Dampha you seemed to have beaten me on this subject
about the reported Markalo disappearance. The Daily
Observer that reported it should have saved us the
trauma of reading the heart-breaking remarks of
Sankung Badjie the new IGP. What a revelation of the
caliber of the police boss on his first public
interview with the press. The guy was just informed
that Markalo who was announced wanted for certain
undisclosed crimes he was said to have committed was
after all reported murdered. By all logic I had
expected the IGP to at least react to that statement
with a different perception that a graver issue is at
stake than what they had been pursuing. I am not even
talking about an IGP but any ordinary policeman or
woman operating under normal circumstances with the
absolute latitude to practice what is taught in police
academies would have reacted more sensibly than what
was heard from Sankung Badjie. Telling the press that
he did not know about the reported murder of Markalo
yet he had the nerve to add that the police were still
looking for the deceased with the intent of arresting
him on sight at best beats my imagination from all
angles of human logic. For a moment I had the
inclination to find out from the Daily Observer
editors whether it was really the IGP they spoke to or
a PWD policeman serving his retirement notice. Sorry
for the repetition, but just be with me and look at
what I am saying here. A whole national IGP is
informed that a so-called wanted citizen is feared
dead on foul play somewhere and he had nothing to say
but that he was still hoping to arrest the person when
seen. Anyhow since he is so obsessed with the arrest
than investigating the bigger crime, I would put it to
him to go to the mentioned burial garden, exhume the
body and take the corpse to Yaya as the fulfillment of
the arrest order.
But on a second thought after reflecting on everything
I knew about Sankung’s personality, I said to my self,
“wait a minute what did you expect?” Sankung who by
government regulation has passed the retirement age
and was on numerous occasions threatened with
retirement because of his incompetence but would run
around begging to be spared for just another year has
by absolute miracle become the IGP. He knows how
dispensable he is with Yaya prepared to eliminate him
at any moment he fails to perform in the evil manner
characteristic of .the devil’s followers. It was the
very Sankung Badjie identified at the commission of
inquiry by Baboucarr Raspotin Jatta as being present
at the PIU station when the “paras” were shooting and
killing our children  on that bloody April day.
Perhaps it was the killing role he played to the
satisfaction of Yaya that got him the reward of having
the IGP position. Other than that and certainly with
the Badgie origin I cannot reason how this senile
person could have had the job. But senility or not,
they will all pay for their crimes sooner rather than
later.
Having said that, I must register my approval of the
manner Yabo of GAMTEL reacted when the criminals came
to arrest him at that late hour. It was great that he
called for help, alerted the neighbors refused to open
his door to mask strangers until the police arrived.
He probably would have disappeared without trace if he
had been too naïve with them. But because too many
people arrived in the scene to witness the arrest that
was planned to be an abduction, they have little to do
now but to give Foday Barry the filthy job of framing
the poor guy. Anyway Foday is as retarded a thinker as
he is fraudulent. His story of a recorded tape being
the only evidence to present the case he termed
advanced stage of a coup plot is already exposing his
under average IQ. I would advice him to understand
that he has survived his dark past in the former
regime but next time he would not. He is already
marked in our red book with all those vampires,
criminals and prostitutes he serves. There will be
nothing like I was only carrying orders. He would be
treated as the big monsters he is.
Not withstanding, the Gambians must be ready to take
similar tactics when it is left to abducting them at
any place or time, especially when the abductors are
masked. Things would not get any better; so you must
all start making plans for the worst scenarios to
come. I can see it coming because nothing out of the
ordinary will stop Yaya from ruling the Gambia by hook
or crook.
I wish the soldiers would learn from the Lalo Jaiteh
and Omar Darbo case. If they can’t remember Barrow,
Saye, and the others rotting behind the barracks
toilet at Yundum, if they can’t reason why Almamo and
Dumbuya were slaughtered in a case that nobody can
show a single evidence for the crimes they were
accused of committing, and if they cannot find a
solution to the insane pattern of any soldier being
subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention and
subsequent slaughter without regard to the law or
constitution, then there is, I must cry it loud,
little hope for the army’s gloomy future. The soldiers
have to realize that they have to clean their own
mesh. The civil world is too disoriented with what the
military represent to expect any help from them.
Sometimes they could be lucky to come across such
humane lawyers like Ousman Sillah, Antouman Gaye, and
Ousainou Darbo who often disregard their terrible past
deeds and risk everything to help them at their
moments of distress. But do they consider these people
when they are armed foolishly carrying out Yaya’s
criminal orders? Just a food for thought.

Yaya will go soon!

Ebou Colly.

--- Dampha Kebba <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Saul, I join you in your calls for a thorough
> investigation of this latest
> brutal allegation against the dictatorship back
> home. I agree with you that
> the press are not doing much. On a perusal of
> Gambian papers on line, the
> only report I came across that touched on the matter
> was from the Observer
> and I must say that the journalist did a dismal job
> when given an
> opportunity to grill the IG of police. Find below
> the response of the IG to
> questions about Kanteh's accusations:
> "It is news to me to hear that Foday Makalo has been
> kidnapped somewhere and
> killed. He is still wanted by the police."
> The report went further to say that as far as the
> government was concerned,
> the man has been given political asylum in Spain.
> This illustrates the
> classic Wollof saying of "Doma Leka La Beh Pareh
> Jaleh La."
> The only attempt made to get the story on the other
> side, was reports (a
> month earlier) from Dembo (MP from Bakau) stating
> that the man cannot be in
> Spain. Well, am no journalist, but I would have
> thought that by now
> journalists should be questioning that Yaya
> informant in Nuimi and digging
> all over his backyards. That is what real
> investigative journalists do.
> Gambia is such that nowadays if you want to hear the
> truth about such
> disappearances, the police and the NIA is the last
> place you go. Look at how
> they are shamelessly treating poor Mrs. Saho and
> Lalo's wife. I wish I had
> the style of Hamjatta or yourself to really
> disparage these undesirable
> elements. But what I want to say is that you cannot
> go to the murderer and
> ask him to help you locate the body of the victim
> and consequently convict
> him (the murderer). It is about time the journalists
> and Makalo's family and
> friends ask the right questions to the right people.
> I can tolerate to a
> certain extent a journalist that fears for his/her
> life and stay away from a
> particular issue. What I cannot tolerate is a
> journalist that puts his/her
> nose in certain subjects just to further the
> government's agenda against
> poor victims of this illegal government's brutality.
> What kind of journalist
> would describe Kanteh a fugitive without listening
> to the man's point of
> view? What kind of journalist would report on the
> issue of Makalo without
> mentioning the Yaya informant? This is plain
> dishonesty.
> KB
>
>
> >From: saul khan <[log in to unmask]>
> >Reply-To: The Gambia and related-issues mailing
> list
> ><[log in to unmask]>
> >To: [log in to unmask]
> >Subject: On "the murder?" of Foday Makalo
> >Date: Wed, 12 Jul 2000 21:43:59 GMT
> >
> >I wonder if Gambian reporters are aggressively
> pursuing this Foday Makalo
> >case. I honestly don't know what they've done to
> this guy, but I have no
> >doubt that Makalo -wherever he is, isn't a free
> man. There simply isn't a
> >cockier, or more vocal character than Makalo. If he
> were anywhere outside
> >the country, he would have made a lot of noise by
> now. Makalo's voice never
> >fails him! The guy -whatever his failings, has
> guts.
> >
> >When I attended Pakalinding School in the mid 70s,
> Makalo was a senior
> >teacher at the school. Dembo Jatta, who later
> became Education Minister
> >under the PPP, was Head Teacher. The manner in
> which Makalo openly defied
> >the all-powerful local Seyfo -Buwa Kinteh, and
> Dembo Jatta (who at the time
> >had open political ambitions,) was what propelled
> him into folk hero
> >status,
> >and later opposition MP from Badibu. He actually
> taught Yorro Jallow
> >(Independent editor) in Primary Five, if my memory
> serves me right. Yorro
> >probably remembers some of Makalo's confrontation
> with Dembo Jatta and the
> >ruling PPP clique in that part of the country
> (which was almost un-heard of
> >as far as school teachers go in those days.)
> >
> >I've heard rumors of this story for a while now,
> and keep hoping (against
> >hope?) that it isn't true. But knowing this
> criminal govt, It's becoming
> >increasingly certain that Foday Makalo is the
> latest high profile official
> >to be butchered by these savages. What type of govt
> prefers killing it's
> >functionaries rather than leaving their fate to the
> justice system? When
> >will the madness end? But someday, we'll get to the
> bottom of all this.
> >
> >Saul.
> >
> >
> >
>
>________________________________________________________________________
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