Date:       Wed, 2 Feb 2000

From:       ebou colly <[log in to unmask]
Subject:    There Goes Yaya Again


THERE GOES YAYA AGAIN!

Yaya has really done it again. Ii is unimaginable that he has actually
appointed Lt. Ousman Sonko as Commander of the State Guard Unit. If Lt. Sonko's
military bio-data was made public, military critics would be shocked with how such
an under qualified person could possibly be commissioned as an army officer,
let alone becoming the head of a whole Presidential Guards Unit. In the GNA,
the British Army Training Team (BATT) in 1984 set the standards derived from
the syllabus of the British military academy Sandhurst. In the terms and
conditions stipulated for prospective GNA officers therefore, all candidates must
possess a minimum qualification of five G.C.E O' levels including mathematics and
English language. Furthermore that person must sit and pass the
cadet-selection exams conducted normally in a three-day period. It is a test to confirm the
candidate's ability to read and write English satisfactorily and to measure
his leadership quality in future operational tasks.

Then finally there is the important area of passing the physical and mental
test before one is considered to join the officer corps. I can bet that Yaya
would have never passed that test if he had tried the army and not the
Gendermarie. However at least Landing Sanneh prior to the coup made several attempts of
the test and in all cases failed until he was officially forbidden from
taking the exams any more. But as for Lt. Sonko he did not have the basic
qualification to even apply. He was an ordinary sergeant with elementary local
knowledge of how to fix radio transistors and play soccer impressively. That earned
him a rank more than what he deserved in the GNA communications unit.

Anyhow like Landing Sanneh and a hand full of regular other ranks, after the
coup they walked into the office of Yaya or Edward and claimed to have
actively participated in the coup and wanted their reward. They got the ranks right
away. From that day on Sonko and the others became officers against all the set
rules and regulations of the GNA. But what could we say, if Yaya could defy
everything logical and grab for himself the highest army rank in the Gambia,
colonel when there is no record of him ever firing a single weapon in the two
years he spent in the army? This could be verified by examining the GNA Annual
Personal Weapon Test (APWT) records kept at the army headquarters in Banjul.
Yet Yaya terms himself a full colonel. Is that not a reminder of late Sergeant
Samuel Doe decorating himself General and Sergeant Edie Amin elevating his rank
to that of a Field Martial? The same twisted rules will therefore continue to
justify the likes of Landing and Sonko to carry their ranks without fear or
shame. But take it from me, the appointment of Sonko as Commander by my
judgement tantamount to absolute abuse of military authority. The question now is why
Lt. Sonko to command the State or Presidential guard unit out of all those
more competent GNA officers who actually earned the rank the true way?
Hypothetically, I would think that with the recent killing or arresting of his former
top lieutenants, Yaya most likely had found their perfect replacement in Sonko
considering his I Q level. Or it is very much possible that Sonko may have
played a cardinal role in Yaya's actions to wipe out his boys in the name of
crushing a coup. In any case however, the appointment of the former radio man and
soccer player is simply another recipe for big trouble soon. In the first
instance the GNA officers and soldiers will merely put up with him because it is a
tyrannical imposition. After all most of those serving under him would be ten
times more educated than him. So one can imagine what that means really. No
they would not challenge him for fear of being framed and slaughtered in vain.
But they would hate every bit of the arrangement.

Responding to some pertinent questions let me start with the issue of tribe a
focal subject of controversy in my first submission. I think some of my
readers misunderstood what I was really driving at. Despite perceiving them as
rubber stamp executives, looking at the composition of Yaya's cabinet there is
little or nothing to show that he favors one ethnic group against another in the
country. A lot of Gambians are certainly pleased with that. He is in fact
frequently heard paying effective lip service in his political rallies on the
course of ethnic tolerance and solidarity. But when I wrote about other ethnic
groups in the army being the target of his crusade to kill his soldier enemies
while members of his own ethnic group for no good reasons are always spared, my
message was simply trying to reflect the sentiments of the average GNA
soldier. My colleagues in the army Mandinkas,Jolas Wollofs Fullahs or name it all
have the same view of being seriously disturbed by Yaya's killing pattern in the
GNA and I can tell you that if left ignored as some critics may wish, it could
eventually be a major source of explosion there. Considering the nature of
our work, coupled with the constant danger of Yaya's killer instinct in the army
where also constitutional or legal rights don't mean anything very few
soldiers would ever take the risk of speaking their minds. More horrible tales are
there in abundance but they would rather gossip them quietly among themselves
than bring them to the attention of the Gambian public. They have long since
learnt that the public doesn't give a heck to them when maimed or destroyed as
soldiers.

Anyhow whether Yaya's selective executions of the soldiers are deliberate or
accidental we were all deeply worried about it and we strongly think that he
was directly responsible. How many of you have ever come across GNA soldiers
talking in the way I do? We should not be blamed for our silence. Several
soldiers I know suffered tremendously in the form of torture to the brink of death
and others have been permanently crippled with bullet wounds; nevertheless,
they would rather keep quiet about it than do otherwise. Doubting their stories,
a common tendency in Yaya's political protagonists, would definitely add more
scares in their permanently traumatized emotions. Call me any names, if you
run out of some try Lamin Kaba Bajo's explosive brother Sulayman, but I will
continue to narrate my experience the way I perceived it as a live witness. It
has nothing to do with tribalism or so. The truth being told when in time should
be able to help in deterring or totally halting the recurrence of such crimes
in the future. One of my main motivations for speaking out was that I thought
my readers would have by now come up with a brilliant suggestion of how those
dead soldiers buried at Yundum Barracks could be removed and given to their
families for proper burial. It hurts to wake up every morning knowing that Lt.
Bakary Manneh's wife still refuses to mourn her dead husband, as tradition
requires because as far as there was no body her man was still alive. It is now
five years since then but how many more years must she wait for Yaya to hand
over those bodies while some of us academically toy around with the subject for
its so called tribal undertone.

 Actually with Yaya, when it comes to his interest, tribal affiliation means
nothing to him and several good Jolas in the Gambia know that about him. As a
result a lot of them make their disagreement with him very clear to the
Gambian public. He has demonstrated to every good Gambian of all ethnic groups that
he is only interested in those he could use to fulfil his personal desires
most of them having a lot to do with his survival techniques. Look around him
properly and you will see mainly unethical intellectuals, dishonest diplomats
plus those I often call the thugs and bandits.

Having said that, I thought it relevant to reflect on the case of Mr. Shingle
Nyassi a Jola in the UDP who totally opposes Yaya Jammeh and everything he
stands for. Last year, he was abducted from his house after midnight on the
orders of Yaya. Momodou Picka Jallow(a Fullah) head of the militant wing of the
22nd July youth movement was identified by Mr. Nyassi's wife as the leader of
the abductors. She also spotted out few faces of members of the NIA. Muniru
Darbo was the director general of the NIA. However when asked about the fate of
Mr. Nyassi, he swore before the whole world that his agency had no knowledge of
the disappearance of Mr. Nyassi. All government security institutions echoed
the same innocent position. For days and weeks the matter remained a mystery
until the British High Commissioner together with the head of the European Union
made a tough intervention for the Jammeh government to explain the case or
face their actions. Immediately, Mr. Nyassi surfaced from the perimeter walls of
the NIA. He spoke to the independent Gambian press and the BBC about the
harrowing experience he was subjected to by Yaya's thugs at the NIA. But his most
interesting revelation was how a group of Jolas members of his own tribe after
failing to intimidate him tried to use tribalism to change his support from
the UDP to the APRC. They even promised to give him free land with sufficient
money for him to build a modern house. It was really a cheap one. In his own
words Mr. Nyassi disclosed how his fellow Jolas told him that he should
understand and join the Jammeh party because the government is for the Jolas and he
should join them like all the progressive ones were doing. In sharing his
experience with the world, should Shyngle Nyassi be considered a potential threat to
the coexisting tribes in the Gambia?
Take it from me I think the Gambians have evolved beyond that although Yaya
would when he finds it advantageous use tribe to some dangerous extremes.

The question of Staff Sergeant Kanyi was raised and I want to say a little
about him. Before the coup he was a corporal and the clown of the army .He could
make every body laugh with his jokes in the camp. But after 1994 for some
strange reasons, he suddenly turned into a vicious executioner. However with the
terrible role he played in the killing of the soldiers in November 1994, the
entire army after that treated him like a pariah and a sadistic outcast. The
majority of the soldiers precisely stopped having anything to do with him
anymore. He became a pitiful alcoholic especially when his mother walked to the
Barracks one day and told him that she had disowned him because of the report she
got that her son was the killer at Yundum. In the end he could no longer stand
the mental torture and the isolation in the barracks. As a result he left the
army in 1997 and was last heard working for the Gambia Immigrations
department.

Whether I took part in the atrocities was another question asked. I am not
saying that the question was not given proper thought but if it was it must have
been rather little. Logically I would not have willingly disclosed these
stories if I had taken part in them. As to why I did not say anything before, I
suppose I have sufficiently explained that above. As for Mr. Sulayman Bajo I
wish to sincerely apologize for hurting your feeling although that does not mean
in any way that it affects my impression of who Lamin Kaba Bajo is. You were
to some extent right in saying that he joined ex-President Jawara to Dakar on
the day of the coup to protect him as duty demanded of him. That's absolutely
right. You were also right to say that he spent three weeks instead of one
there. It was Pa Sallah Jagne the former Inspector General of Police who returned
to the Gambia that same week and was thrown in jail accused of helping Jawara
to escape to Dakar. Anyhow what you may not understand is that special songs
of praise have been composed by various Gambian "griots" on the heroic role
your brother played with the other GNA officers in masterminding and executing
the successful overthrow of ex-President Jawara. And he is often seen dashing
those praise singers with money for the nice songs he really enjoys from them.
In other words, your brother now associates himself with those who actually
toppled ex-President Jawara and not those who helped to protect him all the way
to Dakar. And it still remains a mystery why Jammeh jailed Pa Sallah Jagne for
it but appointed your brother in a top government position when they did the
same thing of going to Dakar and back. If you don't have answers and you can't
find any feel free to do what you have shown to be very good at doing-INSULT
YOUR HEART OUT.

Ebou Colly.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
To Search in the Gambia-L archives, go to: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/CGI/wa.exe?S1=gambia-l
To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to:
[log in to unmask]

To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface
at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~