Greetings Gambia-l:

I find this very interesting, and I thought it might be of interest to
some of you who haven't had the chance to listen to GRTS audio news
on-line.

According to GRTS news, on Friday, November 26, 1999, the APRC (Alliance
for Patriotic Re-orientation and Construction), convened an
"extraordinary National Congress" at the Brikama College, in Brikama
town. During the ... National Congress, His Excellency, Retired Colonel
Alhaji Doctor Yayha Abdul Aziz Jemus Junkung Jammeh (wow!), warned that
any civil servant implicated in the Auditor General's Report, for
corruption, would be dealt with, severely, and I quote the president,
verbatim (on a pre-recorded GRTS audio news on RealAudio): "If you call
yourself a party militant, a party supporter, and a supporter of the
APRC government, you must live by the ideas and the principles of the
APRC. You must be honest; you must devout your life to the interest of
this country, to make sure that we safeguard the interest of the
ordinary masses of the country, and to make sure that the country moves
forward. Any deviation from that, 'whether even if' you live in a green
house; you sleep on a green bed; you wear green; you drive a green car,
any day I get a hold of you, because of the fact that you are corrupt, I
will deal with you as if are yellow, or red or blue!"

(There was some applause and laughter in the audience)

The president continues: "What I want to assure the party here is that
Yahya Jammeh is not the person who will condone corruption. The National
Assembly is debating on it. Whenever they are ready, I can assure you
that we are going to recover every butut that has been taken away. We
came to power to fight corruption. Be it PPP or APRC, corruption is
corruption. And those who are implicated, be ready for me, because I
will deal with you in such a way that the 'whole world will cry!'"
(There was some applause and laughter in the audience)

Gambian-l, what is your opinion on the president's 'tough talk on
corruption?' In your opinion, what should the government do to
eradicate—or shall I say, at least minimize the level of the
alleged—corruption?

I commend the president for openly speaking tough/against corruption.
However, there are some serious issues—like the alleged Human Rights
abuses; the ... nocturnal extrajudicial kidnappings, to name a few—that
need to be addressed. I therefore ask: what is the government doing to
address those serious issues?

Thank you for your time.

Lamin Camara.