OPEN LETTER TO PRESIDENT JOHNSON SIRLEAF OF LIBERIA- LAWYER MARIAM DENTON-Editors want Baba Jobe handed over!!! From:-The Editorial Board Freedomnewspaper Raleigh North Carolina-USA Attention:-HE Johnson Sirleaf, President Of The Republic of Liberia Office of The President-Monrovia. West Africa. Your Excellency, Subject:-The Unlawful detention of Lawyer Mariam Denton,a woman,a mother and an Icon in The Gambia,by President Jammeh of The Republic of The Gambia. Your Excellency, It is with deep regret and bitterness that we are sending you this message with reference to the above mentioned caption. The theme of this very message is centered around inviting fighters like you help us as Gambians fight against injustice and impunity in our country. You as a person is so qualified to step into this arena. You are a woman by nature and the political prisoner being referred to herein is also a woman. You are a loving and caring mother,she is also one. You did taste the otherside of hard hearted dictators like Samuel Doe and Charles Taylor during your days as freedom fighter. Mrs Mariam Denton is today going through those trying times under a hard hearted and ruthless dictator in the person of President Yahya Abdul Aziz Junkung Jammeh of The Republic of The Gambia. Madam Sirleaf asked to step in Gambia's political crisis... You did taste the harsh cells and harsh mental or physical tortures under the hands of Samuel Doe,a ruthless dictator who never hesitated to kill. Today Mrs Denton is also facing the same callous and dictatorial tendencies from another despot who prefers killing over negotiations. Therefore the reason why we as African sons and daughters chose to send this message to a lioness like you. You are not a lioness that fights to dominate,you are a lioness that defends it cubs from hungry wolves. Mrs Johnson Sirleaf we are sobbing because of fear,we are crying because of sorrow,we are running away because of whips and bullets,this means we are calling for your motherly love to help save our community from the horrors of any future civil war. We do not want to wait any longer,it is our duty to inform you about a fuming volcanoe thats about to erupt in your backyard. Your Excellency, You are well respected,you have been received by the world's strongest congress ie the US congress. You are loved and held at high esteem by many. You have done it under two dictators,we have one dictator within our midst therefore you are our inspiration. Right at this moment your fellow woman,sister and an educated mother is languishing in jail. She is being tortured,degraded and demoralised by never-do-wells,who can only use guns and knives to achieve something but not brains and minds. President Sirleaf please remember the old adage..."Force breeds force". In The Gambia today we have force breeding force. The seeds of discord have already been buried in the ground,we can see the sibblings every where,we as a nation are about to reap what has been sown by an evil regime. Do we deserve reaping what we did not sow? Doesn't the evil regime and the evil leader who sowed the seed deserve reaping them like Charles Taylor or Samuel Doe did in the past? Why would The Gambia be left sobbing all by itself when we have leaders like you within the AU? Your Excellency, Mrs Mariam Denton was accused and jailed after The Gambia's dictator foiled his 18th coup d'etat? In legal terms Your Excellency 18 means maturity. It also means the same in biological and spiritual terms. Maturity indeed is an outcome of long days of experience. The experience we have been going through under President Jammeh has reached its 'age of puberty'. This means The Gambia and its people is so sad and ready to explode. When dictators feel paranoid they end up victimising brains like Lawyer Denton. You have first hand experience on that Your Excellency. You have been victimised both by Doe and Taylor. You are an icon who was recognised and loved even whereas those dictators wanted to sell you as damaged goods. They never succeeded because anyone who saw you,saw value and goodness. This is indeed why we recognise the same values in Lawyer Mariam Denton even whereas President Jammeh wants to sell her as damaged goods. Lawyer Denton is our Johnson Sirleaf in The Gambia. We do not want to read her epitaph on a grave,we want to salute her on a dias when The Gambia is freed from the claws of a ruthless dictator. We want to salute exactly as you were saluted by Mrs Laura Bush during your inauguration ceremony as the continent's first elected Female President. Your Excellency, The Gambia is today undergoing political and economic crisis. This is attributable to the growing corruption and rule of law crisis in the country. The government under the leadership of President Jammeh violates the constitution with impunity. Our men and women had been exposed to all kinds of atrocities under Jammeh's "repressive and dictatorial rule." We implore on you to use your high office once again to bring sanity in this one time peaceful West African country. Your Excellency, as Charles Taylor is awaiting his fate at the Hague for crime against humanity, we hope and pray that you will use the Banjul AU Summit to prevail on your colleagues to cooperate with the UN Security Council Resolution, and hand over people accused of worsening the Sierra leonean and Liberian decade long civil war. Such a move will help a great deal in ending impunity on the continent. Our own former National Assembly Member Majority leader Baba Kajali Jobe and President Yahya Jammeh's personal jet, the new Millennium were among those indicted by the UN for gun running and the trade of "blood diamond." Your Excellency, the Banjul Summit is an opportune moment for Africa to facilitate the handing over of these enemies of freedom, who caused mayhem and untold suffering to the people of Liberia and Sierra Leone. It is our contention that all those linked to the chopping and the killing of our Mano River Union brothers and sisters should face justice without delay. The horific atrocities that took place in these two countries are still fresh in our minds. Justice delayed is justice denied. We prevail on you to champion for this noble call, so that the likes of Baba K Jobe can be extradited to the Hague to face trial. Trying Charles Taylor, alone is not enough as far as public interest is concerned. All accomplices should be brought to book in the interest of justice. Your Excellency, we would also want to draw your attention to the recent hacking of the Freedom Newspaper by agents of The Gambian government. This unfortunate incident led to the mass arrest of our esteem subscribers, who the Gambian government branded as "informants" to the Editor and publisher Pa Nderry M'Bai. As we piece this open letter together, dozens of Freedom Newspaper subscribers are languishing in jail without right to bail or speedy trial. The government also used the Daily Observer Newspaper, a paper sympathetic to the Jammeh administration to publish names and addresses of our subscribers without the expressed permission of this leading and authoritative US based Gambian online Newspaper. The office of the Inspector General of police also issued a statement saying "all those whose names appeared on the Daily Observer, should report to the nearest police station or risked being arrested and prosecuted. " Despite our repeated statements indicating that the said people were not our informants, the government went ahead to crack down on these "innocent freedom loving people". A 14 year old boy was among those held by the police. Some of the detainees complained about being harassed and tortured while in custody. In view of the above,we invite you to step in and help save your fellow Gambian sisters and brothers from mayhem. Please accept the assurances of our highest esteem. You are our hero! Down with dictators and despots! Welcome Freedom! The Editorial Board Freedomnewspaper. CC President Johnson Sirleaf, President Abdoulie Wade of Senegal, President Neno Veira of Guinea Bissau, African Union Chairman, President Obsanjo of Nigeria, President John Koffor of Ghana, US Department of State, Secretary General of the United Nations Koffi Annan, Prosecutor of the UN Sierra leonean War Crime Tribunal in the Hague, Reporters Without Borders, Committee to Protect Journalists, International Federation of Journalists Pen International, International Freedom of Expression Group (IFEX) Seneweb.com Walfajir Radio Senegal, Foroyaa Newspaper Banjul, The Point Newspaper Banjul, The International Monetary Fund (IMF) World Bank Front Page Africa. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! 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