Mr Gassama, I would like to piggy back on your post to add a few additional
news tidbits that the BBC's Network Africa has reported.  As Ebrima Ceesay
confirmed earlier, the unrest has now spread to the provinces.  There have
been reports of students going on the rampage in Janjanbureh and Farafenni.
In Janjanbureh, especially, government property has again been destroyed.

On the casualty figures, the BBC' s reporter in Banjul, Ebrima Sillah, said
that he visited the mortuary in Banjul and was told by at least 12 different
parents that they had lost their loved ones.  One particularly moving
interview with a Sierra Leonean immigrant who lost his son almost drove me to
tears.

Mr. Sillah, further said that the Gambian public is confused about the spate
of events. Not because the students rioted, but about why the security forces
would shoot innocent children?  Meanwhile, all parents in the Kombos have
been cautioned to keep their kids at home.

I would like to add that for those of you questioning why the students rioted
and those making excuses for the stupid brutes who are directly responsible
for the killings, there is only so much that the human spirit can take before
unrest happens.  We have seen it time and time again in history.  These
students were smart enough to realize that Ebrima Barry's death was a
manifestation of a much larger problem that the country was facing,
incompetence, indifference and just a state of affairs that had spiraled out
of control due to the barbaric rule of a mad semi-illiterate despot.

But I assure you that they did not die in vain.  All the school kids that
died yesterday, including the three year old boy that also got shot down, are
martyrs who died fighting for basic human rights and decency in our country.
Let us never forget them.

The time has come for a collective action.  Let us take action quickly and
put all these plans that have been suggested into motion.

Yus

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