Hi folks,
I would like to contribute my 2 bututs to discussions that have been going
on regarding recent events in The Gambia, and the impending debate in
Parliament about whether or not Jammeh's oil deal should be investigated.
But before I go into details, I would like to extend my sincere condolences
to the family and friends of Alieu Njie, who died in the recent clashes
between UDP supporters and, from what I gather, APRC supporters. In
addition, I hope and pray that all those injured recover speedily.
It is unfortunate that these events have occured, and especially so because
the Gambian parliament will soon (Jun. 26) be meeting to decide on whether
or not to look into the oil deal between the late Gen. Sanni Abacha of
Nigeria, and President Jammeh. Any time is a terrible time for people to
lose their lives over political differences, but the incidents of the past
few days are also especially sad because they add to the tension that
already exists in The Gambia. To complicate matters further, there have
been suggestions that the attack on UDP supporters was a deliberate
provocation on the part of APRC supporters just so they have some reason for
postponing or cancelling the upcoming parliamentary debate. We'll have to
wait and see what happens.
In the mean time, I thought this might be a great opportunity to prepare
ourselves for whatever the parliament decides to do about the oil scandal,
if indeed any decision is made. I should also say that what I am about to
propose is also meant for the consumption of members of parliament. Gone are
the days when news took forever to travel from Basse to Soma. With the
Internet and advances in global telecommunications, it takes news less time
to travel from Banjul to Olso, Norway, than from Banjul to Ballanghar. For
this reason, the members of parliament should be aware that whatever they
decide in the morning will be the subject of debate and dialog among
Gambians the world over, and they will be held accountable for their
decisions.
Regarding the oil scandal, I would like to say that I found reports of Mr.
Samuel Sarr's comments on the issue particularly insulting. For one thing,
Mr. Sarr said that the $0.20 (twenty cents) per barrel that the contract
specified as payment for the oil was reasonable. I mentioned in my mid-May
"Framework for peace" posting to the list that over the period (1996-1998)
of the crude oil contract, the landed price for Nigerian crude varied from
$14 to $20 per barrel, according to the US Dept. of Energy (DOE) figures.
You can obtain data on historical crude oil prices in just about 3 steps
from the DOE Web site (http://www.doe.gov). Here's how:
1. scroll down, and click on the "Search" button on the left of the DOE
homepage.
2. type "bonny light" (including the quotation marks) in the search box,
and then click on the "submit" button
3. click on the second document listed. It is the one that has a score of
0.85 (on the left).
Please note that the document is in Acrobat format (ending in .pdf) If your
computer cannot read this file, you can download the Acrobat reader program
from:
http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/alternate.html
Pick whatever package (Windows or Mac) is best for you.
Alternatively, you can get a plain text report from:
http://www.eia.doe.gov/pub/oil_gas/petroleum/data_publications/weekly_petrol
eum_status_report/historical/2000/2000_06_14/txt/table12f.txt
Please note the long Web address might have been broken into two lines by my
e-mail program. You can reconstruct it by cutting and pasting both parts of
it into your browser window (where you normally type your Web address). For
those of you who absolutely cannot access the above publication, let me save
you the trouble by reporting that the figures on the DOE Web site indicate
that Bonny Light crude oil prices were $19.70 per barrel (pb) in Jan. 1996,
$24.65 pb in Jan. 1997, and $16.50 pb 24.65. Clearly, it is inconceivable
that crude oil costed any where near$0.20 per barrel during the period the
oil deal was effective.
It was particularly insulting for Mr. Sarr to claim in his interview in The
Gambia that 20 cents a barrel was a fair price for crude oil. I say this
because I get the feeling he thought he was talking to a bunch of foolish
kids. We are a nation of over a million people, and if Mr. Sarr thinks that
he is smarter than all of us, he's gotta be crazy. If he had little bit of
intelligence, and/or wasn't the big liar that he is, he would have known
that it is fairly trivial to get the facts on crude oil prices.
The next question is who owned the Swiss bank account to which proceeds from
the sale of the oil was sent. Documents released in a London High Court,
and available online at the UDP Web site
(http://www.udpgambia.org/crdoil.htm) show the contracts signed, and other
related documents, as well as the name of the bank, and account number to
which proceeds from the oil sale were sent. The Gambian parliament needs to
dig into this, and test the validity of Mr. Sarr's story that the money did
not go to President Jammeh.
I mentioned earlier that the Gambian parliament has to know that the whole
world is watching their actions on this one. I have seen reports in the
Webpages of Gambian newspapers that some members of parliament do not think
it important to pursue this case. I would like to inform them that whether
or not they decide to investigate the oil deal, there are those of us who
will keep the issue in the limelight, until President Jammeh is exposed for
his hypocritical claims to being transparent and accountable.
In this regard, I would like to suggest some course of action, depending on
how the Jun. 26 parliamentary session turns out. First, in the event the
parliament decides to formally launch an investigation into the oil deal, we
must all offer any and all help we can to them, to ensure a speedy,
thorough, and conclusive end to the process. With so many of Gambians in
different and far-flung places around the world we can, I'm sure, be
valuable sources of information, leads, and ideas about how to go about
investigating the oil deal.
Second, if the parliament for whatever reason decides not to investigate the
oil deal, then I suggest we turn up the volume of the campaign to educate
the whole world about President Jammeh and his government's incompetence,
corruption, and atrocities against the Gambian people. Toward this end, we
will be contacting media outlets, government agencies, non-governmental
organizations, development agenices (e.g. UN), and think tanks. We'll also
have to make extensive use of Internet resources such as news groups,
discussion boards, and mailing lists. From an organizational perspective,
we'll need to have people working on different issues and areas; e.g. one or
two people might work on locating mailing lists that are African-development
oriented with a view toward using them to disseminate information about
President Jammeh and his government.
I have already been making efforts to contact different organizations and
governments, to seek their help in pressuring the Jammeh government to stop
their high-handedness, and to investigate and/or bring to justice the many
outstanding allegations of abuse of power by this government. I will be
sending you in the next week or so, a summary of the various organizations
and agencies I contacted, and the results of my efforts. I will also be
sending you (finally!) an updated version of the paper, along with
suggestions for continuing the campaign against the Jammeh government.
May I mention that I am really impressed by the incredible drive and
committment that is being shown by many Gambians and our well-wishers the
world over to bringing peace and prosperity to our country. We have been
getting news of many organizations forming and being revived, and this is
all to be welcomed. However, I think we are yet to have an umbrella
organization or collective voice we've talked about before. After I saw a
copy of President's letter to the Concerned Gambians - USA group (and a BIG
"congratulations!!" to them), I thought that we finally had a nucleus we
could rally around. However, it was only a few days ago that I saw another
posting from Soffie, introducing Gambia Freedom Democratic Movement (GDM).
As you can imagine, I'm rather confused by all this, and hope to get things
sorted out shortly. I will, however, say that I really liked the "Concerned
Gambians" name, and think it could be a non-partisan, global organization
that can serve all of us well.
We had also discussed forming a Free Gambia organization, and Dr. Amadou
Janneh had indeed already donated Web space for it. However, progress
toward getting that Web site off the ground has be hampered by a number of
issues. First, I haven't been able to get a firm idea about how best to go
about getting different organizations on board. In my initial consultation
with a number of people, I told them that I wasn't interested in
re-inventing the wheel, and for this reason would rather build on what's
already there, than starting from scratch. I will confess that I have not
yet been able to get a thorough inventory of different organizations out
there, and hope to be able to do that soon. Obviously, there are other
issues beyond my control, but to cut a long story short, let me just say
that I take responsibility for most of the blame. I hope to be able to
provide in the next week or so a more thorough and clear account of where I
think things are, and suggestions about where we should go next. Hopefully,
we will be hearing from other people, and hence be provided many great ideas
from them.
I'll end this one here, and hope to pick up the thread later on. In the
mean time, I'd like to again urge all of us to excercise maximum restraint
in our postings, especially in these times. I'd also like to take the
opportunity to add my voice to those that have been heard to criticize the
insult to Fatoumata Jahoumpa-Ceesay. As someone who has been insulted on
and off the list, I would like to express my displeasure at people who
insult other people's parents. It's a good thing that the person who
insulted Mrs. Jahoumpa-Ceesay has apologized, and I hope we can now move on.
That's it! Have a great weekend, and best wishes.
Katim
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