President Warns Armed Opposition Elements



The Independent

October 15, 2001
Posted to the web October 15, 2001

Lamin Dibba
Banjul, the Gambia

President Jammeh has made a thinly veiled threat to members of the
opposition who wield dangerous weapons during and after the election, saying
they will be shot on sight.

In the first public speech since his return from a trail blazing campaign
tour of the countryside, President Jammeh told Brikamarians Friday that his
administration would apply zero-tolerance to elements of the opposition who
take to the streets armed with cutlasses and other weapons capable of
disrupting the pre and post election period.

"You will be shot to death" he said apparently referring to supporters of
his main challenger Ousainou Darboe who have been blamed by the APRC for
sporadic skirmishes that resulted in injuries and material damage.

The president said he was aware that opposition elements have bought
cutlasses in readiness to disrupt the election. But he warned that
heavy-handedness would be applied to deal with anybody seen holding a
cutlass and other weapons.

In an angry tone the president also came down hard on the perpetrators of
the election dog ritual in Brikama three weeks ago, saying that if
discovered they would "suffer from a very bitter lesson than they have ever
experienced in their lives".

President Jammeh berated Brikamarians for allowing the sacrifice of a dog in
their town to influence the outcome of the October 18 polls, which he was
sure of winning. "Where on earth have you heard of a dog sacrifice the
marabout who advised you to kill a dog for the election has fooled you" he
pointed out, underlining his disappointment with the people of Bojang Kunda
for what he called their hypocrisy and double standard. A dead dog was found
wrapped in a white satin sheet along a busy street straddling the Fire
station, apparently killed as sacrifice for the election. It drew an angry
protest from thirty starkly naked women who cursed and swore against the
perpetrators of the ritual killing. The nature of the protest also caused
shock and disbelief among not only Brikamarians but Gambians in the Greater
Banjul Area.

President Jammeh bluntly dismissed the Bojang kunda kabilo of Brikama as
averse to progress by undermining themselves and identifying with the
opposition. "You the indigenous people of Brikama cannot fool me. You do not
want progress. You said I rescued you from buying water, but you will buy
it" he posited, straining in anger.

President Jammeh also pointed out that the coalition was launched in Brikama
"and you were clapping for them I know you all".

He outlined that the free education enjoyed by the daughters of some Western
Division residents excludes daughters of members of the opposition and
criticized what he referred to as the double standard of the beneficiaries
and warned them to be mindful of the imminent consequences.

In his contribution, Yankuba Touray the APRC campaign mobiliser took a
brutal swipe at the ruling party's main challenger Ousainou Darboe, saying
he was the fool of the millennium "because his father Numukunda Darboe was
jailed to death by the PPP regime".

Mr. Touray argued that if Darboe was not a fool why did he associate himself
with those responsible for unlawfully jailing his father to death.

Mr. Touray was also unsparing on Dembo Jatta a PPP politician from Kombo
Central who he said had disguised as a woman to escape the clutches of the
1994 coupists. "Even if he plaits his hair and put on ear rings with the
latest ladies fashion he will be arrested and jailed" Touray remarked.

Sifia Hydara an APRC lady councilor disclosed that the women of Brikama have
vowed to stake their lives for Jammeh's victory in the election. She said a
flood of people have joined them in their "crusade to flush" the opposition
out of Brikama forever. "Anybody who for reasons known to them do not want
to see President Jammeh and his government should die and get to hell" she
said.




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