Mr. Colly, thanks again for your complementary piece on the disappearance of
Makalo. Your focus on these vermin (as opposed to the role of the
journalists) was quite apt. I hope the IGP and people like Barry and Jatta
read your message clearly and know the day of judgment is near. And when
that day comes, they will all account for their actions. In response to your
message, Elhajj raised another chilling issue. The devils might be at work
exhuming the body; rather than cuffing the hands to take the corpse to Yaya,
they would attempt to change the burial location. We urge people to be
vigilant and ensure that this gruesome crime is not covered up. The
authorities should know that they can run but they can't hide. There are a
lot of Kanteh's in their midst. The same way Kanteh knew about this burial
site can repeat itself. They should give the body back to Makalo's family
for a decent burial. All these corpses in mass graves will come back to
haunt them. Have no doubt about that.
Colly, am also glad that you mentioned Yabo and your 'Prescription for
Resistance'. It is important that Gambians understand that you are not
advising anyone to retreat and surrender. You are a battle-tested soldier
that has looked at death right in the eye. What I read from your message is
a pragmatic way of ensuring that we minimize the martyrs in this struggle.
We had enough on April 10 and 11. If this was a duel between Yaya and Yabo,
am sure you would be the first person to ask Yabo to blow Yaya's brains out.
This is also not a fight where the first person to put sand in the
opponent's mouth is crown the victor and the fight declared complete. But if
the coward sends more than ten heavily armed men to abduct one person, that
person has very few options. As you stated earlier, the tactic worked in
favor of Waa Juwara. He is of more use to the opposition alive than dead. I
join you and urge all potential abductees to organize themselves in
conjunction with family, friends and neighbors. They should make sure that
each time someone is abducted, the abductors are identified and the location
of the kidnapped person is known. It makes it easier to work for the release
of these political prisoners. If one feels that one can take on any abductor
and come out of it alive, hey be my guest. Blow Pika's head any day and I
will go out and celebrate. But people like Darboe, Waa Juwara and others
should realize that their lives are worth more than the lives of these
vermin. So do not trade it even for Yaya's life let alone morons like Pika
and Foday Barry.
Finally, I also hope that your soldier brothers get the message by now.
There is clearly a trend (visible to the naked eye) in Yaya's rampant
killings of soldiers. They should face reality and abandon ship and join the
side of the overwhelming majority. We are their brothers, sisters, cousins,
etc. It is great that you told them to remember people like Ousman Sillah.
If that man wanted, he could have been another Sankung Badjie. He was in the
police force before some of these soldiers were born. Seen everything, done
it all as Jawara's ADC. He left that behind and went to the private sector
where he continues to defend the liberties of all oppressed Gambians (both
under the Jawara and Yaya regimes). Emulate the example of this man and
think about people like him when you carry out your duties.
KB



>From: ebou colly <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: The Gambia and related-issues mailing list
><[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Re: On "the murder?" of Foday Makalo
>Date: Thu, 13 Jul 2000 13:43:46 -0700
>
>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.
> > >
> > >
> > >
> >
> >________________________________________________________________________
> > >Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at
> > http://www.hotmail.com
> > >
> >
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