Karamba/All,

I'm sending my contribution to Soffie, but having talked with some people,
this idea of contributing to a Legal Defence Fund for the students is
flawed. Why?

The students have done nothing to be prosecuted for. They tried to exercise
their constitutional rights to hold a peaceful demo, and were denied that
right. And then they were provoked, beaten, and manhandled by
govt-sanctioned thugs! Consequently, the death and destruction that ensued
should be laid squarely on the shoulders of the govt provocateurs! If anyone
needs to defend anything in this predictable mess, it's Yaya Jammeh and his
goons! THEY ought to be in the dock! If we hire lawyers to defend these
kids, several things will happen:

1. We will legitimize an inherently illegitimate exercise just by merely
recognizing their fraudulent judicial proceedings!

2. We will play into Yaya Jammeh's hands! I swear to my mother's life, he
will have these kids convicted by his kangaroo courts, and then he'll turn
around and "FORGIVE" them. Why should this boffoon be allowed the luxury of
taking credit for freeing students who should never have been arrested in
the first place? You get my drift? If we let these kids be prosecuted, Yaya
will win. Any way the case ends, Yaya wins. On the one hand, he assures the
world that he is in "control," and on the other hand, he appeases desperate
parents by "saving" their children from going to jail. Think of Samuel Doe
and the five/six teachers he "saved" from the firing squad back in 1982.
Yaya will turn this tragedy into another cheap propaganda stunt, and it will
be business as usual! We just can't let that happen.

This whole ineffable tragedy is nothing but govt-sanctioned massacre! The
least we can do is demand the IMMEDIATE and UNCONDITIONAL RELEASE of all
arrested students! No exceptions! The immediate release of all dead bodies
etc, etc. The money collected should go to the bereaved families, the
wounded/hospitalized students, and GAMSU. Let these fools jail our students
and see how it feels to be a pariah state. The lies being told by Ousman
Badgie and others is an indication of how scared and paranoid these rascals
are. If we don't take a firm stance against the arrest and detention of
these poor kids, this case will become a replica of Ousman Korro Ceesay's.
Just think about it.

Saul.

______________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.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

----------------------------------------------------------------------------