Ebrima, frankly if I were you, I will not waste time with these diversionary
comments. You and others had made it clear time and again that most of what
you report are not necessarily your personal views. For crying out loud, you
are not in The Gambia. No one is trying here to absolve you of culpability
if you or your Sources knowingly propagate a lie. In my opinion, the test
should be 'did Ebrima know that something was untrue and then went ahead and
publish it?'. Since I joined G_L, am yet to see your worst critic come here
and point to something you reported and say that you and your Sources
fabricated a story. Instead, what we get is people laboriously nit-picking
your postings to come up with some semblance of inconsistency to attack you
with. Some go beyond attacking and arrogantly ask you to apologize to the
likes of Yaya. Well people are free even to come here and make a fool of
themselves. So the purpose of this posting is not to prevent anyone from
criticizing you. My purpose is to appeal to you to ignore such side
non-issues and convey to your Sources that there are numerous people out
here that appreciate their invaluable contributions to the struggle. We know
that you had acted honorably in the past to rectify errors in your
reporting. We also know that you and your Sources are not motivated by
politics to speak untruth. As we have said on many occasions, we are all
matured adults (I hope). If we read something from you, we should make our
own assessments and come to our conclusions. If your Sources report that the
van was blown by a grenade, and DaCosta has solid facts to the contrary, let
him come out with those facts. If all he can come up with are mere
deductions, then I counsel you not to waste time with him. What political
points would the opposition score by proving that Yaya orchestrated the
murder of two opposition MPs? Yaya orchestrated the murder of more than a
dozen children in broad daylight. If we are not trying to score points with
that heinous crime, why would we want to exploit the grieve of the families
of our fallen heroes that died last Saturday? To accuse you of politicking
in this case is despicable. The death had barely been laid to rest, there
are victims still fighting for their lives, and what do we have? Yaya
apologists accusing you of fabricating stories for political gain. There are
ways and means your friends try to help authenticate the reports from your
Sources. I am sure you have on numerous occasions received private mail from
friends of the struggle giving you somewhat conflicting perspectives from
those reported from your Sources. I am also sure that when that happened,
both you and your Sources took the opposing views in good faith and put the
record straight. We do not need self promoters coming out here to try and
discredit everything you and your Sources are doing and have done, because
of one story. Once again, thanks for the good job you and your Sources are
doing. We appreciate their efforts. Knowing how callous this government is,
we understand the tremendous risk these people put their lives in when they
report to you. Continue the good work.. And remember, no one has said that
you and or your Sources deliberately told a lie.
KB



>From: Ebrima Ceesay <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: The Gambia and related-issues mailing list
><[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Re: UDP accident caused by a Grenade?
>Date: Tue, 9 Jan 2001 21:55:43 -0000
>
>"Emmanuel DaCosta",
>
>I thank you for your comments on Gambia-L which you addressed directly to
>me.
>
>I should inform you that my sources are people of great integrity, and that
>they would never seek to fabricate the truth for the sake of a political
>point.  My sources put their lives on the line each time they communicate
>with us in the Diaspora ( were you aware that some Iranian computer hackers
>have recently been brought into The Gambia by Jammeh to try to track down
>where the messages are coming from ?
>
>My sources are people who could easily make a comfortable life in the West,
>but are putting themselves and their families at risk and sacrificing
>themselves for the sake of their country by remaining at home. They even go
>to the extent of telephoning me on my mobile phone in the UK, to let me
>know
>that they have posted more messages to my personal mail box:  these phone
>calls are extremely expensive for them to make from The Gambia. But these
>are indications of the importance my sources place on providing up-to-date
>information to those of us out of the country.
>
>Equally, I myself have an extremely busy schedule these days, but I am
>trying to find time to post on these messages from my sources at home, and
>also to provide incisive comment and analysis on issues relating to The
>Gambia.
>
>I cannot personally vouch for the accuracy or otherwise of the reports
>submitted by my sources:  I see it as my role to post on to the List all
>relevant materials relating to events submitted by them.  Where I can, I
>provide additional comment:  where I cannot, I send the messages without
>comment.  It is precisely for Gambians like yourself to decide how much
>faith you wish to place in the information being submitted by my sources.
>I
>have to say, in my sources’ defence, that they have usually proved to be
>accurate:  in the case of this tragedy, time will tell.
>
>The information on the "accident" at the moment is very scanty, and there
>are several discrepancies in the current reports:  for instance, according
>to the story in The Point Newspaper of 9th January 2001, the "accident"
>happened because a front tyre burst:  yesterday, the Observer Newspaper
>(like my source’s e-mail) told of how the "accident" was caused by the
>bursting of rear tyres.  The Pan African News Agency (PANA) in their
>report,
>say merely that the tyre(s) burst.
>
>At this stage, nobody knows really what happened:  one of my sources tells
>us that having spoken to two of his contacts in the NIA and the Army, it
>seems to him that a grenade was used to cause the "accident".  None of
>those
>who survived have yet been able to give first-hand reports on what actually
>happened, and on what they feel might have been the cause of the
>"accident".
>
>Let us therefore wait for the survivors to tell us their accounts of and
>opinions on what and how it happened.  It will then be the time to
>undertake
>further interpretation, analysis and comment.
>
>You’ll be surprised to hear this, but I myself have been in touch with
>friends in Banjul and, interestingly, the grenade theory is very rife
>there.
>  Many people genuinely believe that a grenade (or similar sinister device)
>was the direct cause of the accident.  Anyway, only time will tell, and
>there needs to be a thorough investigation of this terrible tragedy.
>
>No-one should be scoring political points from a dreadful event such as
>this
>one.
>
>We all send our condolences and prayers to the families of the bereaved.
>
>Ebrima Ceesay
>Birmingham, UK
>
>
>_________________________________________________________________________
>Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com.
>
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