Don't shoot me, brother

Picture the late Lt. Gibril Saye in your mind. He it was, whose father went
to the Point newspaper sobbing and wondering about the whereabouts of his
son. He contended that the last time he had seen his son was a day after the
alleged November 11 incident. He revealed seeing his son leave for work on
saturday, November 12. He never returned. The late Capt. Sadibou Hydara,
then AFPRC spokesman, disputed Lt. Saye's father's story, asserting Saye
died in the November 11 shoot-out. His father doggedly claimed his son never
died in the shoot-out. Did he? Was he executed? Did he disappear
South/Central America-style? Probably, we'll never know.

But Lt. Saye's case is just one of many mournful experiences confronting
many a Gambian family whose sons were either slain in Gambia's
"counter-coups" or disappeared without a trace. A crop of officers of the
GNA perished in the November 11 incident. They can be described what was
once said of a British politician: "Has risen without a trace."

Too much blood has been shed on Gambian soil. The latest casualties are Lt.
Almamo Manneh and Corporal Mamadou Dumbuya. Both died, we are told, in
shoot-outs. The nature of Dumbuya's killing is gruesome. He "resisted"
arrest, and ran to the Banjul Albert market, followed by soldiers,
gun-toting and trigger-happy. After the fracas ended, Dumbuya dropped dead.
Another Gambian soul wasted.  Even if the alleged coupists did plan to
overthrow the Gambian state, come-uppance for them shouldn't have been in
the form of senseless killing.

It boggles the rational and compassionate Gambian-mind how Gambians can
butcher one another in the name of political power. The Gambia National
Army(GNA),formely an "admirable" institution, is now suffering from an acute
depletion of a cadre of competent officers through a rash of inhumane
killings, forceful resignations and arbitrary dismissals. The GNA has become
a fount of political support for Jammeh in the intransigence of his
swashbuckling tendencies to maintain a grip on power.

Further, the national army is now caught up in a cross-fire of political
manipulation and drunkenness. Soldier-professionalism expressed in the
patriotic duty to defend against internal and external aggression, seems to
be a missing ingredient for greatness for the GNA. Today, the GNA exudes an
eerie presence in the to-ings and fro-ings of government and its
institutions. Democracy in The Gambia is in perpetual stunted growth.

The blood of Almamo Manneh, Mamadu Dumbuya, and a horde of others, is an
infringement upon Gambian conscience. The Gambia is at war with itself. It's
sad. And scornful.

Cherno Baba Jallow
Detroit, MI





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