OUSAINOU,

I hate to burst your bubble of excitement at Hamadi's apparent integrity in
laying out what the Jawara Administration did wrong.
I understand that you did not mean to trivialise the severity of ya! ya!'s
tomfoolery and that you just wanted to point out the other past evils.

I agree that during Sir Dawda's administration, some mistakes and severe
errors in judgement were made. And even though he did not play an active
role in most or any of them, his sheer passivity rendered him an aider and
abbetter.

I too was impressed with the method and construct of Hamadi's response, but
I fail to understand how Sir Dawda taught Ya! Ya! to make the same mistakes
or commit more severe crimes and take jurisprudence hostage to guarantee
impunity. The value of a human being or life itself for that matter is the
experience of past mistakes and their rectification. Be those mistakes your
own or those of your bretheren. Are we doomed to repeat past mistakes in the
Gambia? I would hate to have a bloody civil war rought by tribalism in the
Gambia.

I think Abdoulie Wade is aware of atrocities committed by Jawara because
even though he was not in power, I have the utmost respect for his
experiences and capacity for deductive reasoning. So how about letting him
make his own judgements regarding the contents of the letter. C'est mieux
critiquer que faire.

If Jawara killed someone or participated in the killing of any Gambian, then
he must answer to charges of murder which must be brought by the concerned
parties. Likewise Ya! Ya! must answer to crimes of murder. Presidency is not
a good enough excuse for the murder of an ordinary citizen and therefore it
must not grant implicit immunity from prosecution.

Cheers!!!


>From: Ousainou Ngum <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: The Gambia and related-issues mailing list
><[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Re: Letter to President Abdoulaye Wade
>Date: Thu, 24 Aug 2000 21:16:15 -0700
>
>Way to go, Hamadi:
>
>     This is the whole truth and nothing but the truth! You have just hit
>the
>nail in the head. I'm not downplaying the severity of the Jammeh Admin's
>human rights abuses. The fact of the matter is what you have just rightly
>pointed out: that Jawara was also not a human rights champion as opposed to
>"popular belief". What thrills me in your observations is simply your
>integrity.
>
>     It is a fact that we live in a Gambia today, where such vices are
>rampant; this is however not reasonable enough to not acknowledge what
>Jawara and his cronies did to The Gamabia and Gambians. There was very
>limited freedom of speech and (or) association, as right asserted earlier.
>The NIA has come only to replace the NSS, with the same ruthless and
>opportunistic Director General, Kebba Ceesay, subordinated by the same
>thugs
>in the likes of Foday Barry and co. Just ask Dumo Sarho or anyone close to
>him. What we are seeing in today's Gambia was bred by Jawara and his men.
>Did we forget  about Police Officers being publicly assaulted and (or)
>harassed by "The Big Men" for simply carrying out their duties? Or have we
>come to forget about the phrase "Ham Nga Mai Kan?" Such injustices were
>very
>common. We have simply become victims of Jawara's creations.
>
>     I have always longed to see this moment, when some honest person(s)
>will
>just acknowledge the maladministration of The Gambia under Jammeh without
>trying to contrast his governance and that of Jawara's. We need to do away
>with this kind of double standards. If Jawara's deeds were not human rights
>abuses, then what do we call them? Lets start calling a spade a da** spade!
>Again, Hamadi, thanx for your boldness and sound judgement.
>
>    Ous Ngum.
>
>
>
>
>
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