Yaya's decision last week to let the murderers of our children go scot-free,
sends various messages to the Gambian people. The obvious message is that
Yaya attaches no value to the lives of innocent children in the country.
What kind of leader would oversee the massacre of more than a dozen children
and then deny the victims' family their day in court to punish the
perpetrators of this heinous crime? We all know where Yaya stands vis-a-vis
the lives of people he perceives as opponents. The coward will not hesitate
to unleash his thugs on his opponents (real or imagined).

But the real raison d'etre for this piece is to warn the opposition back
home of the other sinister lessons we need to learn from the April massacre.
If the opposition lets Yaya get away with this murder, they are in effect
telling Yaya that he and his security forces can murder any member of the
opposition and get away with it. This is a message we cannot afford to send
to an animal like Yaya. If cowards like Yaya do not fear reprisal for their
actions, they will continue to terrorize people.

When the day of reckoning comes, there will be clear evidence that Yaya was
encouraged in his decision to order deadly force against the children,
because he believed that the opposition political parties were actively
participating in the demonstration. If Yaya is not stopped, he would do the
same thing (order deadly force) against other defenseless Gambians that
stand up to him.

One of the first things Yaya did upon his return from Cuba and realization
that the children were acting on their own, was to summon Baboucarr Jatta,
Ousman Badgie, Sankung Badgie and Baba Jobe and ask them why opposition
party officials were not killed during the massacre. These despicable
individuals together with NIA operatives convinced a paranoid Yaya that the
opposition parties were behind this demonstration. Yaya's clearly erroneous
belief can still be gleaned from the disgraceful press statement given by
Pap Cheyassin Secka when he was stating their reason for the failure to
prosecute the criminals involved in the massacre. Despite the fact that
there is absolutely no evidence suggesting that the opposition parties were
the instigators of the demonstration, Yaya and his cohorts still want to
convince themselves that the children were not acting on their own.  Well,
they can continue deluding themselves.

What is important here is for the opposition leaders to realize that on
April 10 and 11, 2000, Yaya, Baboucarr Jatta, Ousman Badgie, Sankung Badgie
and Babou Jobe really meant to kill our children together with Ousainou
Darboe, Halifa Sallah, Hamat Bah and our other leaders. This was their plan.
Unfortunately, only our children got killed. Yaya, Jatta, the two Badgies
and Baba Jobe will all be tried for murder when we get rid of Yaya.

People like Isatou Njie-Saidy, who after discovering the mess, attempted to
cover up the massacre, will also be prosecuted for their crimes. This was
the same woman that was attempting to peddle lies that rubber bullets were
used to shoot at our children. I wonder what this despicable character now
has to say about the coroner's report that clearly says that the children
were killed by life ammunition. One day, they will all account for their
actions.
The Opposition should know that if Yaya is not fearful of reprisal, he would
unleash the same brute force against the opposition come the elections
campaign. The opposition should be prepared to engage in all out war with
these vermin. The ambush at Basse should teach us that when we take these
people on, they always run away. They themselves do not believe in what they
are doing.

I do not know nonentities like Baboucarr Jatta. But close associates of mine
that know this vermin tell me that if Yaya was to be cornered and brought
before Jatta by the masses, Jatta will happily volunteer to be the one to
pull the trigger on Yaya. I understand that this man is the most disloyal
person you can come across. People that doubt my information, are asked to
revisit Jatta's relationship with people like Ndow Njie and Lie Conteh
during the former regime. Jatta will not put his life on the line for Yaya.
Apart from the fact that he is a coward, he is also an opportunist of the
highest order. The man has no control over what is going on in the army.
What did he do about those soldiers that were acting out, killing civilians?
He came out and declare allegiance to them. Jatta knows that those soldiers
are venting their frustration at defenseless civilians. Those soldiers were
challenging Yaya and Jatta to come to the defense of the innocent civilians
they murdered in cold blood. But we (the civilians) cannot depend on Yaya
and Jatta to defend us against some of these trigger happy soldiers. The
army is out of control. They cannot and will not defend Yaya against a mass
demonstration.

Over the weekend, I watched a documentary on the fall of Manuel Noriega. The
General that was in charge of the army on the fateful day the people stormed
Noriega's base, was interviewed for the program. The General (now retired)
said that the best decision he ever made in his life, was the decision to
refuse to use deadly force against the five thousand demonstrators, in order
to defend a "bully like Noriega". Granted, we cannot count on vermin like
Baboucarr Jatta to act in such a noble fashion. But the lesson we should
draw from that is, when push comes to shove, the masses can easily break
these dictators down. Yaya himself cannot fight five thousand Gambians. What
he can do, is to order Baboucarr Jatta and his men to fight on his behalf.
Some of those men are our brothers whose families are suffering the same way
every Gambian (save a few) are suffering. They know Yaya is not worth dying
for. Like I said, Jatta himself will happily smoke Yaya if he knows that the
masses are winning the battle.

We should not allow Yaya to get away with murder. We should be prepared to
get rid of him if he is not going to allow the courts to punish Baboucarr
Jatta, Ousman Badgie, Sankung Badgie, Baba Jobe and Isatou Njie-Saidy. These
criminals have to be brought to court. If they come to court and say that
Yaya ordered them to massacre our children, then we pounce on Yaya. Even if
they prove to be the losers and low-lives they are and still attempt to
exonerate Yaya by saying that Yaya did not give the orders to kill the
children, Yaya has to one day face trial for this heinous crime. The
opposition should remember that the only reason they were saved from the
fate that befell our children, was because the opposition party leaders were
not in the streets on April 10 and 11, 2000. If Yaya knows that he can get
away with that heinous crime, I can guarantee you that he will turn Gambia
into a killing zone during the coming elections. The man is a maniac.
KB

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