Thanks Boss Coach. Mang sa ganaw rek!! Baba >From: pasamba jow <[log in to unmask]> >Reply-To: The Gambia and related-issues mailing list ><[log in to unmask]> >To: [log in to unmask] >Subject: Re: Now Out: Mandela's Other Children >Date: Sat, 5 May 2007 11:25:31 -0700 > >Baba, > Congratulations. i will definitely get a copy. Keep up the good work. > Coach > >Baba Galleh Jallow <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > Dear Friends, > >On this occasion of World Press Freedom Day, I am pleased to announce that >my new small book, "Mandela's Other Children: The Diary of an African >Journalist" is out. Attached is the cover template for the book. Signed >copies can be purchased from the FreeGambia website at the following >address: > >http://www.freegambia.net/shop.html > >The book may also be purchased directly from the publisher at: > >http://www.wastelandpress.net/Mandela.html > >I join all journalists in remembering our dear brother, father, uncle, >mentor, and doyen, Deyda Hydara who was brutally murdered by gunmen on >December 16, 2004. > >Below are three of the book's forty-two chapters. > >Baba > > > >Chapter Nine > >It’s been about three months since our absurd arrest over the Norwegian >paint ad. I spent the past three days locked up incommunicado at NIA >headquarters. Last Sunday morning, I arrived at our offices around 9:00am >to >oversee work on the Monday paper. As I walked through the gate, I noticed >two cars packed outside and some men standing around. I recognized them >immediately as NIA agents. The little guy wearing a black felt hat and dark >glasses was Baba Saho, the guy who interrogated me and asked me to write a >statement over the paint ad. I waved at them and proceeded upstairs to my >office. Shortly after I closed the door behind me, I heard a knock and >asked >them to come in. Five men filed into the office. I exchanged greetings with >them and asked them to sit down on the three available chairs. Three sat >down and two leaned against the wall by the door, their hands folded on >their chests, wearing the customary iron looks on their faces. > >‘Well Mr. Jallow, we have a warrant for your arrest,’ Baba Saho said, >looking across the desk at me behind his dark glasses. > >‘Oh yeah?’ I said. ‘That’s interesting. And for what crime am I being >arrested?’ > >Saho motioned to one of his men who stepped forward and handed me a yellow >sheet of paper. As I read, I felt my eyes widening with disbelief. The >warrant said I was suspected of trafficking in arms, ammunition, and drugs, >and being in possession of dangerous documents. I could not help laughing >out. > >‘This is ridiculous,’ I said. ‘Suspected of trafficking in arms, >ammunition, >and drugs?’ > >‘Have you read the warrant, Mr. Jallow?’ Saho asked. > >‘Yes I have,’ I said. > >‘Please sign it,’ he added. > >I signed the document and handed it back to him. > >‘Can we search your office?’ > >‘Oh sure,’ I said, rising up from my desk and standing aside. Three of the >men started rummaging the piles of paper on my desk, pulling out my drawers >and shifting through their contents. After a while, they were through. Of >course they did not find any arms, ammunition, or drugs. > >‘Can you take us to your house, Mr. Jallow?’ Saho said. > >‘No problem,’ I retorted. ‘Let me just tell my colleagues what’s going on.’ > >As I walked out of my office towards the newsroom, one of the men followed >me, as if I was going to run away. I told everybody what had happened and >asked them to make sure that the paper comes out on Monday. Then I locked >my >office and walked downstairs with the men. I was escorted into one of the >cars, which started driving towards the city. > >‘My house is in the other direction,’ I reminded Saho, who sat in the front >seat with the driver. > >‘It’s no longer necessary,’ he said. ‘We just received orders to take you >straight to headquarters.’ > >I sat back in the backseat, sandwiched between two stone-faced agents. I >had >no idea why I was arrested. I knew the contents of the arrest warrant were >simply ridiculous and not deserving of the slightest concern. And I could >not think of any story or editorial or advertisement over the past week or >so that could have led to my arrest. But then in our country, the NIA do >not >need any good reason to arrest somebody and lock them up for as long as >they >are asked to. Orders from above are a good enough reason to presume anyone >guilty until proven innocent. I resolved to adopt a policy of wait and see. >We drove in silence into the gloomy NIA headquarters. > > >Chapter Thirteen > >Our worst fears are becoming a reality. Jammeh is not stepping down. He is >going to stay on in power till God knows when. Over the past week, busloads >of peasants from districts across the country have been going to State >House >to ‘beg’ Captain Jammeh to contest the forthcoming elections. Of course, it >is all stage-managed. The so-called opinion leaders – illiterate village >elders, religious leaders, and women - are literally rounded up by the >regime's hordes of sycophants, given some money as ‘cola nut price,’ and >brought to Banjul to beg the great leader to stay in power for the sake of >God and of the country. The little money they receive, the prospect of a >free bus ride to the capital city, a delicious meal at State House, and a >rare opportunity to shake the hand of the head of state is more than enough >bait to get these simple-minded folks to play along with an insidious plot >by the military to hang on to power. > >In front of TV cameras, the so-called opinion leaders, one after the other, >stand up and praise the sterling qualities of the great leader and beg him >to contest the elections. He and his great soldiers have sacrificed their >lives to free The Gambia from the clutches of ex-president Dawda Jawara and >his gang of corrupt politicians. They must not abandon their >responsibilities. Some of them likened Jammeh to the Prophet Moses, sent by >God to deliver his people from the evil pharaoh and lead them on to the >Promised Land. Every day, another group of so-called opinion leaders from a >different corner of the country is driven to State House to utter their >ignorant nonsense. The nonsense is then relayed over national radio and >television: The people love and trust Jammeh so much that they are all >begging him to stay in power. The lie gets bigger by the day. It is >repeated >so often that it begins to sound like truth. Rumors are circulated by his >cronies that the great leader himself really does not want to stay in >power. >But the people are begging him to do so. Since the voice of the people is >the voice of God, he really has no choice. They add their voices to the >universal cry for Jammeh to stay. It is clear that the plot to hold the >Gambian people hostage is going to succeed. This is exactly what is going >to >happen: The busloads of ‘opinion leaders’ will continue to come to Banjul >to >beg Jammeh to stay in power. After ‘opinion leaders’ from across the >country >have been herded like cattle to Banjul to beg the great savior to stay in >power, Jammeh will then declare that well, he has no choice but to abide by >the will of the Gambian people; for the will of the people is the will of >God. That he feels truly humbled by the great trust reposed in him by the >Gambian people. That in accordance with the wishes of the people, he is >going to retire from the army and become a true servant of the people. This >is a well-beaten path for Africa's military depots. > >Mr. Jammeh and his colleagues in the military think that they are being >clever by engineering this fake show of universal support. But they are not >being clever. They are being selfish and greedy. They are being disloyal to >the nation. They are sealing their betrayal of the trust of the enlightened >forces in this country. They are exploiting the political ignorance and >simple-mindedness of the people to legitimize their hijacking of our >country. And they are being seen in all their ugly nakedness. The emperor >has absolutely no clothes! These outrages shall not go unpublished, now or >in the future. They shall not go unexposed to the big wide world. And >Jammeh >and his cohorts shall one day be dragged before the uncompromising court of >history. And they shall be judged and sentenced according to their crimes. >‘Mr. Jammeh, you stand accused of forging a counterfeit sovereignty, of >using the law to break the law, of embezzling millions of dollars of public >resources . . .’ > > >Chapter Thirty-One > >December 24, 2004. Deyda Hydara, 58, Editor and co-founder of The Point >newspaper has been brutally murdered. Deyda was gunned down last night, >around 11:00pm, as he drove home from his office. It was the thirteenth >anniversary of The Point and Deyda and his colleagues had spent the day >celebrating. But for Deyda, the meal he had that day was his last. Among >the >guests at his office, chatting and talking, showing teeth hiding streams of >hot blood, or just waiting nearby outside his office, were some men who >knew >that Deyda would not see the light of the day tomorrow. As he drove home, >an >unmarked taxi cab overtook him, drove adjacent him, and a man in the front >passenger seat pumped two bullets into an unwary Deyda’s head and one into >his chest. He lost control of the car, which swerved into a ditch. He died >on the spot. His passengers, two young ladies, members of his staff he had >offered a ride home, suffered gunshot wounds to the legs. The killers sped >past the spot where Deyda slumped over his steering wheel, his skull >shattered, his chest punctured, drenched in his own innocent blood. Deyda, >who could not hurt a fly. Deyda, who stammered and smoked and was ever so >cheerful even when engaged in heated debate over matters of principle. >Deyda >was also the Gambia correspondent for Reporters Without Borders and the >French news agency AFP. > >Who killed Deyda Hydara? Who wanted Deyda death? What could be the motive >for such cold-blooded murder of a 58-year old journalist who had spent all >his life trying to make ends meet and who ran a small bi-weekly tabloid >just >mildly critical of the state? Clearly, as long as this regime remains in >power, we will never get an answer to these questions. Investigations will >be touted in the media for a while and then all would be silence. Deyda’s >last shroud would be like the shroud of silence that still covers the >gruesome murder and incineration of Finance minister Ousman Koro Ceesay. >Deyda’s last shroud would be like the shroud of silence that surrounds the >murder by security forces of twelve students and one radio journalist on >April 10/11 2000. Deyda’s shroud will be like the shroud surrounding the >killing by security forces of Lt. Almamo Manneh, of an unknown number of >alleged coup plotters on the bloody night of November 11, 1994. I am >certain >that Deyda’s murderer will never be brought to book as long as the current >regime is in power. > >Deyda was an uncompromising champion of press freedom and respect for human >rights. Over the past year, he had been at the forefront of the Gambia >Press >Union’s fight against the promulgation of the media commission that had >more >powers than the Supreme Court of the land. That law was repealed only to be >replaced by an even more draconian piece of non-legislation that gave the >state power to jail journalists for a minimum of six months without the >option of a fine for publishing ‘untruths’. This new bill also increases >the >fee for the registration of a newspaper from a whopping hundred thousand >dalasi (about $5,000) to an unbelievable five hundred thousand dalasi. >Again, Deyda was at the forefront of the press union’s fight against this >draconian bill. Clearly, the state had gotten tired of seeing Deyda oppose >any piece of unjust legislation in this country. And if that indeed is the >case, as many of us believe it is, then Deyda’s murderer will never be >brought to justice as long as the current regime is in power, which could >be >for God knows how long. > >Deyda’s murder is a very good indicator of where we are as a nation. It is >a >good indicator that yes, we were not mistaken in our accusations of the >authorities that there is absolutely no security for the powerless in >today’s Gambia. How could anyone claim the existence of security in a >country in which journalists could be murdered with impunity, media houses >set on fire with impunity, and police and soldier-brutality perpetrated >against innocent civilians with impunity? Deyda's murder is a good >indicator >that in today’s Gambia, the murder of government critics can be committed >with blatant impunity and no one would ever be arrested for it. Why? >Because >the police are afraid to ask too many questions. Because the NIA can look >only so far. Because the police, the NIA and everyone else find themselves >emasculated and reduced to pretending that what they see is really not what >they see, and what they know is really not what they know. They all know, >or >at least suspect very strongly that they know, who killed Deyda Hydara. But >they are blind and dumb to the truth because the truth is too ugly to >contemplate. > >Deyda’s murder is an act of terrorism. It is a good indicator that >terrorism >does not have to be male, Arab, skinny, with an eagle nose and long flowing >beard; that terrorism could also be black, African, Gambian, with a head >like a square piece of dead wood. Deyda’s murder is calculated to terrorize >not only the Gambian media, but all Gambians. It is calculated to stun and >petrify the people, to say to everyone that this is what happens to people >who engage in activities like those Deyda engaged in. It is a calculated >attempt to repeat the message that was sent out to the Gambian people on >April 10 and 11, 2000, when 12 innocent school children and one radio >journalist were murdered by security forces in broad daylight and no one >was >prosecuted for the murders. The message that whoever dares make too much >unpleasant noise in The Gambia will go six feet deep, and nothing will come >out of it. > >But Deyda’s murder also represents a victory for the forces of truth and >justice in The Gambia. Death, Foucault would say, is the ultimate defiance >to state power; it is the point at which naked power is rendered totally >impotent. By his death Deyda has dealt a devastating blow to the forces of >evil in our country. He has exposed the shameful cowardice of those who, >because they have the guns, feel that they can commit any crime and get >away >with it. He has, by his death, grown larger than life in the global >imagination and focused the world’s attention on this small corner of the >world where, for over ten years now, a small group of tyrants have lorded >it >over the people and broken every law in the book with ruthless impunity. If >Deyda’s murderers were hoping to stop him from exposing their evil deeds, >the ironic result is that by his death, Deyda has turned the full light of >international attention on his killers. They have achieved the exact >opposite of what, in their sick and jaundiced imaginations, they had set >out >to achieve. Not only are the world’s curious searchlights now fully focused >on The Gambia, they will remain focused on The Gambia until the truth about >Deyda is known and the culprits brought to justice in one way or the other. >There is no doubt that one day, someone will stand in front of the world >and >say with total certainty, this is Deyda’s murderer. That day will come, and >when it comes, those who feel that they can commit such despicable crimes >with impunity shall be condemned to eternal damnation. > >_________________________________________________________________ >Express yourself instantly with MSN Messenger! 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