Jabou,
The inclusion of the press is a graet idea.This is a go ahead.
Beran
-----Original Message-----
From: Jabou Joh [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Wednesday, April 19, 2000 8:09 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Letter to President Wade/Please save our
students!!!!
My apologies to all. I forgot to mention that nay editing or
additions to
this letter are welcome. For instance, I think we should address
it to the
Senegalese public also.I also think we should send a copy to
Amnesty
International headquarters, as well as to their Gambia Desk
officer, and to
various newspapers in Senegal and the sub-region. Please give
your comments
on that. I am sure the editing and additions can be done without
affecting
any signatures that have already been added. Thanks.Text is
below, so feel
free. I am also urging those people in Gambia to please take the
time to add
their signatures.Let us save the lives of these fleeing
students, it is the
least we can do.May I also mention that this is rather urgent.
Jabou Joh
<< G-L,
Here is a copy of a letter I sent to the Senegalese government
on behalf of
the students who have fled to Senegal, and whose repatriation
is being sought
by the regime in Gambia. May I request that Mr Njai put this at
the petition
website, and may I request one and all to please go there and
add your
signature so we can send this out as soon as possible. Thanks
to all.
Jabou Joh
To: The Government of Senegal.
From: All Justice loving Gambians .
Dear President Wade.
We have been notified that the Gambia government has requested
Senegal to
repatriate the students who have fled into Senegal to save
their lives from
the murderous regime in Gambia that has already killed our
children in cold
blood, and who are now hunting these students like wild
animals.
We call upon you as a neighbour and as a brother who has the
best interest
of the Gambian people at heart, not to turn our students over
to this regime
who will probably turture and murder them. Some of the students
who have been
detained by the Gambia Security forces have not been charged or
allowed
visits with their families, and the whereabouts of some of
these students in
the hands of the security forces have not been made known to
the public or
their families, even though the government has said that they
will conduct a
thorough and fair investigation. Time and experience has shown
us that we
cannot put any trust in the promises given by this regime.
It is also a general concensus by all sober thinking Gambians,
as well as
all justice loving people the World over, that the security
forces opened
fire on students when they were exercising their constitutional
right to
demonstrate against what was seen as a gross miscarriage of
justice. Two of
their fellow students were killed and raped respectively
without the
government making any attempts to bring the culprits to
justice, and this was
the reason for the demonstration . Infact,of the two cases the
students were
protesting , the rape case was not even looked into, and in the
murder case,
the autopsy report was falsified and the perpetrators left to
go scot free
until this tragedy forced them to say that the perpetrators are
now in
custody. Time will tell if this claim is true.
We implore you in the name of all that binds our two
countries together,
and these are many, from blood relationships to a timeless
common history,
not to repatriate these students to what could undoubtedly be a
dismal end
for such young lives.
The atrocity of firing live bullets into a crowd of young
demonstartors was
perpetrated on our country by the government of the day, and
yet, the best
thing they have given the Gambian people is a shameless denial,
and a failure
to face up to the responsibility of inflicting this tragedy on
our once
peaceful and peace loving country.We wish from the bottom of
our hearts that
this regime would remove itself from the backs of the Gambian
people once and
for all.
Ours is a dictatorship where nothing happens without the
blessing of our
President, and yet, he stood before the Gambian public and
pretended that he
was not responsible for this atrocity. Why then are his
enforcers hunting
down our children in cold blood? This denial and callousness is
a nightmare
that is hovering over the heads of all Gambians the Whole World
over. We are
desolate, and in the grips of nightmares since this terrible
inhumane act,
the likes of which we never envisioned occurring in our
country. We implore
you not to worsen this nightmare for us by repatriating our
children to their
doom.
From all indications,, it is clear that every attempt is being
made to
inflict even more pain and human rights abuses on these
students with this
endless witch hunt, and the rampant arrest of students all over
the country
since this tragedy unfolded.
We implore you in the name of Allah almighty, as a brother and
a neighbour,
to make every attempt to save the lives of these poor Gambian
students by not
only refraining from repatriating them, but also to do
everything in your
power to ensure their safety in Senegal.We put you in charge of
their lives
with the confidence that this trust will not be betrayed. Thank
you.
Sincerely,
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