A twenty-two year old Gambian school leaver, Fadua Conteh, was beaten by police attached to the Tourism Development Area (TDA) and was hospitalised as a result, according to his father, Mr Ousman Conteh. Mr Conteh told The Independent that his son was admitted at the Royal Victoria Hospital Eye Ward to undergo treatment for wounds sustained during the beatings. He said doctors were treating damages to his son's left eye. Mr Conteh described the police attack as 'brutal, unprovoked and unjustified'. He said that his son had gone to Cape Point to see the general manager of the Cape Point Hotel, Mr. Ebrima Bojang, to receive some money from his mother who lives in Sweden. That was when, according to Fadua, the police stopped him and started beating him with a hard water hose. The police were very brutal and unfriendly when I went to the Cape Point Police station to enquire as to why my boy was brutalised,' Mr Conteh said. He said he then went to the Bakau Police station and complained to the Officer in Charge, Inspector Sanneh. The officer expressed regret at the action and took Fadua to the Bakau dispensary for treatment. 'I later took my son to RVH for better treatment. My boy was beaten at about midday and he only received proper treatment at about 5pm,' he said. The concerned father was outraged, 'my boy really suffered and is still suffering. He is not a bumster or a thief. He has just left school, why should he be brutalised?' Mr. Conteh said he has decided to take the police to court for damages done to his son.'Even my boy is not ready for compromise,' Conteh said.Meanwhile, this paper has been reliably informed that Fadua was early last week discharged from the RVH.. ____________________________________________________________________ Get your own FREE, personal Netscape WebMail account today at http://webmail.netscape.com. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html ----------------------------------------------------------------------------