My heart simply sank on reading this. I pray that it is not a premonition of things to come our way the next five years. Sidibeh いいいいいいいいいいい Hon. Kamaso Feared Dead The Gambia Journal (Banjul) NEWS September 21, 2006 Posted to the web September 22, 2006 Banjul Sources closed to the NIA (National Intelligence Agency) have revealed to the Gambia Journal that the former National Assembly Member for the Wuli East constituency, Mrs. Duta Kamaso has died in detention. The death, if confirmed, would be one of the most tragic events in The Gambia's recent political history. Mrs. Kamaso was picked up in April, earlier this year, while returning home from Senegal, where she was said to have taken a sick child for treatment. Though it was never really explained why, but shortly after her arrest, state media reported that she had been expelled from the party, thus automatically losing her seat in the National Assembly. Mrs. Kamaso won the Wuli seat running on APRC ticket but soon fell out with some of the local APRC dignitaries over her fierce independence and acclaimed sense of integrity. Some sources close to the APRC party had said that she was detained for passing a circular around other APRC National Assembly members asking them to take up the matter of farmers whose groundnuts had not been paid by state-sponsored groundnut buyers. Most of her constituents are farmers and depend on groundnut farming for cash sustenance. The story had it that though Mrs. Kamaso did this because she was going to be away from the Assembly's sitting in order to nurse a sick child, the matter of the petition was reported to the President, the ruling party leader, as if Mrs. Kamaso had been engaged in an attempt to organize a vote of no confidence against the Jammeh regime. Hon. Kamaso was arrested shortly after her arrival and before her expulsion from the party was made public. Since then Mrs. Kamaso had been kept under the custody of the NIA in mosquito infested makeshift cells, without access to lawyers and even members of her family. The arrest of persons elected by the people, who by right do enjoy some immunity from such arbitrary arrests, has become common recently in the country. Another APRC member of the National Assembly, Omar Demm, has been in detention since the foiling of the alleged coup attempt in March. The former Mayor of the country's largest municipality, Mr. Abdoulie Conteh also spent six weeks in detention earlier this year. There has yet been no official word on the widespread rumor of the former lawmaker's death. Also rife on the grapevines is the rumored death of former NIA director General, Abdoulie Kujabi. It is the third time rumors have been circulating this year on his alleged death. Mr. Kujabi, formerly very close to President Jammeh, has been in detention since March 2006 and has been seen in the hospital in Banjul six weeks ago. Though he was arrested in connection with the alleged coup attempt, Mr. Kujabi is yet to be formerly charged with any crimes. いいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいい To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://listserv.icors.org/archives/gambia-l.html To Search in the Gambia-L archives, go to: http://listserv.icors.org/SCRIPTS/WA-ICORS.EXE?S1=gambia-l To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to: [log in to unmask] いいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいい