From Jomo Kenyatta's "The Gentlemen of the Jungle"
".....Then the man decided that he must adopt an effective method of
protection, since Commissions of Enquiry did not seem to be of any use to
him. He sat down and said, 'Ng'enda thi ndagaga motegi,' which literally
means 'there is nothing that treads on earth that cannot be trapped,'
........"
The seating of the commission of inquiry in Gambia reminded me of the
elephant in Kenyatta'a story. He was at once the aggressor (Killer Yahya
against the students) to appear before the commission for questioning, (will
killer Yahya be questioned) as well as the high minister in the jungle
kingdom tasked with appointing the commissioners. With the scales of
justice rigged as they are, justice, ultimately, will have to rest in the
hands of the people.
Of course, the man took action and his problem was taken care of. Action
will be taken.
Soffie
-----Original Message-----
From: Dampha Kebba [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Thursday, June 08, 2000 11:40 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Commission of Inquiry
As we follow the events unfolding in that silly commission
of inquiry, we
feel nothing but utter disgust about what is going on. The
results of a
sample polling by Gambian newspapers show that an
overwhelming majority of
those spoken to, are either dissatisfied with the
composition of the
commission, the questions being asked at the commission, the
responses being
given or all of the above. Some also saw this commission as
a total waste of
time. The commission is not interested in getting to the
bottom of the
matter: who in particular did the shooting and who ordered
them to carry
live bullets in their weapons? If the sole purpose of the
commission is to
solicit facts that would enable the authorities to avoid
another massacre,
they should just counsel the government to employ security
experts to teach
them about crowd control. The people who lost their children
are not
interested in that. Any self respecting government should
know how to engage
school children in dialogue. We do not need a commission of
inquiry manned
by traitors to tell a government how to protect its innocent
citizens. This
case belongs in the regular courts where convicted criminals
are put in jail
or shot before a firing squad. It is almost comical that the
chief justice
will be so outraged to the extent of threatening witnesses
with contempt of
court citations because they are making him wait in court.
Well, we got news
for the chief justice. There are Gambian families waiting
endlessly for the
murderers of their children be brought to court. We wished
we had the power
to put all of you in jail for prolonging the ordeal of those
families. All
this commission will succeed in doing, is provide the
murderers involved in
this massacre an opportunity to rehearse their lies before
facing a real
prosecutor. But they should know that that court house will
be burnt down
and all the books and silly wigs thrown in the sea if
someone does not pay
for the heinous crimes committed on April 10 and 11. The
doctrine of
collective responsibility should be applied to the maximum.
It is not enough
for Ousman Badgie to come to the commission and try and
pretend that the IGP
can overrule him and Yaya and order the shooting, nor would
it be enough for
the IGP to come and say that junior officers took the law
into their hands.
We realize that the government is still trying to peddle
that ridiculous lie
that their armory was broken into. We would not buy that
either. Colly
already put that to rest. We think that the commission is a
waste of time
and should be terminated forthwith. Their inclusion of a
single female
member does not change anything. It would not help get to
the bottom of
this. The chief justice (who I hope is a seasoned lawyer)
was sitting there
when arrogant government officials refused to answer
legitimate questions by
invoking some nonexistent privileges (cabinet discussions
should not be made
public). I wonder why the chief justice did not cite the
official for
contempt of court and force him to answer the question. Are
we going to
allow these people to hide the discussions that went on
between Yaya (in
Cuba) and his cohorts (in Gambia) because they were in a
'cabinet' meeting?
Give us a break. Are these the signs of people who want to
get to the bottom
of the matter? The judiciary should show goodwill by
ensuring the
termination of this bogus commission and also throwing out
of court that
frivolous appeal from the AG aimed at putting back our
children to jail. As
we said before, the judge did not err in law. This was only
a factual matter
and the facts do not support the AG's position. The events
of April 10 and
11 should teach us that denying people natural justice only
leads to
anarchy. If the courts do not enforce the laws fairly,
people will take the
laws into their own hands. Simple as that. That is another
lesson we can
learn without the aid of a commission. Had the people that
killed Ebrima
Barry been brought to court and justice done on that matter,
we would not be
in this predicament today.
KB
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