Subject: Dr. Abdoulaye Saine >Date: Tue, 19 Mar 2002 17:15:11 +0000 > > --- Abdoulaye Saine <[log in to unmask]> wrote: >Suffice to say that Jammeh is genuinely popular here >and the police-state atmosphere I expected is not >the case. Gambians, despite, economic hardship are >still very kind and loving. A lot of private >construction is taking place and the coastal road >network, among others, is impressive. > > >Folks > >This in no way indicates anything to bother us about. >The likes of KB and Others should be reminded of the >fact that it is VERY VERY easy for someone to come >here and say all is well due to the "dormant >activities" of the NIA and other security forces. I >was in the Gambia for almost 6 weeks. During that >period, I heard of little incidents of unlawful >arrests and detention(Notwithstanding Dumo's detention >at Mile II) However, I still felt that that the >situation would have been different if UDP had decided >to participate in the National Assembly Elections. As >a result, I am relucatnt to think that the >police-state atmosphere doesn't exist in the Gambia. >It does have its period, Dr Saine would have realised >it if he visited the Gambia during the campaign period >of the Presidential Elections _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to: [log in to unmask] ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~