By Mathew K. Jallow, Associate Editor

I appreciate all the reactions to my article, “Different Recollections of the Same Story,” but I wrote it with the full understanding that tribalism, like racism here in America, is a sensitive issue, which fires up people’s passions. One of the reasons the article was written is to educate our people about what transpired before many of them were born, or were perhaps too young to fully comprehend the political and social dynamics that surrounded them. Among the responses I expected, was outright denial that any of my allegations had ever occurred, but we have far too much

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Dear Editor:
Please allow me to express my disappointment with the way and manner your associate editor is using his position to 'fight a proxy war' with the mandinkas by using PPP-era government as his 'weapon.' I am a mandinka myself, but i had never voted for that party (either at presidential or parliamentary levels). I completed my 'A' levels from Nusrat High School, but you know what,it was not easy at all in securing myself a job; and going by Mr Jallow's , it was suppose to be boom time for people like myself.

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By Mathew K. Jallow, Associate Editor

It is absolutely normal for two individuals to have different accounts of the same events, and Omar Saidy-Khan’s rejection of some of my perceptions is one clear example. Mr. Saidy-Khan’s piece articulated an interesting, if not, consuming analysis of past events, and while we understand, or better still, interpret some events differently, we generally agree on the substance.

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President Jammeh’s Gov’t., A Disaster- OJ

 Tales of Torture & Intimidation

By Ebrima G. Sankareh, Editor-in-Chief

In an hour-long exclusive phone interview with veteran Gambian politician and human rights crusader Omar Amadou Jallow from his hotel lounge in Enugu State, Northern Nigeria, he described the Jammeh government as the dawn of cataclysmic gloom on Gambia’s democratic landscape. The Gambia deserves a better leader than Yahya Jammeh and certainly a better system of government than his heavy handed APRC regime with clutches of tyranny written all over its face.

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By Ebrima G. Sankareh, Editor in-Chief

Unassailable sources from the office of the President say that Yahya Bajinka, the younger brother to exiled Ex- State House Commander Major Khalipha Bajinka who narrowly escaped death in the hands of Jammeh’s killer marksmen on July 22, 2006, was arrested yesterday and is currently undergoing rigorous interrogations at Mile II Central Prisons (Africa’s Hell on Earth)

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Embassy of the United States of America
Banjul, The Gambia
April 20, 2007

Professor Abdoulaye Saine
Department of Political Science
Miami University
Oxford, OH 45056

Dear Professor Saine:

I refer to your faxed message on April 16--received here April 19---and wish to assure you that my Embassy colleagues and I recognize the gravity of Ms. Fatou Jaw Manneh's circumstances...

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By Omar Saidy-Khan, Louisville Kentucky, USA

The idea that Terri Kaffo was ever a Mandinka equivalent of the often named Banjul Mafia is so erroneous. I am compelled to remind my friend Mathew K. Jallow, who is about my age and of similar background. We  both attended Yundum College in the mid to late sixties.To tell the truth, I cannot tell of any influence that any group of provincials that you could refer to as engaged in a systematic Mandikanizing existed and the same was true of a conflict between them and theBanjul Mafia; it was non-existent.

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                     By Mathew K. Jallow, Associate Editor

Each day that passes brings us closer to the point of no return, and we know this, because this is a road well traveled. Many African countries have taken this route before, way back in the 1970s, with disastrous consequences. Yesterday, one country after another realized that no one can force himself or herself on a people in perpetuity, and today all those countries are giving democracy a chance to succeed.

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 To: His Excellency, Joseph D. Stafford, U.S. Ambassador, The Gambia

Subject: Growing Concern over Fatou Jaw Manneh’s “Trial” 

From: Professor Abdoulaye Saine 

Date: April 16, 2007 

Gambians in the Diaspora and at home are very concerned about Ms. Fatou Jaw Manneh’s so-called trial in The Gambia.  We are convinced that her trial is a farce, given Jammeh’s overwhelming control and manipulation of the judiciary to serve his political objectives.  We believe that Jaw Manneh’s trial is a sinister effort to use her as an example to blunt criticism of Jammeh himself

US Ambassador Joseph Stafford & Prof. Saine

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 By Mathew K. Jallow, Associate EditorFiat Justitia  

As the trial of Fatou Jaw-Manneh begins, it is necessary to remind every actor on the government side that their duty is to the law; to uphold it and to preserve it. Any effort to skirt it would result to a loss of confidence in our judicial system, which could take years if not decades to recover from. Both sitting Magistrate Buba Jawo and Chief prosecutor Emmanuel Fagbenle must at all times be guided by our written laws, not by government coercion or arbitrary or emotional sentiments. The law is deliberately clear and straight forward as written so as to avoid misinterpretation

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By Mathew K. Jallow

To begin with, it was hard to believe that Jammeh’s government would follow through in its threat to drag Fatou Jaw Manneh into court for such flimsy and ridiculous charges. The mere appearance of Fatou Jaw-Manneh in Kanifing Court before Magistrate Buba Jawo on Wednesday for charges as stated is an attempt by the government to trample on the civil rights of a Gambian citizen.

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By Mathew K. Jallow

One warm summer afternoon as I was standing on the second floor balcony of The Daily Observer building overlooking Sait Matty Road, Bakau, I was absorbing the beauty of the surrounding scenery and enjoying the cool, refreshing ocean breeze, as if without a care in the world. Standing there, I was lost in my own thoughts when suddenly something below caught my attention. A yellow

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By Ebrima G. Sankareh

As accurately reported last night, journalist Fatou Jaw Manneh appeared before the Kanifing Magistrates' Courts this afternoon charged with sedition etc. and was granted bail at a cost of Twenty Five Thousand Dalasis(D25,000). Her next hearing is slated for Wednesday April 11, 2007.  

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By Ebrima G. Sankareh, Editor-in-Chief

Detained US- based Gambian journalist and pro-democracy activist with the Atlanta headquartered Save The Gambia Democracy Project (STGDP) Ms. Fatou Jaw Manneh was hurriedly ferried to the Kanifing Magistrates' Courts late this afternoon after a barrage of international condemnations and petitions by human rights groups asking the Jammeh government to end Fatou’s illegal arrest and detention. She was led to the Kanifing Courts by a

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