----- Original Message -----
From: ebou colly <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Thursday, January 27, 2000 5:39 PM
Subject: Yaya's Power Base?
> I am reposting thismessage because an earlier attempt
> did not go through. Sorry for any inconvenience. ec.
>
>
>
>
> THE GNA SOLDIERS NOT THE POWER BASE FOR YAYA JAMMEH
>
> Before dealing with my next subject, I would first
> like to extend my sincere appreciation to all those
> wonderful comments sent by various readers of my last
> issue. Your encouraging words were certainly morale
> boosters and have reinforced my determination and
> spirit to be more sharing with a candid approach.
>
> I cannot however ignore the few questions forwarded
> doubting the credibility of my information, because I
> sincerely believe that every skeptic deserve a
> satisfactory explanation of everything said about the
> Jammeh regime. Saying that I was a true serving member
> of the Gambia National Army (GNA) from its early
> inception in 1985 to its most recent past may not be
> sufficient consolidate the credibility I hope to
> project. If I also stopped at merely explaining my
> broad knowledge of military operations-orders ranging
> from the section, platoon, company or even battalion
> battle drills, the highest operational capability of
> the present GNA my points may still not sink in well
> into the minds of those without proper military
> education. However before elaborating on some more
> tangible lines, I would like to inform everybody that
> I am a well-trained infantry soldier with advanced
> skills of a combatant in field craft, the special
> ability of a sharp shooter but above all the
> discipline of a true soldier. A true soldier precisely
> means a good fighter for the right course without
> being unnecessarily bloodthirsty. It also means being
> professional and having less or nothing to do with
> politics. Soldiers with political aspirations are
> nothing but rebels or bandits in uniform.
>
> However let me now give a broader or additional proof
> of my assertion that Jammeh's government always comes
> up with false coup plots merely to eliminate innocent
> Gambians. Take the case of Captain Yankuba Drammeh the
> current Commanding Officer(CO) of the largest fighting
> battalion in the GNA,1 Infantry Battalion. His office
> and cellular phone numbers are 4722121 and 990178
> respectively. Call him and if he is honest with you
> should be able to tell you the harrowing experience he
> suffered at Mile Two Central prisons accused by Jammeh
> of a dubious coup plot against his government. Or you
> try Captain Cherno Jallow the present CO of the second
> largest battalion on his office number-497100-and he
> could also tell you the terrible days he was
> incarcerated at death row by Yaya for planning a coup
> he could not justify. Captain Alpha Kinteh at the Army
> Headquarters Banjul on 225772or225771 also suffered in
> the hands of Yaya on a coup conspiracy charge no one
> could enlighten for him. I could go on and on, but
> that would simply tie me down on this subject that I
> think I have now been adequately treated, at least for
> this forum. So I will move to my next subject
> deserving equal importance.
>
> As a former member of the GNA I am now trying to find
> the right voice to speak for mainly those honest and
> good soldiers of the GNA who had nothing to do with
> Yaya's coup and are ashamed of being associated with
> him or his government. Nevertheless the general
> civilian public often categorize all the soldiers in
> uniform as other Yaya Jammehs, Edward Singhatehs,
> Lamin Kaba Bajos, Yankuba Tourays or the few stupid
> ones blindly following them. Contrary to that
> stereotype concept, I can speak with confidence that
> 90% or more of the GNA soldiers on active service are
> very good, honest and God fearing Gambians holding on
> to their jobs primarily to make a simple living. But
> given the negative legacy of African armies in general
> with the Gambia not an exception, the civilian
> population have developed the wrong notion that all
> the soldiers are evil. Consequently when members of
> the army are improperly treated in a manner that does
> not conform with the standard laws of the nation or
> the constitution, the legal institutions or civil
> population usually brush it aside as unimportant
> isolated problems.
>
> Take for instance the so-called counter coup of 11th
> November 1994 when Yaya Jammeh falsely accused some
> GNA officers and other ranks and then summarily
> executed them in the most gruesome manner. The
> majority were executed on the 13th of November, two
> days after the AFPRC government stated that all of
> them were killed in a fire on the 11th of November.
> The entire Gambian public was aware of the lies of the
> government in that serious crime. But how did they
> react to that unlawful butchery of those innocent
> Gambian soldiers? They simply gossiped their regret
> over the terrible act without a single voice of
> protest raised or any form of pressure exerted on
> Jammeh and his killers to satisfy their doubts.
>
> The soldiers at Yundum Barracks that evening wept like
> children as their colleagues were driven away in a
> Land Rover pick-up vehicle to the out skirts of
> Nyambai Forest where they were cowardly killed one
> after another. Their dead limp bodies were later
> brought back and handed over to the moronic
> Chief-Of-Staff Baboucarr Jatta who supervised the
> final terrible act of burying the men naked behind the
> toilets. The bulk of the soldiers stood by numb in
> their legs with fear and shock. And as soon as they
> left the barracks the stupefied soldiers started
> telling the whole story the exact manner it happened
> and monsters who took part in the killing. The last
> shots that killed Sergeants E.M.Ceesay and Basiru
> Camara were ordered by Edward Singhateh around
> 6.00p.m. His former driver Batch Jallow used a
> Chinese-made A.K 47,folding butt, to shoot and killed
> the two Sergeants at point range. But all the killing
> instructions were coming directly from Yaya. It was
> the worst crime committed against humanity by the
> AFPRC government.
>
> Anyhow the Gambian public seemed to care less about
> that crime. At least the Gambian public could have
> asked for the bodies with proper postmortem performed
> on everyone and of course have them handed over to
> their families for proper burial. There was no war or
> social disturbance in the nation at that moment to
> necessitate that hasty and terrible burial. The only
> reason they was to hide the evidence of what did. Up
> to tkis present time no one shows a glimmer of
> interest in that case. It is not proper for those
> soldiers to remain there forever as if they do not
> deserve to be buried in any cemeteries in the country.
> Why should Yaya Jammeh condition the minds of all the
> Gambians into remaining this silent about something
> that has no iota of justice or human decency? Why?
> Why? Why? These men had wives and children who still
> dont't know where their fathers have disappeared to
> since that day they left for work in 1994.
>
> By comparison however, the other tragic killing of
> Ousman Koro Ceesay six months later seemed to have
> attracted more public sympathy and out cry than the
> innocent Gambian soldiers lying at Yundum.What's the
> logic? It was really ugly killing the former Finance
> Minister of the AFPRC government and burning him in
> his official car to hide the evidence. But did you
> know that Lt.Gibril Saye was bayonetted all over his
> body including both his eyes before he was finally
> shot by Staff Sergent Kanyi? Lt. Abdoulie Faal (DOT)
> had his back bone broken by bending him backwards
> until the bone snap at his waist before he was shot
> and killed with a 9mm pistol.
>
> All these stories were more or less known to the
> Gambian public, but because they were soldiers, the
> crimes were perfectly normal.
>
> So one could judge clearly the precarious message
> behind the whole episode. When Jammeh hits a civilian
> regardless of how friendly or close that person was to
> the tyrant, the action is condemned with the whole GNA
> sometimes blamed for it. Yet when a soldier attempts
> to even question the legitimacy of the idiot and is as
> a result maimed or killed the public says little or
> nothing about it.
>
> Anyhow in actual fact , looking at Jammeh's government
> since the coup in 1994,it has always been the
> civilians who supplied him with the right
> administrative ingredients that has sustained his
> government for so long. The soldiers could not and in
> reality would not if they could. Apparently even the
> most educated and best trained soldiers of the GNA had
> no clue of how to run a government much more Yaya one
> of the most under-educated and less-trained in the
> army. With his grade 11 high school education the
> idiot was not even a member of the GNA. He was a
> gendermarie personnel with then worst record of
> professional or academic attainment. If the civilians
> worshipping him were aware of how mentally backward he
> was, and they decide to stop helping him today, within
> few hours his government would collapse altogether.
> But perhaps the civilians very well know the low
> mental level of the fool and enjoy exploiting it for
> their selfish interest
>
> What is only sad about it is the continuous
> denunciation of the ordinary common soldiers for
> keeping the Kaninlai monsterin power. But can you
> remember Fafa Mbye who selfishly armed the Jammeh
> regime in the beginning with all those decrees and
> legal arsenals used to destroy several selected
> Gambian families? Can you also remember those
> so-called great civilian intellectuals of the Jawara
> era who have totally shifted their loyalty to Jammeh
> with fanatical zeal. On the active front, there were
> the Bolong Sonkos, the Blaise Jagnes,Omar Njie,Famara
> Jatta, Isatou Njie Saidy,Balla Jahumpa and now the
> most prominent being Momodou Lamin Sidat Jobe. Would
> all of them in the end be treated as innocents and
> blame the soldiers for Jammeh's crimes? My friends
> let's be realistic I think it would have been somewhat
> fairer if blame was shared between the greedy civilian
> and the rebels in uniform disguised as soldiers.
>
> Even with that, an objective critic may want to think
> twice if the calibre of soldiers in power is well
> scrutinised. For example the sadist Edward Singhateh,
> apart from his animal brutality which makes him a
> notorious killer of innocent Gambians,the half-cast
> has nothing in his brain to make him a competent
> administrator. As for Yankuba Touray, his only
> effective role in the system is taking the local
> political platform and reinforcing every lie uttered
> by Yaya. He has the mental ability of a kindergarten
> child. He is absolutely zero when it comes to
> formulating government policies let alone executing
> them.
>
> Lamin Kaba Bajo? He is the one I respect the least
> among them. Hiding behind religion, he is the most
> empty-headed and disloyal person in the history of
> security forces in the Gambia. At the time of the coup
> in 1994,Lamin was a captain commanding the whole
> Presidential Guards of Ex-President
> Jawara.However,when the coward heard about the
> advancing soldiers coming to overthrow the government
> he abandoned the unit and ran away to Dakar Senegal
> with President Jawara's family.He returned a week
> later to be given a high position by Jammeh because
> they were old friends.
>
> These are men who have no virtues, carry little or no
> valuable knowledge in their head and lacked every form
> of human conscience to make them good administrators.
>
> So take it from me, an ordinary civil disobedience of
> the Jammeh establishment would have been the easiest
> way to expel his government from power. The real
> soldiers would prefer it that way. A genuine mass
> movement will in fact attract a lot of soldiers to
> move along with it rather than against it. But instead
> even the career politicians remain silent in their
> chambers. Where are the Sheriff Dibbas, Andrew
> Camaras, Gibou Jagnes etc. etc.?
>
> You may not know this but frankly speaking it hurts
> all serving soldiers dearly to associate Yaya Jammeh
> with true military characters or values since the man
> is nothing but a pathological liar, a "corruptomaniac"
> and a mass murderer under the guise of the noble army
> uniform. He lies about every thing under the sun, he
> even decorated him self with the ECOMOG medal and
> would often lie shamelessly about the peacekeeping
> role he played in Liberia when he had never step his
> foot there. He lies about how Sana Sabally and the
> late Sadibou Haidara aimed their weapons at him on the
> 27th of January 1994 and attempted to shoot him
> without success because his "jujus" caused the guns to
> malfunction. The soldiers who apprehended Sana and
> Sadibou would tell you how Yaya almost shit his pants
> that day out of fear hiding away from the actual
> encounter.
>
> And where did he get all the millions of Dalasis he
> has been spending on his private multi-million Dalasi
> projects in the country? The soldiers are all
> disturbed by his wave of corrupt activities. Take for
> instance the insult to all military ethics by Jammeh
> giving the official residence of the CO at Fajara
> Barracks to his mother. The house was once occupied by
> Major Ebrima Chongan and should have now been occupied
> by the current Commander.
>
> I don't need to say any more on why I termed him a
> mass murderer anyway. But believe in me, looking at
> the danger Yaya has entangled himself with as the
> pitiful President of The Gambia condemned on a clear
> path of ultimate doom, few or no soldiers would even
> contemplate eliminating him for fear of being stock
> with the possibility of becoming another suicidal
> leader. However the idiot lives in a dream world of a
> child's mind far duller than that of Samuel Doe's who
> once got the message and chance to leave the political
> scene when he could but played the fool until he was
> captured and butchered. With Yaya,his recent remarks
> in The Gambia saying that presidents don't die in
> their own political problems indicates how unreceptive
> his brain is in political history of the African
> continent.
>
> But I would still insist that the civilians and not
> the soldiers for once take the bull by the horns and
> do it to Yaya Jammeh. Or would they continue to find
> their personal opportunities of big positions in the
> government while still blaming the soldiers for
> keeping Jammeh in power? Was it not a shocking shame
> that Abdoulai Sallah after retiring with absolute
> disgrace as ambassador has accepted another
> ministerial position from Yaya? No wonder with all the
> clear evidence seen the civil community is still
> sheepishly appealing to Yaya the number one
> orchestrator of the killing of Ousman Koro Ceesay to
> investigate the case and tell them what they have
> certainly known already. Is that not something?
>
> The soldiers should continue to pray hoping that time
> would show the clear truth. But I am still looking
> forward to that special day when the remains of our
> colleagues are removed from the back of the toilets of
> Yundum and paraded with honour before given the
> peaceful burial they honestly deserve. The Gambian
> constitution will be rectified to cover all of the
> soldiers dead or alive and will ensure that such
> things would never be entertained in our midst again.
> If soldiers are killed again under any circumstances,
> our families must get the bodies and we would lay our
> lives to stop any bastard trying to bury us behind
> toilets of our own barracks. Sorry to say, but for the
> moment any of you out there could end up in those
> shallow graves at Yundum Barracks.
> .
>
> On a final note, be assured that I am committed to
> reestablishing good governance in The Gambia and the
> preparations for that campaign is in earnest. It is
> just a matter of short time when we will roll into the
> country and clean the nation of that terrible
> government. I know what it would take.
>
> Well Mr. Ebrima Ceesay for a while I simply thought of
> ignoring your rather confrontational remarks for
> obvious reasons but a second thought after all, made
> me change my mind. It really fascinated me reading the
> level of obsession you expressed in struggling to
> expose my identity. I doubt as to whether you realized
> how desperate you sounded. You even sounded quite
> threatening saying something to the effect that you
> may use your super knowledge of the information super
> highway to trace my location and expose my true
> identity. And you also said you have other means of
> secret techniques at your disposal to reveal who I am.
> Great, you can go ahead and make my day. I sincerely
> do not think you possess any special knowledge or
> secret formula to proof to the world anything
> different from Ebou Colly being really the person I
> am. And I seriously think you lack a thorough
> knowledge of how the Internet works.
>
> Anyhow I am only pleased that you seemed to have
> nothing to challenge about the credibility of my
> information regardless of what I consider the
> tremendous show off you displayed on your knowledge of
> the Jammeh era. Credibility of the information
> supposedly matters greater in the so-called debate.
> Playing your game however, I wonder whether you gave a
> serious thought to the reason why I should be hiding
> my identity if in reality I am. Perhaps it is for a
> very genuine reason that should be respected as long
> as I am willing to supply the relevant information I
> want to share with all Gambians out there. After all
> if it were not for credibility, what other relevance
> would you say my real identity has in the so- called
> debate? The way I see it, correct me if I am wrong,
> the only sensible reason I could make out of it are
> these two possibilities: (1) You seemed to have
> already been telling everybody around you how well you
> actually know me as a different person from Ebou Colly
> and now you are burdened with the challenge of
> confirming it ;or (2) You disliked what I said about
> Jammeh and his terrible government so you mapped out a
> scheme of silencing me. Brother I think you have a
> tough job in hand because my course is already mapped
> out too and the psychological game of an amateur shall
> not make me deviate from it.
>
> I did not bother to answer your questions directly
> because, just as you put it in one of your second
> submission you know the answers but only want to check
> with me. Several doubts have been clarified in this
> text and many more shall come but based purely on my
> plan and pace. This is a forum for all
> Gambians to receive what I have to offer so don't just
> expect to change my program into a hide and seek game
> with you or any other person for that matter.
>
> However, for once I will try to help you with these
> questions you asked? The speeches you referred to on
> the first day of the coup from Radio 1 FM, I assume
> you very well knew at the time that the late Lt.
> Basiru Barrow announced the English version while
> Capt. Momodou Lamin Sonko repeated it in Mandinka and
> Wollof. Unfortunately the lieutenant was among those
> butchered on the 11th of November 1994 and is still
> lying behind the Yundum Barracks toilet but the
> captain is still around living somewhere in the USA.
> With that information it should be a piece of cake for
> you to trace him using your super knowledge of
> cyberspace or those secret formula you have. He is
> certainly the only person who can tell you who wrote
> that speech because I honestly have no idea about the
> author.
>
> You also made mention of a speech that I had
> something to do with hiding it, eh? Presumably you
> seemed to be referring to Yaya Jammeh's maide speech
> at Radio Gambia, right? If that is the one, you must
> have to my surprise missed that clear answer to who
> actually wrote it. That speech in its original
> manuscript has been on display at the small museum on
> ARCH 22 in Banjul. It is there neatly laminated and
> placed on an antique-looking table standing beside a
> similar chair with the following inscription printed
> above: This speech was written by His Excellency Yaya
> Abdulasis Junkung Jamus Jammeh President of The
> Republic Of The Gambia sitting on this table and chair
> well before he overthrew the P.P.P. government.
> Something very similar to that. I don't know how you
> really missed that with your outstanding journalistic
> credentials. Or should I say that you were among those
> gullible journalists easily fed with so many lies by
> the then AFPRC boys about all those officers who did
> not take part in the coup including the 36 of them
> incarcerated at mile two?
> Of course I was never part of the coup plotters like
> the majority of the officers, and I am perfectly proud
> of that.
>
> Ebou Colley
>
>
>
> .
>
>
>
>
> __________________________________________________
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