COMMENTARY

Lt. Col. Sarr Raises Eyebrows Over Dead Ghanaians In The Gambia

Dear Editor,

I am once again tempted to take up a subject but with that weary feeling of a sailor sailing against the wind. It resembles my previous piece suggesting a “SABARRY” approach for the jailed journalists, which seemed to have fallen on the deaf ears of the lawyers.

Lt. Colonel Samsudeen Sarr (Rtd.)

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ANALYSIS

Epileptic Rawlings, a threat to Democracy

By Kofi Akosah-Sarpong**, Ottawa, Canada

Ever since President John Atta Mills came to power some eight months ago, the founder of his National Democratic Party (NDC), ex-President Jerry Rawlings, has been undermining him more than the main opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP). This has come about because of the level of democratic civility of the two parties. The NDC, an off short of military juntas and no-party regimes, is owned by the mercurial and emotionally unstable Rawlings, the NPP is a coalition of like-minded folks who believe democracy is the best vehicle for Ghana’s progress.

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RSF Lists Gambia Among Enemies of Press Freedom

Press release, 28 August 2009

INTERNATIONAL

The enemies of press freedom to blame for journalists who disappear Mexico and Sri Lanka are the countries worst-hit by these disappearances since 2000

As the world marks the 26^th International Day of the Disappeared on 30 August, Reporters Without Borders has provided a grim reminder that nothing has been heard, sometimes for years, of scores of journalists, who have been kidnapped, arrested or simply kept “appointments” that turned out to be traps.

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COMMENTARY

To Hell with Libya’s Muamuar Gaddafi

By Kofi Akosah-Sarpong, Ottawa, Canada

That Libya’s leader Muamua Gaddafi is hotheaded is unassailable. That Muamua Gaddafi isn’t in line with current African development thoughts is unarguable. And that Muamua Gaddafi doesn’t understand Africa against the backdrop of his fickle-mindedness is clear to anyone who has been following him for the past 39 years.

Libyan dictator/terrorist Gaddafi & Slave Master to Gambian tyrant Yahya Jammeh

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Father Joseph Gough Urges Gambians to maintain religious tolerance 

By Ebrima G. Sankareh, Editor-In-Chief

Atlanta, GA-- In an impressive Friday congregation before Atlanta’s Imam Ibrahima Bai Secka, The Gambia’s Honorary citizen and Ambassador-at large, Father Joseph A. Gough, urged Gambians to maintain their religious tolerance, discipline and love for humanity. The Roman Catholic Priest, who was Imam Secka’s former High School teacher and Principal at Banjul’s prestigious Saint Augustine’s High School, was visiting Atlanta as part of that school’s grand student reunion.

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A Diary From Home

By Tijan Nimaga, Bronx New York

The amazing and wonderful journey, which I had been yearning for nearly two decades, began from New York’s beautiful John F. Kennedy International Airport and ended on the densely populated streets of Banjul. When Delta flight DL128 touched down and gently taxied to an impressive halt on the runway in Dakar on that cool March 30^th morning, a kind of joy and happiness, which I missed all the past years, gripped my soul.

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Ghana Government says "Gambia killings" not over

August 22, 2009

Accra, Aug. 22, GNA - Vice President John Mahama has expressed reservations about portions of a report on the chilling death of Ghanaians in The Gambia assuring that all was not over in government's pursuit to seek justice for the victims and their families. "As far as government is concerned, the matter is not closed.

Yahya Jammeh, Gambia's callous leader

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Lt. Col. Sarr Agues that “Sabarry” is best approach for 6 Journalists

Dear Editor,

I feel so much overwhelmed by what I have to say that I don’t even know exactly where to begin. Too bad I have only Sundays to write. And I also learn that you spent the weekend in a special ceremony in Atlanta. I hope you had a good time there. Anyhow, it should indeed be first things first.

Lt. Colonel Samsudeen Sarr (Rtd.) 

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NEA, Customs Nationwide Sensitisation

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Former Daily Observer Editor reacts to bogus wanted list story

Dear Editor Sankareh,

I don't intend to ramble around but matter-of-factly, I wish to put on record that the said WANTED list is a scam and utterly bogus. I wish to state it clearly that, as you said of yourself, I don't need anyone to remind me that I'm WANTED by the criminal regime of Dictator Jammeh.

Omar Bah, Ex-Daily Observer Editor in exile in the USA

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Breaking News: Tijan Nimaga returns from The Gambia

By Ebrima G. Sankareh, Editor-In-Chief

It is with a big sigh of relief that we report the safe return of our New York contributor, Tijan Nimaga who was allegedly wanted by Gambia’s autocratic Head of state, Yahya Jammeh. According to an email circulating within the Gambian cyber community, the Gambian government was alleged to have published a confidential memo listing the country’s most wanted dissidents.

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Gambia UPDATE: Six jailed journalists appeal against harsh sentences

Six Gambian journalists jailed for supposedly defaming President Yahya Jammeh of the Gambia, on August 17, 2009, filed an appeal challenging the two-year jail sentences and outrageous fines of 500, 000 Gambian Dalasis each (about 18, 000 US$) handed them.

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COMMENTARY

Yahya Jammeh’s Cesspool of Corruption, Reign of Terror

By Mathew K Jallow, Associate Editor

He has a hospital named after his father Sulayman Junkung Jammeh in Bwiam, a police station named after his mother, Asombi Bojang in Kalagi, a health center named after his wife Zainab Jammeh in Koina, a skills center named after his son Mohamed, somewhere in the Greater Banjul area, and a whole country named after himself. His name, in case you don’t know, is Yahya Jammeh.

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Direct Confrontation, the only way out of Jammeh’s mess

By Pasamba Jow

The conviction and sentencing of the innocent GPU Six by a corrupt mercenary judge, acting on the orders of an arrogantly vindictive tyrant, Yahya A. J. J Jammeh, is neither shocking nor surprising to those who have followed the actions of this notorious government. In fact, it is not by any stretch the most atrocious crime committed by Jammeh against the Gambian people since usurping power in 1994.

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Rantings of an Angry Despot

By Baba Galleh Jallow

When I make my wanted list people say I make my wanted list. They go out there and open their big mouths and say Jumus is this Jumus is that. When I say yes they say no. When I say left they say right. When I wear my special juju they say oh he’s wearing his special juju this, his special juju that.

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Pap Saine Collapsed in Prison Cell, Hospitalised

Jailed Gambian journalist 'very sick': medical source

(AFP) – 3 hours ago

BANJUL — One of six journalists jailed on August 6 for criticising Gambia's President Yahya Jammeh is "very sick" and was hospitalised overnight, a medical source said Thursday. Pap Saine, the managing editor of the daily The Point and Gambian correspondent for Thomson-Reuters, "was rushed to hospital on Wednesday after he collapsed in his prison cell," said the source, who asked not to be named.

Award winning journalist, Saine at a Banjul hospital after collapsing in prison cell

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Pa-Pierre Gomez Supports Lt. Col. Sam Sarr’s Mercy Plea

Dear Editor,

I agree entirely with Lt. Colonel Samsudeen Sarr (Rtd.) because I read his piece in its entirety. I must confess that the idea of 'Sabarry' has never crossed my mind until I read Sam’s piece. I digested every point raised by Lt. Colonel Samsudeen Sarr (Rtd.) and came to the utmost conclusion that he hit it in the head. Some eminent persons have to call on Yahya and urge him to grant clemency to the journalists.

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Associate Editor M. K. Jallow Disagrees with Sam Sarr

Dear Editor,

The choruses of voices expressing bitter disagreement with Samsudeen Sarr’s position do speak for me too. To suggest that we ought to send wives, with heads bowing down and headgear tucked under their armpits to Yahya Jammeh to beg for mercy is unbelievable. Sam Sarr has apparently become steeped in the Gambian tradition of begging for mercy even if he is the one wronged.

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Gambian Community sets up Trust Fund for the late Assan Manneh

In loving memory of Assan Manneh, the Gambian community in Raleigh, NC has opened up a Bank account with Bank of America to support the late Mr. Manneh’s wife, Patisha Manneh and her two little children, Azziz Malick Manneh, 3 and Amina Ann Manneh, 5 months old. In a dispatch sent to The Gambia Echo, his friend and confidant, Momodou M. Gaye described the late Manneh as “a true friend, brother, family and everything to me and my family.”

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Malick Manneh announces the death of his brother, Assan Manneh

Obituary Announcement

The Manneh and M’boob family regret to announce the death of their dear Son, husband, Nephew & Brother, ASSAN MANNEH who lived Raleigh NC, US for the past 10 years. He came to The Gambia on the 4^th August for a Business trip and was involved in a fatal car accident at Bajilo, in the Foni Bintang District of The Gambia on Saturday 8^th August 2009, which he could not survive.

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Analysis

The Jambur 4: judicial lawlessness in a politicised prosecution that collapsed pre-conviction

In a case unrelated to that of the Jambur Four, Principal Magistrate, Pa Harry Jammeh (Magistrate Jammeh), as he then was, refused a ‘settlement’ proposal of a rape matter from the families of a mentally retarded 11-year-old victim, and the confessed 40-year-old perpetrator of a heinous offence.  In rightly rejecting the unacceptable contention advanced by the families that the rape “was the will of God”, the Magistrate, now reportedly Sheriff of the High

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  John Disagrees with Sam Sarr’s Mercy Call

Dear Editor,

I cannot agree more with Momodou Olly Mboge in his response to Sam Sarr’s ‘Sabarry’ call to Yahya Jammeh. Really I was so disappointed that someone like Sam Sarr will offer such a suggestion. I was thinking that this man, with the suffering he has received and the knowledge he has about this regime and his love for freedom and the Gambia will be suggesting ways and means of peacefully removing this cancerous regime. This suggestion by Sam is one

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COMMENTARY

Betty Mould, superstition and progress(Ghana/Africa)

By Kofi Akosah-Sarpong, Ottawa, Canada

Those who think Africans are dull and cannot think should quietly come to Ghana and view what is happening in the electrifying development scene. The picture isn’t anxiety about Ghana’s newfound oil or its return as number one cocoa producer in the world or its post-Barack Obama mindset where Ghanaians think, “Yes, we can.”

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Press Statement: Accra Press Conference on the Repression of Freedom of Expression in The Gambia

The Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) and the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) held a press conference in Accra on August 10, 2009 to demand the immediate release of six Gambian journalists jailed for supposedly defaming President Yahya Jammeh. Present were a number of prominent human rights activists, including Akoto Ampaw, a member of MFWA’s Legal Defence Network and Bright Kwame Blewu, General Secretary of the GJA.

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Breaking News

Neneh Macdouall Gaye sacked, Daily Observer’s Chief Editor Flees Gambia

By Ebrima G. Sankareh, Editor-In-Chief

Unimpeachable sources nestled within the corridors of state power, say The Gambia’s ambassador to the United States, Her Excellency Neneh Macdouall Gaye, has been sacked effective immediately and was ordered to forfeit all her diplomatic credentials including the diplomatic passport to the Gambian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Macdouall Gaye, Washington, DC Ambassador  

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A quest for the amplification of the fight against Yahya Jammeh's Criminality 

Barely six hours after we published Lt. Colonel Samsudeen Sarr’s plea for Sabarry (Mandinka for forgiveness or mercy) than Momodou Olly Mboge fires back with a terse rejoinder to Sarr’s political praxis towards dealing with Yahya Jammeh’s utterly criminal character. Below we reproduce Mr. Mboge’s rebuttal to Samsudeen Sarr’s essay

Momodou Olly Mboge

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A Quest for “Sabarry” to President Jammeh

By Lt. Colonel Samsudeen Sarr (Rtd.), New Jersey, USA

Dear Editor,

Allow me to discuss the topic of the six convicted Gambian journalists with a point of view different from conventional wisdom. That’s why for a while I was rather hesitant to submit this article knowing that it conveys an unfamiliar message, charged with points that could hurt the feelings of those that might not be able to relate to them.

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Absolutism with a Fraudulent Judicial System: The Gambia on Focus

By Foday Njie, Baker University, Kansas

The recent trial and eventual prosecution of six Gambian journalists to a two year prison term for each journalist reveals the level of abuse of power and disdain for the rule of law by the president in concert with a handful of some foreign legal luminaries in the Gambian judiciary.

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An Open Letter to The Gambia’s Military and Security Forces

Dear Brothers and Sisters, Nieces and Nephews,

I have taken the liberty to address all of you on behalf of every freedom loving Gambian. I do so recognizing the important role the military is supposed to play in the affairs of our country. I also do so with the knowledge that most Gambians cannot, through no fault of theirs, speak for themselves. By now, the entire world knows and recognizes that we in The Gambia are not a free people; that we have been brutalized for fifteen long years and still the tragedy of this regime continues. The executions, tortures and frequent

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News Flash: Ebrima J. T. Kujabie is Deputy Chief in Washington, DC

By Ebrima G. Sankareh, Editor-In-Chief

Three months ago, The Gambia Echo reported that the political chemistry at the Gambian Embassy in Washington, DC was toxic and that out of the chaotic atmosphere, Ebrima J. T. Kujabie, the so-called Director of Cultural Affairs- a quasi-literate who could barely write a sentence, was poised to be Deputy Chief of Mission (DCM). Three weeks ago, we reported that the DCM, Musa M’boob was sacked even though The Gambia government never announced it.

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GMC Reacts to Journalists’ Conviction; Urges USA& EU to impose sanctions against Gambian dictator, Yahya Jammeh

Since the 4^th August 2009, I have sleeplessly agonised over the fate of six eminent National Heroes who were convicted and sentenced to prison for exercising civic rights that the Gambian Constitution precisely permitted them to do. The Fagbenle gulag tribunal, with the specific mandate to defile every notion of justice committed unspeakable atrocity against Gambian sovereignty.

GMC National Executive Chairman, Mai N.K. Fatty

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The Gambia: U.S. Condemns Convictions

By REUTERS

The United States on Friday described as “outrageous” and a “travesty” the conviction of six journalists in Gambia on charges of sedition and defamation and demanded their immediate release. The journalists, who were sentenced Thursday to two years in prison, include three members of the Gambian Press Union, two reporters from The Point newspaper and one for the newspaper Foroyaa.

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The Full Text of Justice Fagbenle’s Shameful 5-Hour Verdict

The six Gambian journalists who were undergoing trial on six counts of "sedition" and "criminal defamation" charges were today Thursday August 6 at around 3:00GMT convicted to concurrently serve a two year prison term without any option of a fine in each of the four counts, and ordered to pay the amount of two hundred and fifty thousand dalasis (250,000) on each of the remaining two counts or to serve another two years in each of the counts.

Justice Evil Emmanuel Fagbenle, a laughing stalk among legal minds

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Reporters Without Borders Urges Sect. Clinton to Visit The Gambia

6 August 2009

GAMBIA

Two-year jail terms for six journalists underscore need for Banjul visit by Hillary Clinton

Reporters Without Borders is appalled by the two-year jail sentences that the Banjul high court passed today on six journalists for alleged sedition and defamation of the government. The six journalists, all leading members of the Gambia Press Union, were immediately taken away to Banjul’s Mile Two prison.

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GPU Condemns Conviction of Journalists 

The Gambia Press Union vehemently condemns the conviction, jailing and heavy fines, today of six Gambian journalists, three of whom are members of the Union Executive, Emil Touray; secretary general; Sarata Jabbi Dibba, vice president and Pa Modou Faal, treasurer; Pap Saine and Ebou Sawaneh, The Point’s publisher and editor respectively; And Sam Sarr, editor, Foroyaa newspaper.

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Nigerian judge Sentenced 6 Gambian Journalists to 2 Years

By Ebrima G. Sankareh, Editor-In-Chief

Earlier this morning, six Gambian journalists: Pap Saine, Reuter’s Central and West Africa dean and Managing Editor of The Point newspaper, his News Editor, Ebrima Sawaneh, Managing Editor of the Foroyaa newspaper, Mr. Sam Sarr, and three Executive officials of The Gambia Press Union, Mrs. Sarata Jabbi-Dibba, a lactating mom of a six-month old baby, Emil Touray and Pa Modou Faal

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Pap Saine, Sam Sarr, Ebrima Sawaneh, Sarata Jabbi, Emil Touray and Pa Modou Faal have been sentensed to 2 years each and fined 500,000 Gambian dalasis.

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“US Sect. of State Hillary Clinton Detours via Banjul”-RSF 

--“While on her way from Liberia to Cape Verde, the former First Lady would ideally detour via Banjul in order to tell Gambian President Yahya Jammeh how much his behaviour appals human rights activists and pro-democracy campaigners”

Press freedom required for good governance sought by US secretary of state

US secretary of state Hillary Clinton should stress the need to respect press freedom during her talks with government officials on the seven-nation African tour she has just begun in Kenya, Reporters Without Borders said today.

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All 6 Gambian Journalists Guilty 

About 45minutes ago, six Gambian journalists: Pap Saine Managing Editor of The Point newspaper, his News Editor, Ebrima Sawaneh, Managing Editor of the Foroyaa newspaper, Mr. Sam Sarr, Mrs. Sarata Jabbi- Dibba, a lactating mom of a six-month old baby, Emil Touray, Pa Modou Faal of The Gambia Press Union (GPU) were found.

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Thursday is D-Day for 6 Gambian journalists

The judgment on the Case of six journalists expected today has been deferred to tomorrow- Thursday 6 August 2009 to be delivered at the High Court in Banjul. On Monday 3 August, the presiding judge, Justice- Emmanuel Fagbenle adjourned the case for judgment on Wednesday (today), after hearing robust arguments and lengthy addresses by defense Counsel- Mr. Lamin S.

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LIBERIA Reincarnating Africa’s old man

By Kofi Akosah-Sarpong

In July, Liberia, Africa’s oldest republic, celebrated its 163 years old existence. And in July, too, Liberia’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), set-up in 2005 as a tranqualizer for a deeply troubled country, released its report. True to the nature of  the civil war that was as a result of the complicated nature of Liberia’s existence, the TRC final report  attempts to reincarnate Liberia and give it a new functional soul.

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The Verdict

Of Legal Pimps and Mercenary Judges

By Mathew K. Jallow, Associate Editor

Yesterday, the Jambur 4 met their fate. It was not what anyone expected. Tomorrow is a new day, and the Courts have to make another decision; about the fate of seven Gambians who in the exercise of their right and the practice of their journalism craft, have attracted the eerie of a paranoid regime. As the clock ticks away, a lot is at stake again.

Justice Joseph Wowo and Yahya Jammeh, fraternal twins of evil

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Obituary: The Sudden Passing of Sulayman (Saul) Manjang

Wakerrlabbeh, The St Augustine's High School Alumni and the Fr. Joseph Gough Foundation regret to announce the sudden passing of Sulayman Saul Manjang Class of 1986 who passed onto eternity early on Tuesday morning in Leeds, United Kingdom.

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Defence Urges Banjul High Court  to Acquit 6 Journalists 

High Court Delivers Judgment Wednesday

Addressing a crowded courtroom this morning at the ill-fated Banjul High Court where Yahya Jammeh’s perceived political enemies are often paraded and charged with dubious allegations, defence counsel, Lamin Camara told Justice Emmanuel Fagbenle to acquit and discharge six Gambian journalists charged with sedition, defamation and conspiracy.

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Beatrice Allen: A Gambian Woman of Distinction

By Mathew K Jallow, Associate Editor

They are positions well earned and her recognition well deserved. The shy little girl from Pignard Street has arrived, but her story is unique in so many ways, and her calling as the Gambia’s international sports ambassador, mirrors the humane vibes dying to get out as a gift to the world. Just like the rest of us, she too faced challenges growing up, but she also overcame and now the whole world is her playground.

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