Gambia News: Gambia Still Faces Heavy Debt Burden - IMF

A two-week long review of the economic developments in the country by officials of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) revealed that The Gambia still faces a heavy debt burden.
“In 2010, interest on debt consumed about 20 percent of government revenues, most of which was paid on the large stock of outstanding Treasury Bills,” according to a statement issued by Mr David Dunn, the head of the IMF team on Thursday during a press briefing held at Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs.
Mr Bunn who is the IMF mission chief for The Gambia however failed to disclose the amount owed by government.
But, he said The Gambian authorities place a high priority on curbing the government’s domestic borrowing.

The full text of the press release reads:
An IMF team visited The Gambia during March 4–17, 2011 to review recent economic developments and discuss with the government economic policy initiatives planned for this year. The team met with His Excellency President Yahya Jammeh, Honorable Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs Mambury Njie, Central Bank of The Gambia Governor Amadou Colley, and other senior officials. The staff team expressed its appreciation to the authorities and technical staff for their excellent cooperation and candid discussions.
Preliminary data indicate that the Gambian economy continued to perform well in 2010, despite lingering effects of the global economic crisis on tourism receipts. Led by another strong expansion in agriculture, real gross domestic product (GDP) growth is estimated to have grown by about 5½ percent. Inflation edged up in 2010, mainly because of rising international food and fuel prices. The economic outlook for 2011 is generally positive, especially if hints of improvements in the tourism sector develop further.
The government’s basic fiscal balance slipped into a substantial deficit during the final quarter of 2010, leading to a large issuance of T-bills late in the year. The impact on yields was dampened, however, due to strong demand for government paper by commercial banks arising from the end-year increase in the minimum capital requirement. Official international reserves remained at comfortable levels. The structural reform agenda continues to progress steadily. The Gambia, however, still faces a heavy debt burden. In 2010, interest on debt consumed about 20 percent of government revenues, most of which was paid on the large stock of outstanding T-bills. Going forward, the authorities place a high priority on curbing the government’s domestic borrowing.
The Gambian authorities are making good progress with their preparations of the Programme for Accelerated Growth and Employment (PAGE), which will succeed the current poverty reduction strategy beginning in 2012. The PAGE will emphasize government support for agriculture and infrastructure investment. Financing of the PAGE will pose a significant challenge in light of the country’s already heavy debt burden and falling tax revenues (relative to GDP). The authorities plan to seek donor support for the PAGE, but avenues for private sector participation should also be explored.
The current arrangement under the IMF’s Extended Credit Facility will expire at the end of this month. An IMF team will return to The Gambia later in the year to discuss a possible new credit arrangement.

Source:www.dailynews.gm

Gambia News: BALANGBA: Gambia’s popular uprising necessary and perhaps even inevitable

By Mathew K Jallow

The swanky private jet with the distinctive Gambian flag festooned conspicuously on its sun-scourged sides stood idly in a secluded corner of Ronald Reagan's International airport in Washington, D.C. As its primary occupant, accompanied by a large entourage of bodyguards and other human accessories made their way in a convoy of limousines to a plush and opulent hotel in a seedy part of suburban D.C, the country she left behind three thousand miles away on the miserable continent of Africa, was crumbling under the weight of her husband's repressive regime. And this was only one of Mrs. Zaineb Jammeh and her children's many shopping forays to the U.S. But this time it was different. Mrs. Zaineb Jammeh, for all intents and purposes, had this time around come for the kill; to purchase a big-ticket item worth over a million dollars. And the house she bought was an investment she and her husband Yahya Jammeh hope to hedge against his inevitable downfall.

Mrs. Zaineb Suma Jammeh, the quintessential Imelda Marcus, cold and seemingly heartless, had done it again. But all this was last year. This year, far to the north of The Gambia, where the golden sun scourge the rugged landscape across the northern edges of the African continent; and the tip of the Atlas Mountains soar brazenly high above the ominous clouds, the political geography of a continent is changing as rapidly as an eye blink. The harsh and unforgiving odd twins, the Atlas Mountains and the Sahara desert, at once serene and violent, are witnessing one of the greatest political upheavals of the past several decades. The Maghreb region of North Africa, with a history as old as human existence, is undergoing a bold political transformation that is making the unceremonious revolutionary swells and violent collapses of Eastern Europe's socialist regimes look like picnic. And as history repeats itself in the Arab world, the striking political and economic parallels between Eastern Europe then and the Maghreb and the Middle East now, is glaringly evident. But evident also are the similarities between the dictatorial regimes of North Africa and the Middle-East, and The Gambia, where Yahya Jammeh's exercise of absolute power is akin to the obsolete kingdoms and out-dated feudal systems of long ago. The compendium of excesses that have defined Yahya Jammeh's regime over the past decade and half are unequalled both in the depths of their gravity and the broadness of their reach.

By far Yahya Jammeh and his regime's greatest and inarguably most serious criminal offences against the Gambian people and the world are the litany of executions, murders and disappearances of citizens and non-citizens alike. Anecdotal evidence shows that the frequency and regularity, with which the murders, executions and disappearances occur, has greatly reduced, but it does not make the crimes any less grave and serious in nature. Between January and February of this year alone, two civilians deaths under police custody were reported, and a third, the high profile murder of my nephew Sgt. Illo Jallow, former chief body-guard of Mrs. Zaineb Suma Jammeh, left Gambians bewildered and demanding answers. But as usual, Yahya Jammeh has remained mute and appear unburdened by his criminal responsibility for these extremely serious crimes against our people. To-date, over hundred known deaths by execution and murders at the hands of agents of the regime have been recorded and still sixteen more forced disappearances at the hands of the feared, but now moribund National Intelligence Agency remain unaccounted for, most since 2005.

These deaths and disappearances figure as serious moral and criminal aberrations as they are, represent only a part of Yahya Jammeh's overall record of atrocious abusive behavior and denigration of Gambian society. As of now, The Gambia's descent into chaos in governance and the disintegration of its social and political fabric have combined to put the country on edge, as thousands of its citizens who have fled the country and a million more who remain powerless and captive to the Yahya Jammeh regime, call for a popular uprising in their demand for a change of government. The reasons, motivations and the need for regime change in The Gambia are many and varied, yet they all stand on a strong and credible foundation based not on political hyperbole, but on objective fact and lived reality. Before the advent of the proliferation of Gambia's vocal overseas on-line media, the atrocious executions, murders and disappearances were blatant and frequent, but that has since changed, as the vigilant media has to a significant degree forced the regime to alter its habits of criminal behavior, if only in a modest, but impactful way.

Notwithstanding these significant developments, crimes against our people has remained a constant feature in our country, instigating a widespread hatred of Yahya Jammeh and his cabal of criminal rapists, drug dealers, violent robbers and businesses extortionists. These off-the-wall evidences of corruption and citizen intimidation are bad enough, but if you ask me, they pale in comparison to endemic and institutionalized government corruption, which has now risen to the level of a crisis. The calamitous social and economic imbalances that have developed over the past decade and half have left a lasting, if not a traumatizing imprint on the Gambian mind. In his effort to build a wall of intrigue and mysticism around him, Yahya Jammeh instead succeeded only reducing himself to a buffoon and a phenomenon of senselessness and stupidity as evidenced by the bizarre witch-hunting exercise around the country two years ago.

To date the statistics surrounding those incidences of random terrorism directly primarily against the elderly and the weak, remain unknown, but a rough estimate has put the deaths to a dozen elderly men and women, excluding three dozen more who were hospitalized for prolonged periods of time and whose health status is unknown at this point in time. But if these examples of tyranny and moral bankruptcy are not enough, the general narrative of the country's welfare point to a doom and gloom scenario. Unemployment of the population, especially, the youth is as high as seventy percent, and this is a growing trend particular due to the thirty percent decline in tourist arrivals, which began a decade ago and is not projected to get better anytime soon. But even that is only a part of the story of how Yahya Jammeh with the willing collaboration of some elements of the military and security forces, has instilled paralyzing fear and hopelessness across our country, and this is evidenced by how some tribes and other selfish elements in the military and security forces are willing to play along with Yahya Jammeh's subjugation of our people and the denial of opportunities to select tribes Jammeh has categorized as enemy and marginalized.

One only has to look at the people of influence in every agency, department and ministry of the government; starting with the military to the smallest government agency, in order to determine that that level of unfairness is untenable and unsupportable in the long run. In government agencies and institutions where the heads does not derive by Yahya Jammeh's preferred tribes, an immediate assistants or a junior employee in Yahya Jammeh's chosen tribes, who are planted agents reporting directly to Yahya Jammeh, are mandated by Yahya Jammeh to exercise power and control over every government institution in the country. But tribalism too is only a part of the story of how Yahya Jammeh has run the affairs of the country into a ditch. In the business sector, Yahya Jammeh's involvement in every manner of business endeavour; example import and export, to bakery, food distribution, construction, transportation, entertainment, sand mining, agriculture, meat processing, supply and distribution of general goods, and port handling among many other business enterprise ventures.

Yahya Jammeh's participation in the business sector is illegal and undermines the entrepreneurial spirit in the country largely due to the disadvantage other businesses are put into. For one thing, Yahya Jammeh's and his chosen few do not pay the customs and excise, labor and import taxes, which other businesses are subject to, consequently, other businesses cannot compete in the marketplace with goods imported by Yahya Jammeh and his cabal of corrupt tax cheats, who can afford to undercut the going market price of good and commodities. In other areas, one of the most intriguing aspects of Yahya Jammeh's reign is the question of where gets the billions of dalasis he uses to buy loyalty, bribe and give away to people and groups who do not deserve to have it. Recently, Yahya Jammeh put aside more than two million dalasis as prizes for Quran recital competition.

This is not only discriminatory in a multi-religion society, but it is unbecoming for a government in a secular state to sponsor religious activities of any nature. The separation of religion and politics must be absolute and unambiguous. The government's primary responsibility is to the physical and mental wellbeing of its citizens; not their spiritual sanctity, consequently funding of any religious activity of any nature falls behind the parameters of what is naturally acceptable. But one of the most disturbing aspects of Yahya Jammeh's rule is quality of public servants, whose competence and qualifications are called into question. Yahya Jammeh's war on the educated class has significantly reduced the quality of government performance and rendered our civil service to a mere skeleton of its former self.

If anyone knows anything about management and administration, it is that there is a huge financial, logistics and competency cost involved in the frequent hiring and firing of civil servants regardless of their hierarchy levels in the bureaucracy. To look at this in just one angle, the implications of hiring and firing means that no one stays in any particular job long enough to acquire a grip based on knowledge developed on the job. In other words, no one remains employed in any particular position long enough to develop competency and professional expertise in their field of work. There is a calculable drain on our meager resources which is more than just a financial component, but includes other indexes that measures national security as well as the quality of life of our people. For now, suffices it to say that we have a completely dysfunctional and collapsed government bureaucracy, which will take a lot of work to rebuild into a fully functioning and efficient state apparatus serving the needs of our people. The challenges that lie ahead post Yahya Jammeh are daunting, but they are surmountable. We have capability and the capacity to successfully give our people the government they really deserve after nearly half a century of unbridled corruption, nepotism, tribalism and political patronage. The youth of our country and our future generations deserve nothing less. But as long as Yahya Jammeh remains in total control of every aspect of our lives, The Gambia will continue its downward spiral and divisive descent into political anarchy and bureaucratic chaos. And that is our worst case scenario. The obligation to save our country of this eventuality means that a popular uprising a-la Libya, Tunisia and Egypt is not only necessary, but perhaps even inevitable. 

Proverb: The absence of war does not mean the existence of peace.

Gambia News:“Freedom Of Expression, Assembly Sacrosanct”

“Gambians have an inalienable right to freedom of expression and assembly,” said Lawyer Assan Martin.
The human rights lawyer said the Constitution of this country which is the supreme law of the land, guarantees these freedoms.
He indicated that a good chunk of our constitution deals with liberties and freedoms.
Barrister Martin made these remarks recently when he was questioned whether Gambians have a right to peaceful demonstration and procession or not.
He added that the rights in question are sacred, but said it is a question of whether the relevant institutions such as the police and courts are ready to follow what the Constitution says.
Martin said there can be no good governance without adhering to the provisions of the Constitution.
“No nation will progress if constitutional rights and values are not respected and observed,” he emphasized.
He described freedom of expression and assembly as vital, saying citizens can find solutions to problems if these freedoms are allowed to flourish.
“Solutions can only be found to citizens’ problems if we allow freedoms within our society,” the human rights lawyer observed.
Martin added that basic freedoms such as right to expression and assembly form the basis of any genuine democracy.


Source:foroyaa.gm

Gambia News: The Ferry Terminal &The Two Ferries:GPA Should Act Urgently

The Gambia Ports Authority should act urgently to safe lives and time. It has been a while now since people began raising concern about the faulty ramp of the ferry terminal and the bad condition of the ferries at the Banjul-Barra ferry crossing point. 
If trucks are used to bring down the terminal ramp for the ferries to be able to anchor and out of the three ferries – Barra, Johe and Kanilai; only one – Kanilai is working, then the problem is now grave. The number of people and goods that are transported by ferries daily through the terminal should be able to maintain the terminal in good shape and keep the ferries plying as normal. 
The Deputy Director of Gambia Ports Authority has said that nature is nature, and went to the extend of making reference to the earthquake in Japan. 
Is the problem of the ferry terminal a natural disaster? 
The problem with the two ferries and the ramp cannot be described as a natural disaster. The GPA authorities should take good care of the ferries by making sure that all the ferries are in good condition to transport people and goods. 
The ferry service is not only an income generating avenue but can also safe lives of people who may resort to taking risk by going boarding small canoes to cross with heavy luggage without life jackets for safety. 
Knowing that there is no bridge between Barra and Banjul, it is only through the ferry that students, business people, transporters and so on can move between Banjul and Barra.
The GPA should consider the risk involve in allowing desperate travelers to board the small canoes without life jackets, especially those who cannot swim including old people, physically disabled and children. 

The ferry has given comfort to many travelers between Banjul and Barra. Thank God the spare parts for the ferries are already imported, the engineers and technicians should not waste any time to bring the ferries back on the seas. 
Business people, students and civil servants coming from Barra, other parts of the north bank to Banjul or vice versa cannot wait for a ferry for more than an hour when they should report to their various destinations on time. And using trucks to bring down the ramp is abnormal, hence there is need  to work on it. Refuting of public complaints will solve not any problem. The solution is to act responsibly and urgently. The ferries are at the service of the public, then they have a right to complain and they deserve to listened to so as to know their feelings and address their problems for the common good.


Source:Dailynews.gm

Indict Muammar Gaddafi now for War Crimes in Sierra Leone

Aroun Rashid Deen – With international pressure already mounting on Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and with the International Criminal Court now in the process of gathering information on civilian deaths in Libya, the Special Court for Sierra Leone and the International Criminal Court have a profound opportunity to indict Gaddafi for war crimes and crimes against humanity he has committed in Sierra Leone. The United Nations has already sanctioned Gaddafi’s government, and now it’s time his prior crimes in West Africa are brought to justice, too.

Muammar Gaddafi was the mastermind and key financier of the brutal war that left hundreds of thousands dead in Sierra Leone in West Africa in the 1990s. The war would not have happened in the first place had it not been for the desire of the Libyan leader to punish the government of Sierra Leone for what he regarded as its siding with the West in the 1980’s when Gaddafi was at loggerhead with particularly the United States and Britain. It was also part of Gaddafi’s broader agenda including his geopolitical ambition to destabilize much of West Africa and establish satellite states in the region to be headed by puppet regimes that will be doing his biddings.The decade-long war ripped Sierra Leone apart. Thousands of its victims, whose arms and limbs were chopped off by rebels,were reduced to paupers, roaming the streets as beggars in Freetown and other cities. Children as young as a day old were also among those whose arms and limbs were hacked off by Gaddafi’s rebels. Pregnant women, too, were disemboweled with delight in their display of ghastlybrutality.

As part of his criminal plans to set West Africa on the warpath, Gaddafi instituted a program of guerilla warfare in Libya for a group of disgruntled West Africans, including a group of Sierra Leoneans he had invited to Tripoli to undergo training. The men who led the war on Sierra Leone — former Liberian leader and warlord, Charles Taylor and Sierra Leone’s rebel leader, Foday Sankoh, and The Gambian Fugitive, Kukoi Samba Sanyang– were among those who trained in Libya.

The ring leaders of the Revolutionary United Front rebel group, which was fighting to overthrow the government of Sierra Leone, also received massive financial support from Libya through Gaddafi’s People’s Revolutionary Council.

Long before the government of Sierra Leone and the United Nations jointly set up the Special Court for Sierra Leone to prosecute key suspects of the war for war crimes and crimes against humanity, calls have been made for Gaddafi to face international justice for his role in Sierra Leone — like Charles Taylor now in The Hague. An opposition leader in Sierra Leone, Charles Margai, who was one of the strong advocates for Gaddafi’s indictment, was incensed when Gaddafi visited the country in 2007. In a BBC interview, he called on Sierra Leoneans to boycott the reception that was hosted for him at the national stadium.

David Crane, the first Chief Prosecutor at the Special Court,considered indicting the Libyan dictator. The former prosecutor, who now teaches law at Syracuse University, says that the direct participation of the Libyan leader in the wars in both Sierra Leone and Liberia caused the “murder, rape, maiming, and mutilation of over a million human beings…” But calls for justice were not heeded because it appears principle Western nations developed a fondness for Mr. Gaddafi following his so-called positive gestures, such as his abandoning of WMD programs.

In January 2004, former French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin was quick to express hope that French firms would participate fully in business activities in Libya. This followed Libya’s signing of a deal to pay $170 million to relatives of French victims of a UTA French airliner bombing in 1989, which was blamed on Libya.Current French President Nicolas Sarkozy also went to Tripoli in July 2007.

The greatest irony of it all is that Sierra Leone and Liberia never got compensations from Libya for the untold suffering, infrastructural damage and needless loss of lives even though evidence suggests that he was the master-mind of the carnage.

Then British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, met Gaddafi in Tripoli in 2004. The meeting was christened with the signing of a deal by oil giant, Shell, estimated at hundreds of millions of British pound sterling for gas exploration rights off the Libyan coast.

In August 2008, Italy’s Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi visited Libya and signed a $5 billion dollars investment deal with Gaddafi. Condoleezza Rice, the former US Secretary of State has also been to Libya where she met with the controversial Gaddafi.

The Libyan leader’s promise to, at the least, pay compensations to relatives of his brutal crimes as well as his giving up of his WMDs were welcome news in a world — particularly in Europe — that confronts many terrorists activities. Oil supplies from Libya mean much to the West. But appeasing the West should not stand in the way for justice for Sierra Leone, just so because it is not an affluent country endowed with oil deposits.

Up till now, Gaddafi’s relations with the West were getting cozier by the day. His brutal treatment of peaceful protesters — who seek nothing more than just a political change that guarantees freedom and better living standards — shows clearly that Gaddafi is too grown to learn new tricks. He is fundamental in his choice to resorting to brutality as a means of addressing challenges.

Muammar Gaddafi bears the greatest responsibility for the brutality in Sierra Leone. The Sierra Leone Truth and Reconciliation Commission set up at the end of the war found out that Libya contributed in a significant way to the chaos and mayhem that engulfed the country. Mr. Gaddafi’s role in the training in Libya and financing of the rebels justify his direct involvement in the mayhem. Such key roles deserve more than mere naming and shaming.

The desire for a share of Libyan oil or business prospect should not rub leading international policy makers of their moral responsibility to let Mr. Gaddafi account for his brutal misdeeds.

Gaddafi’s hatred for Sierra Leone goes back to the early 1980’s when then President of Sierra Leone, Siaka Stevens, in November 1982,  boycotted an Organization of African Unity conference Libya was scheduled to host. The 1982 conference lacked a quorum due to the absence of many heads of state as a result of controversies surrounding Gaddafi’s role in the rebellions that were going on in Africa at the time. Gaddafi must not go unpunished. What was good for the British and French must be good for Sierra Leoneans too.

Source:aloftnews.com

Gambia News:Why the Arrests and Detentions for Exercising Political Rights?

The alleged arrest and detention of the parents of the leader of the Gambia Moral Congress (GMC) Mai Fatty by the Basse police in Upper River Region (URR) on 7 March 2011 is injurious to our democratic dispensation ahead of the 2011 polls for presidency in The Gambia.

Arbitrary arrests, detentions, disappearances and intimidations of opposition party supporters must no longer be condoned.

The arrest of the GMC leader’s father, two of his father’s younger brothers and his uncle is said to have proceeded by a town hall meeting of GMC militants in Wuli West.

The alleged arrest and detention of the four senior family members of Fatty including his father is said to be in connection with GMC poster and GMC flag at the family compound. Putting up flags and posters must not warrant arrest.  

The best way to avoid a laming political environment is to avoid violating the political rights of the people.

The pre-election period of 2011 is a significant determinant to be used to gauge the type of leadership and the ground texture of the nation’s political field.

The constitution of The Gambia has guaranteed the right to belong to, and form a political party. As we are yet to make an official confirmation, we prefer to reserve the rest of our condemnation for the meantime.

Source:dailynews.gm

Gambia News:Yet Another Questionable National Awards List

By D.A. Jawo

Once again, Gambians have woken up to another long list of people being given national awards, many of whom no doubt have quite questionable criteria for being given such awards.
However, one quite interesting aspect for this year’s award was the fact that the first list of 254 awardees, as published in the Daily Observer of 7 March, was altered the following day, with some of the names being either removed or replaced with others.
This indeed is yet another clear manifestation of the amateurish system of governance being practised in this country, otherwise, it is hard to understand how a serious government can do such a thing.
We expect those in charge of such important national awards to do their homework and carefully choose those who deserve to be given such awards before coming up with a credible list that truly reflects the reality.
However, publishing one list one day and then changing that list the following day is an indication of lack of coherence and seriousness.
Another obvious phenomenon of the awards list is the fact that almost everyone is either a well known supporter of the ruling APRC or someone with some business or other social links with the APRC leadership. It is a fact that anyone clearly identified with the opposition would hardly make it to the list, and even if they do by default, they are most likely to be either dropped on the way.
A good case in point was the inclusion of Sidia Jatta, the NADD National Assembly member for Wuli West whose name appeared on the first list but surreptitiously disappeared from the final list issued the following day.
While all those Gambians on the list deserve being recognized and honoured for their contribution to the development of this country, but there are no doubt other Gambians who have contributed far much more to national development but who will never get into that list because of the fact that their political or philosophical inclinations may not be compatible with those of the regime.
Therefore, from the look of things, one could safely conclude that getting on to the awards’ list depends more on one’s political leanings or relationship with those in power than on his or her contribution to national development.
What is also quite clear is the fact that as a result of such obvious over-politicization, the national awards have virtually lost whatever weight and significance that they ever had. It can now be quite easy to predict with a high degree of accuracy who would get into the list and who would never get into it every year.
Source:dailynews.gm

The Gambia: Yahya Jammeh must Go; Part 2

By Mathew K Jallow
It is inarguably the most traumatizing day of our history. In one brief moment when time still seem to stand still; sixteen young lives were senselessly cut short by the act of a deranged murderer. It was a day that has remained burnt into our consciousness, a day that The Gambia lost its innocence. April 11, 2000 has come to be known as the day of rage, whose aftermath has left Gambians deeply scared by the madness and the brutality with which such young and innocent lives were massacred. Today, the young blood they spilt on the streets of Kanifing has become the sacrifice they gave for the cause of freeing our beloved motherland from the grip of Yahya Jammeh’s tyranny. After sixteen long years, and three terms as a brutal and incompetent murderer, Gambians deserve a change of regime, so we can once again join the civilized world of nations. This year, the world of politics was stunned by the cascade of near simultaneous revolts across North Africa and the Middle-East; revolts that sought to topple decades of absolute dictatorships, and the successes of the people fighting for liberty and justice, is almost miraculous. As we watch progress across the Maghreb and the Middle-East, we are obliged to ask how long more must we acquiesce to the barbarity of Yahya Jammeh and his looting of our national resources. We are empowered to find solutions to the cancer that is scavenging our country and we have an obligation to do so.  No one will deny that we have been afraid for far too long and the time to be unafraid in now. The need to emulate our neighbors to the north cannot be overemphasized; but more importantly, we owe those children massacred by Yahya Jammeh, their families and our country the responsibility to bring a closure to their sad demise. This year March 26th 2011 will take on an importance as the day Gambians demand the reversal of sixteen years of arbitrary on-man rule; and a day on which the public demand their right to drive freely on the streets of our towns and cities in renegation of Yahya Jammeh’s order banning driving between 9.a.m. to 1.p.m. This order is unconstitutional and constitutes an infringement on our constitutional rights. As a result, Gambians particularly at home are urged to exercise their rights to drive during set-setal hours as a matter of civil right of every Gambian. For life does not have to stop because the streets are invaded by participants coerced into participating in the set-setal in order impress Yahya Jammeh and his cabal for the retention of their jobs. All across the globe Gambians are expressing solidarity with our countrymen and women who just demand their civil rights to drive for pleasure or to attend to personal business. A flier is being provided below for downloading, which is a proclamation of negation of Yahya Jammeh’s driving ban on the last Saturday of each month. Gambian groups across the world, who cannot be present on the ground, will issue statements of supports to our compatriots back home. We urge lawyers, journalists, politicians, doctors, civil servants and business men and women to lead this civil disobedience exercise in order to restore Gambian’s right to drive during set-setal hours 9 a.m to 1 p.m the last Saturday of each month. Below is a downloadable flier which is downloadable for distribution across the country by our friends and supporters at the military and by the youth. In addition, for the first time this year, Gambians across the globe will commemorate the April 11 2000 student massacre in memory of all the young lives lost to the insanity of a megalomaniac.

Balangbaa, March 26^th 2011

Protecting our Rights to Drive

The 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. driving ban on

the last Saturday of each month is unconstitutional and tramples upon our civil rights.

The street cleaning (set-setal) exercise on that day must be voluntary; not coercive.

We, therefore, demand our rights to drive during (set-setal) cleaning hours 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Life does not stop because of the street cleaning (set-setal) exercise. We demand our driving rights.

Gambia Campaign for Civil Disobedience

March 2011

Opposition GMC leader's parents arrested by Gambia police

PRESS BELEASE: GMC CONDEMNS THE ARFEST OF THE PARENTS OF LAWYER FATTY

Today the 7th of March 2011, Basse Police URR arrested the parents of the GMC Leader Hon. Mai Ahmad Fatty on superior orders, and currently placed them on indefinite detention, contrary to law. GMC Leader himself personally contacted Basse Police Station to ascertain the reasons for his parent's arrests, and was informed that it was in connection with GMC poster and GMC flag at the family compound which higher authorities ordered to be removed and the family refused to comply. The parents arrested and detained at Basse Police Station are:

1. L Saja Fatty - Father to GMC Leader
2. Bunka Jarumeh Fatty - younger brother to GMC Leader's father
3. Kebbanding Fatty - younger brother to GMC Leader's Father
4. Karamo Kijera - uncle to GMC Leader's father

According to Police sources, the parents of GMC Leader were arrested on the direct order of President Jammeh to spread fear among the teeming supporters of GMC in the Region. This was preceded by a Town Hall meeting of GMC militants in Wuli West at which many staunch APRC supporters appeared in strong numbers and declared allegiance to GMC. The Town Hall meeting of Wednesday the 2nd March 2011 sent shocked waves among top APRC echelon as harbinger of things
to come in a free and fair elections. GMC strongly condemns the unlawful arrest and continuing detention of the above-named persons whose only crime is being the parents of Lawyer Fatty. GMC holds Yaya Jammeh personally responsible for the wellbeing of Lawyer Fatty's parents and demands their immediate and unconditional release.

Wandifa retefulSadneh

GMC Press Relations
7th March 2011

Gambia:12 GAMBIANS WHISKED AWAY TO UNKNOWN LOCATIONS Say Gambians Trapped In Tripoli

Gambians trapped in Tripoli, Libya, continue to call the Foroyaa office to explain their plight in the war torn North African country.
A caller who identified himself as Ebrima Barrow said they are really desperate and suffering. Mr. Barrow said on Wednesday 1st March 2011, they were told to join a ship that was said to be docked at Benghazi. He said when they attempted to move out, a group of Libyans attacked them and whisked away 12 of their group members who are all Gambians.

When asked how many people are in their group, Mr. Barrow said: “We are 200 and all of us are Gambians”. Asked where the 12 people were taken to, he said they have no knowledge of their whereabouts.
Mr. Bubacarr Fatty, said he is from Latri-Kunda and emphasized that they have tried the telephone number of the Gambian foreign Minister but they never succeeded. They urged Foroyaa to inform the authorities about their plight. They were told that the authorities are aware of their plight but we will emphasize their situation to them.
“If we do not get help quickly, we Gambians would all die in Libya because there is a lot of insecurity for foreigners here and we cannot even go out of Tripoli,” said Mr. Bubacarr Fatty.


Editor´s Note
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs should issue a statement on what is being done to evacuate Gambians from Libya. It is urgent for family members to know what is being done.


Source:foroyaa.gm

Gambia: Monarchical Talk in Democratic Institutions

Rather than drawing lessons from deadly protests for democratic reforms that grip the world today, traditional chiefs have now reached out to democratic institutions like Kanifing Municipal Council and Banjul City Council and the National Assembly in an unconstitutional campaign.

The monarchical effort of the traditional chiefs to crown President Jammeh as King of The Gambia is no longer a concealed matter now. But what should be clear to the campaigners is that going round the country campaigning for kingship of a president voted in office by the electorate is an affront to our constitution, the 1997 Constitution of the Gambia.
Anybody who thinks that elections are chaotic should try to go against people’s will. We all know that there has never been an election in Libya since 1969 and Ghadafi is not more comfortable than any leader today.
The Secretary General and head of the civil service Dr. Njogu L. Bah, in reading the statement on Gambia’s position on Libya amid the unrest, said among other things that the Libyan leader wanted to be King of Africa. The chiefs of the same government who are against the alleged motive of the Libyan leader are campaigning for kingship of The Gambian leader.
Traditional leaders should avoid being used as stooges. This has proven that if people have the power to elect and remove chiefs, they may not be saying what they are saying in broad day light.
We know that despite the numerical strength of the ruling APRC in the assembly, if deputies are to openly debate about Jammeh’s kingship it will be heated. Suffice it to say that it will require 75 percent approval in a referendum. We should not sell our expensive democracy at a monarchical price.
The Paramount chief and the Secretary General of the chiefs’ council should know that their campaigning for a monarchy is an effort to undermine the democratization of The Gambia. And history is there to judge them for their selfish actions.
It is worth frightening for chiefs who are on such a misleading campaign to face the speaker of the National Assembly, who is leading the supreme lawmaking body of the nation, to talk about nothing but a monarchical form of government.
The claim that elections are chaotic is grossly misleading. The world had been moving from one order to another order. The new world order is what brought about the need for democracy. Democracy is not alien to Africa. Before the coming of some ruthless kings, Africans were living in peace and harmony. Researchers in history, especially in Egyptology agreed that Africa is the cradle of civilization. Some of the values that correlate with principles of human rights are inherent in our cultures.
Contrary to the claim of the kingship campaigners, there have been some empires and kingdoms, which could not pass the test of time, due to wars of conquests. The order of those days were conquering of kingdoms to expand one’s territories through wars.
Those who also read African history may come across the story of Askia Muhammed, who earned his first name Askia meaning usurper, because he usurped power from another king.
Of course there are many positive things that we can praise Africa’s past for but the justification of kingship, describing election as the source of chaos is mere romanticizing of history, which is distorting.
If we also look at the Kingdom of Kabu and the battle of Kansala referred to as “Turubang Kansala,” which was genocidal in nature, was not caused by elections.
All these wars, conquests, and usurping of power are not cause by any single elections. If elections are the problems, the problems in Kabu Kansala and Songhai and so on would not have occurred.
Reading history is not an end in itself, but using history as hindsight to have foresight is the challenge. Campaigning for Jammeh to become king in this country is intellectual dishonesty.
We are appealing to the chiefs and all those who have not yet shown their real faces in their infamous campaign to be honest to Gambians and tell them what the Gambian constitution says about election and the significance of elections as the progressive way forward.

The Power of Alkalos Over VDCs

In the face of alleged embezzlement of thousands of US dollars by the former Village Development Committee (VDC) which led to the appointment of an interim VDC who were refused recognition the village alkalo and branding them as opposition elements are discriminated.
The trend taken by some of traditional leaders who never hesitate to tell the people that we should go back to our traditional leadership like kingship could not even show us a single sign in their actions that their mode traditional leadership would work to breed freedom and peace each day in this country. Refusing to bless a VDC for having opposition elements is political biasness.
The power of alkalos did not include cleansing VDCs of opposition elements or members. There must be attitudinal change among our traditional leaders, who always come with unjustifiable moves in the name of belonging to the ruling party. No nation or society can prosper by suppressing the so-called minority by the majority ruling. The local government authorities should act so that society can be levelled. They should avoid exposing Gambians to learning from bad and undesirable experiences. Gambians who made The Gambia should be respected and treated fairly without a political string. The Gambia has no treasury, ministry, region, district, town, village or even a street owned by a particular political party in this country. Thus any attempt to make it so would be unlawful.

Source:dailynews.gm

Clock Ticks for Africa's Sit Tight Dictators

By Cudjoe Kpor, economic analyst at Independent Newspapers Limited, reflects on the wind of change blowing across the continent...

A new, disorderly decapitation of government has hit the continent's corrupt, tinpot dictators. It is not a military coup by the armed forces: the jackbook dictators terrorise the entire population, especially when they are messing up, worse in governance than the incompetent civilians they toppled. Nor is it the spontaneous uprising of civilians who resort to guerilla warfare against the government. It is not the passive, collective resistance through civil disobedience for addressing specific grievances either.

The name of this wave of forceful overthrow of the corrupt tyrants and their henchmen is colour revolution: so far, Jasmine for Tunisia and Black for Egypt - and counting. Perhaps Green for Libya is next, though the sanguinary repression of the unarmed civilians by the desperate Muammar Ghaddafi regime's security forces makes political pundits see its imminent fall albeit more tardy. A bad government's bloodthirsty violence against civilian protestors only hardens them when they begin to count their dead, who number at least 200 so far nationwide: but yes, the Ghaddafi regime is history.

And the warning bell is not tolling for only the home-grown dictators: some of the Western nations' favourite despots are also being swept off. No tyrant appears safe in the cocoon of his luxury presidential palace till the protestors' motion stops - or never started at all - on good governance. No empty platitudes acceptable either. And the hurricane sweeping them off? It is the mass of humanity, peaceful civilian protestors, using the new media, Internet chatrooms and social sites on the cyber-highway to organise the protests.

The domino theory's prediction has begun. The continent's corrupt despots have begun tumbling from power. As said, the power is not oozing from the turrets of tanks and barrels of AK47 assault rifles. These are wielded by usually disgruntled soldiers. But their often brutal dictatorships are worse than the illiterate civilians they threw out. Needless to say, it is finally obvious: as the old saw says, the most terrible civilian government is absolutely better than the most benign military dictatorship!

More importantly, the disorderly usurpers of power from the tyrants are their dissatisfied compatriots who stage peaceful revolts starting as street protests over mundane frustrations like unemployment, escalating food prices and corruption in high places. At the point of their fall, not even the most tight security networks which they once used to suppress the population, committed all the heinous atrocities against their populace, are of any help to the tyrants.

That is the irony of it: the tyrants used the security forces to abuse the rights of their compatriots flagrantly. The excesses provoke their regime's ouster. But at the point of their fall, the security network turns around, in cunning betrayal, to mastermind toppling the "wicked regime" they once propped up to subjugate their populace in bondage. It makes no difference if the bondage is the bird-cage freedom.

Hosni Mubarak, whom his Egyptian praise-singers called "pharaoh", is gone! So did Ben Ali in Tunisia. And the barbarity with which Ghadafi unleashed his ruthless security dogs, a still loyal faction of the armed forces and revolutionary militias on the peaceful protestors in Libyan cities, has only aggravated the protests which snowballed into an increasingly outraged citizenry nationwide. Now, the angry Libyans abroad are pressurising foreign governments to help the peaceful protestors.

But a tall list of similar, tinpot dictators are on the African Union's (AU) list. All of them are now wondering whether the fall of the one-time "powerful" Ghaddafi, who spearheaded the drive for the transformation of OAU into AU, would spread to them, too. Meantime, AU is silent over the deplorable bloodbath in Libya, though its current chairman, Malawian President Bingu wa Mutharika, was a dictator-basher. Predictably, other dictators are chafing in their palaces, hoping or believing, that the hurricane could only blow away other heads of states: Sudan, Morocco, Gambia, Algeria, Cote d'Ivoire, Burkina Fasso, Gabon, Cameroun, etc are all tainted. Contrarily, the real transformers of the backward continent into modernity are too few to list.

For now, all these dictators are "trapped" in the opulence of their presidential palaces, hemmed in by the power, prestige and glamour of their offices. Their myrmidons and praise-singers butter their egos to make them believe they are gods on earth. Their security network, in its ignorance or bootlicking, or both, makes them believe that anyone who reminded them, or better still, taught them, that the sole goal of governance is assuring the welfare and happiness of the significant majority of the population at all times, or all the population some of the times, is public enemy number one. The ignoramuses in the security networks thus arrest, detain, torture, harass and jail these so-called enemies, especially if they recommend uncharted paths to advancing their economies which confuse their no-better-informed tinpot dictators in the state houses.

These security networks, which every country sets up as state insurance policy, are usually lawless, wasteful and know nothing about accountability. In the hands of dictators, they turn into a law unto themselves: they commit murders, maimings and tortures with glee, boasting into the bargain that "nothing will happen." In the advanced countries, only First Class university graduates are recruited into security networks, except the illiterates, brawns and retired agents retained to do the menial chores. That way, even if they cannot trick or fool their foreign enemies, which is their common currency, at least they themselves cannot be fooled by the enemies. Not so, on the continent: the dropouts predominate, plus the unenlightened ones a psychologist called mesomorphs of obviously limited intelligence: in Lagos parlance, the animals. No wonder they are the easily fooled like zombis.

Worse still, the same Western nations, particularly Britain and USA, supply them tonnes of foolish, harassing gases with which they torture their citizens with the reckless abandon of primitive illiterates who mistake the gases for babies' toys. Now, the British and Americans have taken their treachery one step up: they corrupted some of the ignorant zombis in the networks to implant a fake, manipulative, mind-bug hi-tech in the brains of their own ignorant tribesmen and women to turn the latter into perpetual daydreamers once the complementary foolish gases are sprayed around. Predictably, the continent will witness pockets of inter-tribal wars which the combatants on both sides of the conflict have no clue what caused them - except their daydreams....

The continent is terribly unfortunate: Preposterously, dictators who hit the skids in the bad governance and economic mismanagement lane perpetuate the vicious circle of recruiting more wasteful security agents - rather than cut down on their numbers to channel recurrent expenditure funds into regenerating their economies to attenuate the citizens' anger. Not surprisingly, Mubarak's Egypt recruited one million security agents to police its 80 million population.

When the end comes, the same security network, in their avowed quest for state stability, would turn around to betray the dictator without qualms. In Egypt, Vice President Omar Suleiman read only two sentences to oust Mubarak in classic security betrayal - and melted back into the shadows.

Suleiman, at the head of the Directorate General of Intelligence, was the single most powerful man in the country. Worse still, he was also the notoriously ugly face of the regime. Too many of the egregious atrocities perpetrated by the Mubarak regime, some of which brought the peaceful mob into Tahrir Square in Cairo, were committed against their own people by the soiled hands of Suleiman. Of course, the Western nations looked away when the heinous human rights abuses - detention without trials, torture, death and disappearances, frame-ups and trumped-up charges - were committed, hailing the regime as the Mubarak strongman, a stable bulwark against terrorism.

When Mubarak's opponents were silenced, Suleiman exported his bestiality, specifically, to the American Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). When the hairbrained former US president George Bush launched his discredited extraordinary rendition bestiality on the world, Suleiman opened Egypt's detention cells for Bush. Egypt became notorious for its black sites or interrogation and torture centres for both Egyptians and other Middle East victims of the extraordinary rendition, no doubt including the callous waterboarding.

Source:allafrica.com

Gambia: April 10-11, 2000, Student Massacre.

It has been almost 11 years since the april 10-11 2000 student massacre in the Gambia but events on those two days are still fresh in the minds of most Gambians. It is undoubtedly one of the saddest days in Gambian history.The Gambian security forces fired live ammunition on student protesters resulting in the death of 14 students and a journalist and also injuring dozens more.

President Jammeh was accused of ordering the shooting of the students, but the government denied the allegations. A government commission of inquiry reportedly concluded that the Police Intervention Unit (PIU) officers were "largely responsible" for many of the deaths and other injuries. The inquiry also revealed that five soldiers of the 2nd Infantry Battalion were responsible for the deaths of two students at Brikamaba. The government stated that the report implicated several PIU officers in the students' deaths and injuries, yet those responsible have never been brought to book.Also to this day the Families of the victims have never been compensated by the Government.Even a rememberance day is forbidden.

The following is an extract from a paper written by Alieu Darboe

On April 10-11, 2000 GAMSU organized a large scale protest that threatened the Jammeh administration. The students demonstrated on April 10, 2000 to protest the alleged beating to death of Ebrima Barry at the hand of fire service officers in Brikama, Western Region. Barry was a secondary school student, whose teacher had told the fire service officers to intervene in disciplining him. Ebrima was reportedly beaten, tortured and later died. Apart from the outrageousness of the fact that fire service officers were asked to discipline a student, the government failed to properly investigate the matter. The GAMSU student leadership made demands and an autopsy report (which was widely believed to be a cover up) stated that Ebrima died of natural causes. A spontaneous student protest ensued at the Gambia College, where a Gambia Students' Union (GAMSU) sub-union existed.

While that was being discussed, a thirteen-year old school girl was allegedly raped by a uniformed paramilitary (intervention police) officer at the Independence Stadium, where an annual inter-schools sports competition was taking place. A doctor‘s examination confirmed the girl was raped and again, GAMSU pressed for answers. After a long delay to bring the paramilitary officers who were on duty at the stadium for the victim to identify her assailant,GAMSU requested a police permit to hold a public protest. This request was denied. Realizing it was their constitutional right to protest, the student leadership called its members to peacefully march toward the capital city of Banjul. They were viciously crushed by a mixture of police and military officers. Sixteen people died, including a Red Cross volunteer/radio journalist and a three-year old child (who was killed by what was reported to be a stray bullet). Fourteen students were killed and several others were injured. GAMSU, which at the time had branches all over the country, did not back down.Upon viewing the violent response of government to the protest of their colleagues in the city, students in the country`s only boarding high school and several other rural towns launched their own protests on April 11; and like their colleagues, they were violently quashed and several hundreds of students were detained country wide.

Alieu Darboe, was the President of the University Students` Union in The Gambia from 1999-2001. He was also at one time the Secretary General of GAMSU and a member of the GAMSU leadership that led the April 10, 2000 student protests. He was also the deponent to the suit against the state that eventually freed all detained students.

Additional source:wikipedia 

The Gambia:Chiefs Unrelenting about Kingship - King Jammeh

Traditional chiefs are unrelenting in their campaign to crown president Jammeh as king, despite the widespread condemnation. 
Demba Sanyang, the paramount chief and Lamin Queen Jammeh, the chief of Upper Nuimi Wednesday held talks with the National Assembly on the issue of kingship. 
Speaking over the state television, Lamin Queen Jammeh hesitantly unveiled the main reason for their visit, saying they have discussed with the Speaker, Abdoulie Bojang on issues he described as  “concerning the governance of the country.”
Chief Jammeh insinuated that elections brought about chaotic situations. He said culture should be the crux of any sustainable development, noting that our culture should be the bedrock for our mode of governance. 
According to him, years of development in some countries have been destroyed within a day [because of elections]. 
Meanwhile, the campaign to transform The Gambia into a kingdom, which began last year has not only attracted widespread disapproval, but it is denting the image of the president and the ruling party.
For instance, some strong APRC supporters in Kiang and Sami who defected to the opposition-UDP based their reason for defection on the need to preserve the country’s democratic culture. 
However, even the deadly uprisings sweeping across Africa and Middle East for democratic governance reforms seem not to alarm the paramount chief and co about the need for even swifter democratic reforms.   


Source:dailynews.gm