Mr Samateh's characterisation of President Jammeh as being a clone of Mobuto Seseko is eerily apt . Both men ran creul regimes employing all manner of strategy to purge their societies of any perspective challenge ranging from murder to ceaseless intimidation and corruption. They also went to great lengths to insulate themselves from the fetid circumstances that is the natural product of the kinds of leadership both men embody. In mobutu's case he spent months plying the mighty Zaire river in a luxury yatch occasionally breaking the monotony by spending time in homes on the French Reviera. In the same our President esconds himself at the state house far from the grinding poverty just up the street from him venturing out only in a thick bevy of silly security either for a quick trip to the airport or for caravan trip to Kanilai or the provinces . The overseas trips are almost never for advancing critical foreign policy issues important to Gambia, rather they are meant to benefit him personally as the countless trips made to then Nigerian dictator Sani Abacha and Friday prayer rendes vous with Colonel Ghaddifi. Infact Nigerian papers later reported that President Jammeh was among people who received hefty sums of cash in return for diplomatic support at a time when the entire world was condeming the brutal regime General Abacha ran. In return for these bribes he had our representative at the commonwealth meeting in New Zealand cast the lone dissenting voice in denouncing the brutal execution of Mr sarawiwa. Both men have perfected the way to slowly but surely kill their societies by deftly combining cooption, corruption and intimidation enabling them to maintain a semblance of order . That way they can remain in power while the people wallow in misery but utterly unable to quickly remove them. While it is unlikely as in the case of mobutu that Present Jammeh would enjoy a graceful retirement out there in Kanalai with a prayer bead and rocking in a chair, I cringe at the notion that we may have to endure a few more years of him. Like Mobutu he may have to head over to Morrocco when his scheme cathes up to him and he is made to realise that ruining a nation and it's people along with it is not a risk free undertaking . When that moment comes like Mobutu before him , I would hope he gets exactly what he deserves. karamba ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html ----------------------------------------------------------------------------