Saul,
I am glad you "agree with my analogy entirely". Please allow me to say that
you are free to come up with your reasons why it took me now to write it.
On my say in this debate,I refer you to the archieves! Just incase you do
not have access to the archives, this is what I had to say 5 yrs. I will
send two more under separate cover.
Malanding Jaiteh
From: "Malanding S. Jaiteh" <[log in to unmask]>
Received: (from msjaiteh@localhost) by forest3.ffr.mtu.edu (8.6.10/MTU-C1.3)
id MAA04763; Thu, 19 Oct 1995 12:46:08 -0400
Message-Id: <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Four ex-ministers held in Gambia crackdown (fwd)
To: [log in to unmask] (A. Loum)
Date: Thu, 19 Oct 1995 12:46:00 -0400 (EDT)
Cc: [log in to unmask]
In-Reply-To:
<[log in to unmask]> from "A.
Loum" at Oct 16, 95 03:03:35 pm
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Folks,
The recent detention of 4 former ministers of the Jawara regime and 40
(or 70 as claimed by others) PPP militants for what the Kaki boys
claim to be sabbotage should cause concern among many Gambians. While
personally do not wish to see another Jawara come-back, I do not believe
that harassing and detaining innocent citizens could bring any peace
to the country. Infact, experience have shown that such repressive
behavior always serve as recipe for further violence.
The fact is that the Kaki boys have demostraed to us over the past 15
months that they will do anything to keeep themselves in power. Can't
they realize that it is worthless following the same path many of
their predecessors used. It took years of civil war and thousands of
death and human tragedy for Ugandans to get rid of Idi Amin, Liberians
are still trapped in the same kind of problem. You can count several
of such tragedies across Africa. It all start peacefully, then as
people realized that they are being deceived, demonstrations, turn in
detentions, detentions in treason trials, trials in summary
executions. By the time it gets to civil uprising the situation is
beyond repair.
I hope time proves me wrong with my pessimistic predictions but
nonetheless as peace loving Gambians we must do our best to get rid of
the boys before it is too late. While many of the powerful nations are
claiming that they have disengaged from the Gambia, we should urge them
to do more. Presently I would understand their reluctance to do more
because it is only Jawara who is asking for his return in the name of
the return to democratic rule.
I believe that suspending government to government aid alone would not
remove
these boys out of power.
They should go further than that. Denying the AFPRC and their
supporters travel permits to be followed by suspension of diplomatic
ties in the short term would be steps in the right direction. If they
do no repond to that in 45 days by lifting ban on political activities
and setting date for elections then a complete international trade embargo
trade embargo should be imposed.
The above suggestions may sound to many as a little bit heavy handed,
but I believe that leaving these boys in power would sow seeds that
would take us longer and costlier than a six months of complete
isolation. The alternative is that we leave Jawara alone to calling
for his return and the rest of the world including us knowing what
that means would not take him serious and thereby unintensionally
aiding the military regime. Since Gambians within canot voice out
their discontent under intimidation and harassment, the role is
naturally ours. Many would see that as playing politics. However, if
we do not inform the world what is going on in that country or our
disagreement with the military boys then the world will see it as something
we like. That will certainly be disastrous to the Gambia.
I therefore suggest that we do not leave the protest to Jawara and his
former mates. The 'independent Gambians' should seek ways to making
our voice heard by the international community. Well, I am sure I have
taken alot of your valuable space and time. However, I do believe that
some of these fears I mentioned could very well come true. Even if the
the military boys left today, we would never get back our lost ones like
Koro or quickly heal the deep wounds created by their 15 months chaos.
In any case I hope the list members would have time to go through the
above suggestions.
Malanding Jaiteh
>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: Re: The Chicken Pen Situation
>Date: Thu, 13 Jul 2000 15:42:10 GMT
>
>Mr. Jaiteh,
>
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