Buharry, are you really serious when you ask us to come to Gambia_L and tell
the whole world how we are going to overthrow Yaya? As I said some months
back, even serious elections strategies would not be discussed in a forum
like this let alone more controversial means to get rid of Yaya. If you
think that we are just engaged in empty rhetoric spurred by our living away
from Gambia, you do not begin to understand what this is all about. Childish
challenges will not also prompt us to go to Gambia unprepared. So, save
yourself. We have nothing to prove to you or your likes. What kind of
pressure on Yaya are you talking about? He did arrest the students. They got
out because of lawyers like Ousman Sillah. The government is still trying to
put them back to jail. Where was the pressure when they ambushed Ousainou
Darboe's entourage? Where is the pressure when they would not dispense
justice for the families of the April massacres? I put it to you that the
only reason there is some semblance of lack of callousness recently, is
because it has began to dawn on Yaya and his cohorts that there are people
like us who will not let them get away with impunity. We advocate BY ALL
MEANS NECESSARY. We do not limit the options of our people to elections that
every ten year old child knows are not going to be free and fair. What would
you do if he rigs the next elections? Close your eyes to the obvious and
blame the Gambians for being stupid enough to vote for Yaya. Well we would
rather not put the Gambians in that position in the first place. Whenever I
engage people like you, I always find myself being repetitious. So am being
led to the conclusion that some of you people have been blinded by your
egos. You perhaps had previously gone on record saying that you would never
support violence. So because of that, things that should be glaring before
your eyes would read something else to you. Get off your high horses and
join the struggle. Advocacy of violence does not render anyone a savage. In
my book, those who sit down and watch the savages perfect their craft, are
as culpable as the savages. You should know about the struggles of ANC. Did
Nelson Mandela, Oliver Thambo and the senior Mbeki just sit down and wait
for nonexistent election victories or put all their faith in the hands of
the international community? No. They bombed the South African government.
Did that make Nelson Mandela a savage? Oliver Thambo was in exile running
the ANC machinery. Did South Africans say that they were not going to listen
to his calls for self-defense because he did not live in South Africa? Did
they say that they were only going to listen to people like Desmond Tutu or
sell-outs like Buthelezi? So my friend, it is not about where you live, it
is about what you bring to the table. Some of us were in Gambia in the
aftermath of the 1994 coup. We made our opposition to this regime known from
day one and we paid for our stance. Not with our lives as you might have
preferred. We tried diplomatic and constitutional means and they did not
work. It is about time we try more drastic means. No one is downplaying the
diplomatic and constitutional efforts aimed at isolating this regime. I was
one of the first subscribers to commend the Concerned Gambians for the
letter they got from Bill Clinton. I contribute more than you do in trying
to make sure that the culprits of the massacres face justice. What we have a
problem with is people that limit our options or give priority to options
that are clearly unworkable. Like I said yesterday (keep repeating myself.
But I will gladly do so until it sinks into your heads) we are not declaring
war on the Gambian people. We are declaring war on Yaya. Sensible Gambians
will leave our path when they see us going for Yaya. Why don't you want to
believe that if a bloodless coup can be pulled in 1994 another one can be
pulled in 2000? Jawara was there 30 years, thought he had a lot of
loyalists, but when push came to shove, no one stood up to defend him. We
are confident that when we are ready, we will vaporize Yaya with minimum
damage to the Gambian people at large. No one is promising a picnic here,
but there would not be a battle. Buharry, I don't know what else to tell you
apart from to wake up and realize that you are not dealing with a rational
human being in Yaya. Tell me this. If you were attacked by a wild animal
today and you have a loaded gun in your hand, would you opt to extend your
hand to it in the name of diplomacy or would you blow its brains out? That
is the scenario we face. Yaya does not understand the language of diplomacy.
If your principles of non-violence are so dear to your heart that you do not
want to join us, fine with us. But please do not demoralize our people back
home by telling them that the ballot box is the only means Yaya can be
removed from office. From what I can gather on the L, Colly had once called
upon the army to remove Yaya. Saul and people like me have recently called
upon the UDP supporters to arm themselves and not let their guard down
during the coming campaign season. We are not calling upon you to leave your
cozy existence in Europe to go fight in The Gambia neither are we calling
upon your unarmed civilian brothers to go and confront Yaya. So I don't know
where you got that from. What do you want us to tell the UDP? To lie down
and let BaaBaa Jobe walk all over them? Or like some of your heroes, pretend
that nothing undeserving happened to the UDP entourage? Or like others,
pretend that this was not orchestrated by Yaya and his bunch of bandits? We
would continue to advocate the removal of Yaya through violent means until
pacifists like you come up with better means of removing him. If you are
waiting for your heroes on the ground to advocate the removal of Yaya
through violent means, then you will never see that and therefore you will
never be a convert. It is illegal and suicidal for them to do that. Actions
speak louder than words. The way UDP supporters defended themselves should
have sent signals to you. Contrary to what happened on April 10 and 11, this
time, casualties were counted on the other side. The way you help the
situation, is to do like Colly, Saul , Matarr and others and expose Baabaa
Jobe and Yaya for the cowards they are and urge UDP to be more vigilant. You
don't tell them to call another rally and wait while Jobe and others come
and hack them with machetes and then send a silly petition to the
international community condemning Yaya and his government.
KB



>From: MOMODOU BUHARRY GASSAMA <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: The Gambia and related-issues mailing list
><[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: A challenge to those advocating violent change in The Gambia
>Date: Sat, 24 Jun 2000 15:45:49 +0200
>
>Hi!
>     I have read a lot of messages propagating violence as the only
>available
>means of bringing about a change of government in The Gambia. I have also
>read how those who propagate other means especially peaceful ones are
>deemed
>to be living fantasies. I would like to suggest that those propagating
>violence from the comfort of homes in Europe and America are living a
>fantasy as much as those advocating peaceful means. One can be anyone one
>wants to be behind a computer keyboard. One can be Rambo, one can be
>Malcolm
>X, and one can be Bin Laden. One can even be Ghaddafi if one wishes. That
>is
>the beauty of the cyber identity. Then comes reality! The reality is that
>one may not be as tough as one portrays from a keyboard. One can be the
>greatest coward and the weakest "lefe lefe" there is yet the implications
>of
>their macho messages can be far-reaching and even devastating.
>
>  If the ones preaching violence as the only available means of bringing
>about change are comfortably sitting in Europe and America, who is going to
>bring about that violent change for them? I would be more convinced if
>those
>people were on the ground in The Gambia living what they are preaching. I
>would pay more attention to their message if it were Halifa Sallah, Lawyer
>Darboe, Shyngle Nyassi or any Samba or Demba living in The Gambia who was
>preaching what they are preaching. I would be more convinced, perhaps even
>converted if they truly believed in what they are preaching and pack up and
>go back home to be in the midst of the violence they are preaching. Apart
>from that I just say, "Practise what you preach".
>
>  The repercussions of the violent prescriptions these people are
>prescribing
>won't take place in a vacuum. The Gambia is not an empty space. Look at the
>results of violent confrontations in our sub-region. Look at Casamance,
>Liberia and Sierra Leone. It is very easy as stated earlier to sit
>thousands
>of miles away and prescribe violence knowing fully well that one is far
>removed from its effects. In other words, it is not their hands, feet or
>tongues that are going to be cut off. Yes, it might be their parents',
>children's etc. but it is still not the same. One can walk even if one's
>brother's legs are cut off. I would be more convinced if these people go
>back home and put their feet, tongues, hands etc. at the risk of being cut
>and still preach what they are preaching.
>  There have been many cases in the recent past that have outraged many of
>us
>not only in their brutality but also even in their deliberate assumption of
>Gambians' stupidity. The answer to those acts cannot only be violence.
>Measures have been taken that have yielded results. Why do you think Yaya
>didn't react in his normal way after the student massacres? Why do you
>think
>all the arrested students were released? Pressure, man, pressure! Pressure
>that has had some effect no matter how much one wishes to downplay those
>effects.
>
>  To those advocating violence I ask: do you have any organised means of
>bringing about a violent change? Do you have the finance to support a
>violent movement? Do you have a network somewhere to co-ordinate the
>activities of your movement? In short, what do you have in place apart from
>empty rhetoric? I say empty rhetoric because to propagate violence and
>dismiss the diplomatic approach as fantasy really smacks of a lack of
>understanding of how wars are fought. Ask the Arabs. When Israel was
>declared a state, the Arabs went bonkers and showed their absolute fury by
>attacking Israel. Yes, Israel had the military capability with the help of
>the West to defend itself. It however invested in a more important
>ingredient of war: propaganda and diplomacy. Because of the Jews' presence
>in broadcasting and publishing, they succeeded in transforming world
>opinion
>in their favour. That is why Israel gets away with basically anything today
>whilst the Iraqs, Yugoslavias etc. are bombed to smithereens for lesser
>sins. The importance of propaganda makes it imperative for guerrilla
>movements to have political organs that put a diplomatic face on the
>bombings and other atrocities perpetrated by their armed movements. To
>underestimate the importance of the non-violent aspect of the machinery of
>change displays a gross lack of understanding of the mechanisms of change.
>
>  To cut a long story short, those who are advocating a violent change in
>The
>Gambia need to come up with action plans. They need to show us how they are
>going to bring about that change and if possible with the least loss of
>life
>and suffering possible. To lack an action plan yet instigate unarmed people
>to have violent confrontations with armed-to-the-teeth security personnel
>is
>irresponsible to say the least especially when one is sheltered some
>thousands of miles away. Self-defence is a natural right but instigating
>the
>UDP to form vigilante groups knowing fully well that they would not be
>granted firearms licences when they would be pitched against armed police
>and soldiers seems like a recipe for disaster. Maybe those advocating a
>non-violent response to the activities of the government do not have a
>panacea to all Gambia's ill but neither do those advocating a violent
>response. The issue therefore should be meet at the crossroads and maybe
>work out something that would be in the interests of The Gambia for surely
>violent confrontation, war and civil strife are not in our country's
>interests. Thanks.
>
>Buharry.
>
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