Date: Wed, 26 Jan 2000 From: ebou colly <[log in to unmask]> Subject: Yaya's Power Base? THE GNA SOLDIERS NOT THE POWER BASE FOR YAYA JAMMEH Before dealing with my next subject, I would first like to extend my sincere appreciation to all those wonderful comments sent by various readers of my last issue. Your encouraging words were certainly morale boosters and have reinforced my determination and spirit to be more sharing with a candid approach. I cannot however ignore the few questions forwarded doubting the credibility of my information, because I sincerely believe that every skeptic deserve a satisfactory explanation of everything said about the Jammeh regime. Saying that I was a true serving member of the Gambia National Army (GNA) from its early inception in 1985 to its most recent past may not be sufficient consolidate the credibility I hope to project. If I also stopped at merely explaining my broad knowledge of military operations-orders ranging from the section, platoon, company or even battalion battle drills, the highest operational capability of the present GNA my points may still not sink in well into the minds of those without proper military education. However before elaborating on some more tangible lines, I would like to inform everybody that I am a well-trained infantry soldier with advanced skills of a combatant in field craft, the special ability of a sharp shooter but above all the discipline of a true soldier. A true soldier precisely means a good fighter for the right course without being unnecessarily bloodthirsty. It also means being professional and having less or nothing to do with politics. Soldiers with political aspirations are nothing but rebels or bandits in uniform. However let me now give a broader or additional proof of my assertion that Jammeh's government always comes up with false coup plots merely to eliminate innocent Gambians. Take the case of Captain Yankuba Drammeh the current Commanding Officer(CO) of the largest fighting battalion in the GNA,1 Infantry Battalion. His office and cellular phone numbers are 4722121 and 990178 respectively. Call him and if he is honest with you should be able to tell you the harrowing experience he suffered at Mile Two Central prisons accused by Jammeh of a dubious coup plot against his government. Or you try Captain Cherno Jallow the present CO of the second largest battalion on his office number-497100-and he could also tell you the terrible days he was incarcerated at death row by Yaya for planning a coup he could not justify. Captain Alpha Kinteh at the Army Headquarters Banjul on 225772or225771 also suffered in the hands of Yaya on a coup conspiracy charge no one could enlighten for him. I could go on and on, but that would simply tie me down on this subject that I think I have now been adequately treated, at least for this forum. So I will move to my next subject deserving equal importance. As a former member of the GNA I am now trying to find the right voice to speak for mainly those honest and good soldiers of the GNA who had nothing to do with Yaya's coup and are ashamed of being associated with him or his government. Nevertheless the general civilian public often categorize all the soldiers in uniform as other Yaya Jammehs, Edward Singhatehs, Lamin Kaba Bajos, Yankuba Tourays or the few stupid ones blindly following them. Contrary to that stereotype concept, I can speak with confidence that 90% or more of the GNA soldiers on active service are very good, honest and God fearing Gambians holding on to their jobs primarily to make a simple living. But given the negative legacy of African armies in general with the Gambia not an exception, the civilian population have developed the wrong notion that all the soldiers are evil. Consequently when members of the army are improperly treated in a manner that does not conform with the standard laws of the nation or the constitution, the legal institutions or civil population usually brush it aside as unimportant isolated problems. Take for instance the so-called counter coup of 11th November 1994 when Yaya Jammeh falsely accused some GNA officers and other ranks and then summarily executed them in the most gruesome manner. The majority were executed on the 13th of November, two days after the AFPRC government stated that all of them were killed in a fire on the 11th of November. The entire Gambian public was aware of the lies of the government in that serious crime. But how did they react to that unlawful butchery of those innocent Gambian soldiers? They simply gossiped their regret over the terrible act without a single voice of protest raised or any form of pressure exerted on Jammeh and his killers to satisfy their doubts. The soldiers at Yundum Barracks that evening wept like children as their colleagues were driven away in a Land Rover pick-up vehicle to the out skirts of Nyambai Forest where they were cowardly killed one after another. Their dead limp bodies were later brought back and handed over to the moronic Chief-Of-Staff Baboucarr Jatta who supervised the final terrible act of burying the men naked behind the toilets. The bulk of the soldiers stood by numb in their legs with fear and shock. And as soon as they left the barracks the stupefied soldiers started telling the whole story the exact manner it happened and monsters who took part in the killing. The last shots that killed Sergeants E.M.Ceesay and Basiru Camara were ordered by Edward Singhateh around 6.00p.m. His former driver Batch Jallow used a Chinese-made A.K 47,folding butt, to shoot and killed the two Sergeants at point range. But all the killing instructions were coming directly from Yaya. It was the worst crime committed against humanity by the AFPRC government. Anyhow the Gambian public seemed to care less about that crime. At least the Gambian public could have asked for the bodies with proper postmortem performed on everyone and of course have them handed over to their families for proper burial. There was no war or social disturbance in the nation at that moment to necessitate that hasty and terrible burial. The only reason they was to hide the evidence of what did. Up to tkis present time no one shows a glimmer of interest in that case. It is not proper for those soldiers to remain there forever as if they do not deserve to be buried in any cemeteries in the country. Why should Yaya Jammeh condition the minds of all the Gambians into remaining this silent about something that has no iota of justice or human decency? Why? Why? Why? These men had wives and children who still dont't know where their fathers have disappeared to since that day they left for work in 1994. By comparison however, the other tragic killing of Ousman Koro Ceesay six months later seemed to have attracted more public sympathy and out cry than the innocent Gambian soldiers lying at Yundum.What's the logic? It was really ugly killing the former Finance Minister of the AFPRC government and burning him in his official car to hide the evidence. But did you know that Lt.Gibril Saye was bayonetted all over his body including both his eyes before he was finally shot by Staff Sergent Kanyi? Lt. Abdoulie Faal (DOT) had his back bone broken by bending him backwards until the bone snap at his waist before he was shot and killed with a 9mm pistol. All these stories were more or less known to the Gambian public, but because they were soldiers, the crimes were perfectly normal. So one could judge clearly the precarious message behind the whole episode. When Jammeh hits a civilian regardless of how friendly or close that person was to the tyrant, the action is condemned with the whole GNA sometimes blamed for it. Yet when a soldier attempts to even question the legitimacy of the idiot and is as a result maimed or killed the public says little or nothing about it. Anyhow in actual fact , looking at Jammeh's government since the coup in 1994,it has always been the civilians who supplied him with the right administrative ingredients that has sustained his government for so long. The soldiers could not and in reality would not if they could. Apparently even the most educated and best trained soldiers of the GNA had no clue of how to run a government much more Yaya one of the most under-educated and less-trained in the army. With his grade 11 high school education the idiot was not even a member of the GNA. He was a gendermarie personnel with then worst record of professional or academic attainment. If the civilians worshipping him were aware of how mentally backward he was, and they decide to stop helping him today, within few hours his government would collapse altogether. But perhaps the civilians very well know the low mental level of the fool and enjoy exploiting it for their selfish interest What is only sad about it is the continuous denunciation of the ordinary common soldiers for keeping the Kaninlai monsterin power. But can you remember Fafa Mbye who selfishly armed the Jammeh regime in the beginning with all those decrees and legal arsenals used to destroy several selected Gambian families? Can you also remember those so-called great civilian intellectuals of the Jawara era who have totally shifted their loyalty to Jammeh with fanatical zeal. On the active front, there were the Bolong Sonkos, the Blaise Jagnes,Omar Njie,Famara Jatta, Isatou Njie Saidy,Balla Jahumpa and now the most prominent being Momodou Lamin Sidat Jobe. Would all of them in the end be treated as innocents and blame the soldiers for Jammeh's crimes? My friends let's be realistic I think it would have been somewhat fairer if blame was shared between the greedy civilian and the rebels in uniform disguised as soldiers. Even with that, an objective critic may want to think twice if the calibre of soldiers in power is well scrutinised. For example the sadist Edward Singhateh, apart from his animal brutality which makes him a notorious killer of innocent Gambians,the half-cast has nothing in his brain to make him a competent administrator. As for Yankuba Touray, his only effective role in the system is taking the local political platform and reinforcing every lie uttered by Yaya. He has the mental ability of a kindergarten child. He is absolutely zero when it comes to formulating government policies let alone executing them. Lamin Kaba Bajo? He is the one I respect the least among them. Hiding behind religion, he is the most empty-headed and disloyal person in the history of security forces in the Gambia. At the time of the coup in 1994,Lamin was a captain commanding the whole Presidential Guards of Ex-President Jawara.However,when the coward heard about the advancing soldiers coming to overthrow the government he abandoned the unit and ran away to Dakar Senegal with President Jawara's family.He returned a week later to be given a high position by Jammeh because they were old friends. These are men who have no virtues, carry little or no valuable knowledge in their head and lacked every form of human conscience to make them good administrators. So take it from me, an ordinary civil disobedience of the Jammeh establishment would have been the easiest way to expel his government from power. The real soldiers would prefer it that way. A genuine mass movement will in fact attract a lot of soldiers to move along with it rather than against it. But instead even the career politicians remain silent in their chambers. Where are the Sheriff Dibbas, Andrew Camaras, Gibou Jagnes etc. etc.? You may not know this but frankly speaking it hurts all serving soldiers dearly to associate Yaya Jammeh with true military characters or values since the man is nothing but a pathological liar, a "corruptomaniac" and a mass murderer under the guise of the noble army uniform. He lies about every thing under the sun, he even decorated him self with the ECOMOG medal and would often lie shamelessly about the peacekeeping role he played in Liberia when he had never step his foot there. He lies about how Sana Sabally and the late Sadibou Haidara aimed their weapons at him on the 27th of January 1994 and attempted to shoot him without success because his "jujus" caused the guns to malfunction. The soldiers who apprehended Sana and Sadibou would tell you how Yaya almost shit his pants that day out of fear hiding away from the actual encounter. And where did he get all the millions of Dalasis he has been spending on his private multi-million Dalasi projects in the country? The soldiers are all disturbed by his wave of corrupt activities. Take for instance the insult to all military ethics by Jammeh giving the official residence of the CO at Fajara Barracks to his mother. The house was once occupied by Major Ebrima Chongan and should have now been occupied by the current Commander. I don't need to say any more on why I termed him a mass murderer anyway. But believe in me, looking at the danger Yaya has entangled himself with as the pitiful President of The Gambia condemned on a clear path of ultimate doom, few or no soldiers would even contemplate eliminating him for fear of being stock with the possibility of becoming another suicidal leader. However the idiot lives in a dream world of a child's mind far duller than that of Samuel Doe's who once got the message and chance to leave the political scene when he could but played the fool until he was captured and butchered. With Yaya,his recent remarks in The Gambia saying that presidents don't die in their own political problems indicates how unreceptive his brain is in political history of the African continent. But I would still insist that the civilians and not the soldiers for once take the bull by the horns and do it to Yaya Jammeh. Or would they continue to find their personal opportunities of big positions in the government while still blaming the soldiers for keeping Jammeh in power? Was it not a shocking shame that Abdoulai Sallah after retiring with absolute disgrace as ambassador has accepted another ministerial position from Yaya? No wonder with all the clear evidence seen the civil community is still sheepishly appealing to Yaya the number one orchestrator of the killing of Ousman Koro Ceesay to investigate the case and tell them what they have certainly known already. Is that not something? The soldiers should continue to pray hoping that time would show the clear truth. But I am still looking forward to that special day when the remains of our colleagues are removed from the back of the toilets of Yundum and paraded with honour before given the peaceful burial they honestly deserve. The Gambian constitution will be rectified to cover all of the soldiers dead or alive and will ensure that such things would never be entertained in our midst again. If soldiers are killed again under any circumstances, our families must get the bodies and we would lay our lives to stop any bastard trying to bury us behind toilets of our own barracks. Sorry to say, but for the moment any of you out there could end up in those shallow graves at Yundum Barracks. . ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ To Search in the Gambia-L archives, go to: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/CGI/wa.exe?S1=gambia-l To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to: [log in to unmask] To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~