Tombong,
Thank you for your update.Aside from the list of statistics ( which I
personally will take with a pinch of salt for now) the rest is your usual
gibberish of defending the status quo, and continuing the cover up.Nothing
more was expected, believe me.
You must have forgotten to give us a list of a particular group of students
detained, and who were among the first group that was fired upon, including
the student leaders of GAMSU and who have not been seen or heard from ever
since.
You also must have forgotten to tell us about the fact that the security
forces have been going about picking up children all over the place and
detaining them, and how they went into classrooms and took students who were
not even part of the demonstration away.
Likewise, you must have forgotten to tell us about the fact that they have
been trying to lure students back to the police stations so they can be
arrested, by announcing that all those who were injured and treated and
released should report to the police stations and that this is for the
purpose of updating the record.
You must have forgotten to include that fact that those students who were
detained were not being fed, and how one parent in Banjul was determined to
take food to her child at the station even if she had to fight the security
forces, and how they beat this woman until her "malan" fell off her in the
street, and her private parts were exposed for all to see. How the crowd
broke down the police barriers at banjul and rushed for the station after
this happened, demanding that the students held there be released, and they
had to announce that they will be released that afternoon.
How the regime has come out and publicly accused the foreign ambassadors in
Gambia of disseminating the wrong information about what happened when all
they did was to report the truth, and how these ambassadors were then led on
some bogus tour by the authorities to "show them what really happened".They
showed then destruction, but I bet they did not show them the dead bodies of
children. I guess you just forgot.
Take your statement below for example. You say the security forces came after
the damage was done by the students. I have personally spoken with reliable
sources in Gambia who told me something completely different.
These individuals told me that eye witnesses say the army commander met the
students when they first started on their march. It is alleged that he tried
to dissuade them to march, as admitted by himself in a press release, but the
students said they would continue their march since they had already told the
officials about this. The eye witnesses said the students held onto the
commander and marched with him for a distance, at which point the army was
spotted coming at the students. When the army commander saw this, eye
witnesses said he laid down flat on the ground. The army opened fire on the
marchers.It was after the army fired, and the other students in the area
heard about it, that they went out and started destroying property, not
before as alleged. The fact that the army commander laid down when he saw the
security forces is definitely something to keep note of.
Further, Mr Saidy, as the director of a public information organ and a self
proclaimed
"card carrying, dues paying, merit acquired member of the executive board of
Amnesty International in the Gambia" your statement that the call in program
by Radio 1 FM was disruptive is an affront to journalism and a testimony to
the fact that what we have here is a police state.
It is already common knowledge that what is supposed to be the public organ
of information that you head was engaged in trivial programming when all this
was happening, and that is not by accident. GRTS reporters should have been
not only in the thick of this tragedy interviewing eye witnesses and
capturing what really happened on tape, but they should have covered the
march in the first place so all Gambians could see the democracy you say we
have is indeed at work.
Of course the powers that be wanted to put a stop to the "call in" program
offered by Radio 1 FM ( this is the first i have heard of GRTS offering one,
highly unlikely I'd say) as fast as possible because they saw that it was a
means for the people to share their feelings and their opposition to this
murderous regime you are defending.Numerous people in Gambia have told me
that people were begining to talk about a mass demonstration by the public
when Yaya returns in these calls, and that some even said they will stand
infront of his motorcade even if they will be run over.
The first sign of an oppressive totalitarian government is their
determination to make sure that the people do not have a chance to confer,
and that they are kept ignorant of what is going on, because in this process
of confering and sharing of ideas lies their doom, and no one knows it
better than they.
There is nothing more telling than the fact that a foreign government had to
step in to defend the rights of George Christenson to accord the people an
organ of free speech in his own country, the abusers of this right being the
government of the day.
The whole World knows that the government tried to nip this sharing of
information by the public, and the expression of their disgust for this
regime in the bud. When they failed, the call in program was sumarily banned,
and here we have a self proclaimed distinguished member of Amnesty
International rationalizing that. Imagine that!
Tombong, please tell us if you have signed the statement issued by Amnesty
International in the wake of these atrocities. They sent it to the list, and
urged all justice loving human rights defenders the World over, to sign it
and send copies to the president as well as other cabinet members. Please
prove to us that your membership in this organization is genuine, and that
your position on the board of Amnesty Gambia is merit based and deserved.I
certainly will ask them about that.
As for Pap Cheyassin Secka's statements, I am still trying to recover from
the fact that he actually accepted a post in this regime, much less anything
else.
As for the rest of your account, I think that others have already said what
needs to be said about your "full of holes a la Jammeh regime officials"
statement.
The drama I predicted is unfolding as the World watches all of you stumbling
over each other in the race to concoct cover-up versions of what happened,
each one different from the previous. The colourful yarn that you people have
started to weave is ample evidence of the level of thinking of this regime,
since they actually believe that the World will fall for this nonsense. Time
will tell.
Jabou Joh
In a message dated 4/15/00 4:17:06 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:
<< The army came after a lot of destruction has already taken place. Soldiers
came armed, however when the police stations were being destroyed, prisoners
were released in the process, especially at the Serrekunda Police and the
armouries broken in to. The police carry very few arms and individuals,
mostly criminal elements and civilians took them. As a matter of fact some
civilians have been apprehended with arms and they are under custody.
>>
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