Dr Ceesay
In the words of our resident Mali expert on the L, I apologise for any "chagrin" caused by my two sentence reaction to Mathew K Jallow's talk with The Gambia Echo.
As "excite", and "illuminate", are both accomodative of multi-layered meanings, I urge that you accept the context of their employment in my short reaction as strictly neutral. I did not analyse any part of the quoted material, and like my choice of words, that was deliberate.
For example, The Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL) has no jurisdiction over Professor Jammeh. By its Charter as negotiated between the Government of Sierra Leone, and the United Nations, the SCSL has the limited mandate to try “those who bear the greatest responsibility” for the worst offences committed in the civil war since the Abidjan Peace Accord of 30 November 1996 … ”. It has jurisdiction over “crimes against humanity, war crimes, other serious violations of international law such as attacks against peacekeepers and conscription of children under the age of fifteen, as well as certain crimes under Sierra Leonean law like abuse of girls younger than fourteen and wanton destruction of property”. As an internal conflict, the controlling international instruments touching on the conduct of combatants were Article 3 Common to the Geneva Conventions of 1949, and of Additional Protocol II of 1977 to those Conventions.
On the question of handing the Professor over to the Hague, Mathew K Jallow may be referring to the International Criminal Court (ICC). As of now, the ICC has jurisdiction over only three crimes: genocide; war crimes; and crimes against humanity. If Mathew can negotiate the high threshold for ICC intervention, the only arguable allegations against the Professor may come under the jurisdictional rubric of "crimes against humanity". Here again, the likelihood of jurisdiction over the Professor is minimal.
Now that you forced some expansion on my reaction, I still recommend the interview for watchers of our public space. It really excites and illuminates.
If it means anything, I have the highest admiration for Sheriff, and yourself, and neither Mathew's insinuation regarding the two of you, nor Halake's utter rubbish against Sheriff, is likely to dent that perspective.
Rest assured, I am "careful with some of the stuff [I] read online". Very careful!
LJDarbo
Mr Darboe,
I just saw your email and decided to quickly send you a short reply. Both Sheriff Bojang Snr and myself are planning to separately send rejoinders to The Gambia Echo, in reaction to the allegations Matthew Jallow made in his Gambia Echo interview, against us (Sheriff Bojang and I).
My good brother, be careful with some of the stuff you read online. I can tell you that Matthew Jallow’s interview online is full of exaggeration, inaccuracies and misrepresentation of the facts. In fact, I intend to send a rebuttal to The Gambia Echo, as soon as possible, in order to set the record straight. Sheriff Bojang Snr, as I write this email, is also writing a rejoinder, to be sent to The Gambia Echo for publication.
To start with, Matthew Jallow was never appointed editor-in-chief of the Daily Observer newspaper by Kenneth Best. He claimed in the Gambia Echo interview that he was once an editor-in-chief of the Daily Observer. Well, as far as I know, and this can be confirmed by D.A Jawo, Lamin Cham, Abdou Karim Sanneh and others, Matthew Jallow was not even a permanent staff at the Daily Observer. He was a freelance reporter – only paid when his stories/commentaries were published in the newspaper.
The first editor-in-chief of the Daily Observer, when (it was) founded in May 1992, was the late Cherno Michael Baldeh, one of the most prolific/gifted writers I met. In fact, Kenneth Best would argue, at the time, that there was no better writer on the African Continent than the late Cherno Michael Baldeh. During this period, the late A.A Barry was the News Editor and Momodou Musa Secka (deceased) was appointed Features Editor. However, both Cherno Michael Baldeh and Modou Musa Secka were subsequently removed from their positions and following on from this, Kenneth Y. Best himself became the editor-in-chief, a post he held up to 30th August 1994, when he was deported to Liberia by the AFPRC. Matthew never served as the editor-in-chief of the Observer, not even for a day. The rest is now history.
Matthew also said, in his Gambia Echo interview, that he was appointed editor-in-chief but got demoted because Sheriff Bojang Snr. and myself had approached Kenneth Best and complained about his (Matthew’s) stringent editing style. Again, this is a distortion of the facts. Matthew Jallow was never my editor-in-chief at the Daily Observer. He was not Sheriff Bojang’s editor-in-chief, as well. Sheriff Bojang Snr. is a very good writer himself and his writings do not in fact, need editing.
As for me, I cannot even count the number of times I have had to completely re-write or edit Matthew Jallow’s news stories. From 1994 to 1996, when I became one of the editors, I can tell you that every news story/item Matthew Jallow wrote for the Daily Observer was either edited by me or the late A.A Njie. So I was actually one of his editors at the Observer Newspaper. Matthew’s commentaries, very well written in most cases I have to say, were handled by other editors - namely Baba Galleh Jallow or Ellicot Seade, a Ghanaian. These are the facts and Daily Observer insiders – past and present – and many of whom are online, can confirm my statement.
For more on this, read my rebuttal or see Sheriff Bojang’s rejoinder, when sent to the Gambia Echo for publication.
Regards, Ebrima
Date: Tue, 3 Mar 2009 12:31:42 +0000 From: [log in to unmask] Subject: [>-<] QUOTE OF THE MONTH To: [log in to unmask]; [log in to unmask]
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