Gambia-L: The e-mail below is a commentary from one of my sources in the Gambia. Ebrima Ceesay ______________________________________________________________________ Hello Ebrima, The arrest on counts of Murder of the UDP leadership, leaves everyone in the national and international community gob-smacked! In some nefarious way, Yaya Jammeh and the APRC are insinuating that the death of driver Alieu Njie was all the fault of the UDP personnel: that the UDP vanguard in the Basse area decided to "do an April 10th/11th" on the peaceful and loyal friends of the APRC. Who is kidding who? The reported movements and actions of the APRC supporters suggest the contrary. Somewhat in the manner of the Ku Klux Klan right-wing activists of 60's and 70s USA history, so-called President Jammeh is sending out his personal militia to do death and destruction on his political opponents. Civil rights and social justice mean nothing to Yaya Jammeh and his entourage: they twist the facts of daily life; they twist the letter of the law; they twist the outcomes of their bullying tactics; they pretend that they are an innocent and benevolent government imbued with the milk of human kindness. In truth, we know them from April 10th/11th to the present day to be liars, murderers and opportunists. We know that the members of the UDP reported to have been in "involved in the fighting" were forced to protect themselves against Yaya Jammeh's thugs: their plea will be "self-defence" and God will help them to secure this judgement. Up until 1994, Ebrima, the country had been "relatively peaceful": it was known as a "beacon for a democratic ideal": Yes, there was an acknowledged element of political corruption but basically the country and its leaders were perceived as "sound". And now within the space of 6 years, our country's reputation on the international scene, has plummeted to below zero. We now have the situation where an overtly corrupt and aggressive military (quasi-civilian APRC) regime is orchestrating armed raids on opposition groups as well as on individuals. Who sent those APRC people on their journey to intercept Ousainnou Darboe? Who persuaded them that this was the right thing to do? Who persuaded them to transgress all the laws of this country? Really, what DID these people think would be the conseqeunce of their actions? The Gambia, our country, is in the hands of an increasingly despotic and dangerous leadership. Yaya Jammeh thinks nothing of putting Gambians in Gambian Society down: he is concerned only with self-preservation and ultimate power. All of us need to be uniting in our support of opponents of the APRC regime, regardless of political persuasion: we need to come together as a cohesive opposition group who will see the back of Jammeh and his friends. Recent events, despite the terrible sadness of them, signal the upsurge of anti-government feeling within The Gambia. We pledge our support to put an end to this terrible state of affairs. We are looking forward to waving "farewell" to the president and his cohorts. We are anxious to greet The New Gambia. Thank you ! PS: Ebrima, for sure, by tommorow, I'll start sending you confidential information again on the activities of this despotic Yaya Jammeh Government. I'll leave the UDP updates with Saihou Mballow who is already doing a very good job in that regard. ________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html ----------------------------------------------------------------------------