Jaajef Yusupha, Reading your posting I must agree with what Hassan says his posting, in that: "There is a very serious problem emerging from Gambia that could lead to something very dangerous and violent if wer do not put a stop to.This is the overwhelming growth of violence... we should be doing is trying to figureout how to bring stability, development and progress to our tiny nation. There are too much killings,injustice treatment,hatred and abuse of power in Gambia and now or later the people of this tiny nation will be tired of these unjust treatments and may ALLAH porbids they might turn to violence and everything will be very ugly. I plead to all Gambians to find apositive way to bring this beloved country to normalsy" We all have a responsibility for this. What I find of concern in your posting is some statements which appear could be interpreted as incitement to acts of violence; i.e. when you say: "We cannot simply "accept" the "grave situation" that is beginning to unfold without a fight." or again when you say: "... we cannot negotiate with an "illegal" government because their ties with the military make these two separate entities interchangeable". What then is the solution or the way forward? Who will "fight" and what form will that "fight" take? Who will enforce the ultimatum you suggest to Jammeh? ("Yahyah Jammeh leaving the country immediately ... and the military returning to the barracks"). There was a recent screening here in London of a documentary on Sierra Leone showing graphically the sensless brutality and destructiveness of the civil war. Under such conditions nothing good flourishes. How are we to escape "the quagmire thatcountries like Sierra Leone and Liberia are unable to escape"? What practical means are the way forward? In your later posting , in response to Sajaw, you disagree that Gambia does not have the resources to recover from a bloodbath.The examples you give are in terms of physical destruction in the wake of the 1981 coup attempt. What I would ask is in relation to the Gambia's greatest resource, the human resource. You can re-stock a looted CFAO, or re-build destroyed buildings, but what is the human cost of war? The Sierra Leone documentary had interviews with young children of 10 years old who had killed countless innocent people and had cut of the limbs of others...how many years will it take such children and their victims to "recover from a bloodbath"? Please be clear, I am not accusing you of wishing a bloodbath (may Allah protect us from such a thing) but rather pleading for careful consideration and restraint with language which could so easily be misinterpreted in such a critical moment. Yeendul ak jaama Tony >>> Yusupha Jow <[log in to unmask]> 15/January/2000 04:19pm >>> Mr. Saidy and members of the Gambia-L, I honestly have to say that the situation in The Gambia is too unstable for anyone to be comfortable. Massive allegations of corruption that the government is unable to refute, human rights abuses, harassment of the press, covering up of information and now this? At this rate, we are headed straight for the quagmire that countries like Sierra Leone and Liberia are unable to escape. There has been talk of reconciliation as well as an open dialogue with the government. But I fail to see how we can negotiate with a government whose leader has no education, vision or respect for his people, and who, by virtue of his ties with teh military, has started a chain of events that even he, the supposed great savior, will be unable to control. We cannot simply "accept" the "grave situation" that is beginning to unfold without a fight. Furthermore, we cannot negotiate with an "illegal" government because their ties with the military make these two separate entities interchangeable. The military uses their close ties with the government as a justification to harass the people of the country, while the government uses the military to defend their ill gotten gains by subduing the average Gambian. What we have here is what I would call a symbiotic but parasitic relationship between the military and the government. One of these two entities/organizations is going to suffer at the expense of the other. As evidenced by the recent mutiny of army officers in Farafenni and Yundum, and the attempted heist of the money in our central armory, the military is beginning to show signs that their tolerance for the government is waning quickly. It is my opinion, that the military will emerge unscathed from this twisted relationship, since this has always been the case in Africa. A military takeover usually results in years of other coups and counter coups. And the future of The Gambia will be no different from all the other ill fated African countries that have been destroyed by years of military involvement in government. For this reason, I honestly believe that it is too late to negotiate with the government. The only agenda on the table should be an ultimatum; Yahyah Jammeh leaving the country immediately (he has done too much damage too our country) and the military returning to the barracks. Once these two goals are achieved, we can move forward with the next step of reconciling our fractionated population that has been so abused and misled over the past 6 years. 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