Sir Jackal Breaks Silence Part IV (Final)
By Ebrima G. Sankareh, Editor-In-Chief
Sergeant Alhagie Cham Joof (a.k.a Sir Jackal)
For the past eight weeks we have been chronicling the arresting tale of The Gambia’s most elusive and probably most adventurous soldier, fugitive Sergeant Alhagie Cham Joof (a.k.a Sir Jackal) following a five–hour exclusive telephone interview he granted to The Gambia Echo’s Editor-In-Chief Ebrima G. Sankareh. We have followed Sgt. Joof's story from his first flight to freedom in the wake of the bloody counter-coup of November 11, 1994 to his mysterious visits to The Gambia while still on the country’s most wanted list and to the Kartong military camp attack in which his co-conspirators (three lieutenants) were arrested, tried and now serving life sentences leaving him the lonely escapee to tell their fascinating tale of adventure. For security reasons, Part IV was delayed and now we have been asked to publish it. We pick it from his booming restaurant business in Guinea Conakery and his penetration of that country’s inner political core.
ECHO: So the fleeing soldier, the most wanted fugitive in The Gambia was freely rooming the streets of Conakery selling sandwiches?
JOOF: Yes, but before I sold sandwiches, I began as a street hawker selling razor blades, radio batteries, bitter cola etc. However, my Sierra Leonean host had lived in The Gambia and according him, Gambians were the nicest people he ever encountered. After a few days, he became my confidant although I have never divulged my true military story to him. Since he was so nice and hard working, I quickly settled down and gave him part of my money to be a partner in his booming restaurant outlet. Within two months, things improved dramatically for me and after seven months, I became a master. I woke up at 5:00AM each morning, boiled dozens of eggs and sliced tomatoes and vegetables fixing sandwiches for bureaucrats. When my business boomed, I added Benechin to the menu and introduced Café Touba. I then opened two restaurants and became a very famous Café Touba vendor. President Lasana Conte, Guinea’s President was my good client and each morning, I would brew and serve him the Café Touba at the Presidential Palace. My second biggest clientele were at the Interior Ministry.
ECHO: I am so impressed with your determination and willingness to adapt to different circumstances. So everybody knows Suma S. then?
JOOF? (Laughter then composes himself). No Sir, soldiers don’t operate like journalists. I have never lost consciousness that the Jammeh regime was trailing me and Suma S. was only valid in Guinea Bissau. In Conakery I became Ndiaye S. and was able to acquire a Guinean Identity Card in that name.
ECHO: From Suma S. to Ndiaye S. I have never seen stuff like this before. How significant is this S?
JOOF: My friends in Guinea Bissau and Guinea Conakery know what the S. is and unless they tell you what it means, Sir Jackal will never tell you.
ECHO: How were you able to get a Guinean ID?
JOOOF: I was very good at Benechin, Café Touba and Café Oley and after numerous visits to the Interior Ministry; I befriended some clients and eventually had the confidence to talk to them about my ID card. That was how I got one and some of the guards at the Interior loved me so much that they encouraged me to join the military.
ECHO: Did you have intentions of enlisting in the Guinean military?
JOOF: No. Not really, I could have joined had I wanted but I was more interested in getting to Banjul, to remove the dictator Yahya Jammeh; that has been my biggest dream.
ECHO: Instead, you perfected your cooking skills?
JOOF: Yes and as time went by I added porridge (laah) to the breakfast menu and while the bureaucrats wanted the café Touba and café Oley, the regular locals preferred laah with milk. This is how I was able to operate a restaurant in the Guinean border with Sierra Leone.
ECHO: Who were your clientele in the border?
JOOF: Rebels, refugees, renegades and locals. Many fighters who frequented my restaurant had talked me into going to Sierra Leone but I refused. They would come with all kinds of fascinating stories about magic solutions to riches or get diamonds in the war zone to help expand my business but I could not be convinced. The funniest part of it was fighters coming to the restaurant teaching me how to operate an AK-47 riffle.
ECHO: Really, what did you tell them?
JOOF: I would pretend that I was scared of guns, and allow the fighters to play with the machine like a toy as I watch. They would brag about the powers of the AK-47 and how they could teach me the riffle in just one week. I have never told them that I was a soldier; instead, I would pretend that I was very nervous. They would then laugh and tell me that a man must not be scared of a gun.
ECHO: I must be honest; I am curious how come the Guineans did not easily track you.
JOOF: When I fled The Gambia I could only speak Wollof and little Mandinka. Once in Guinea, the first thing I did was learn their local languages. After eight months, I was able to speak Malinke, Fula, Susu, and French. However, before I got used to the officers at the Interior, one of them had always cast doubts over my nationality. He had always accused me of being a Senegalese and once I acquired the ID he left me alone and in fact, became my closest friend.
ECHO: Did he know that you were a soldier?
JOOF: Not at all. No one in Guinea knew that part of the story until the day I left.
ECHO: How did you leave Guinea, leaving behind the booming restaurant business wasn’t easy or was it?
JOOF: I was always glued to the BBC and monitored events in The Gambia. I had always thought that Yahya Jammeh would have been overthrown before the next elections and as the elections drew closer, media reports suggested that the opposition UDP was poised to take the pools. My friends in Guinea Bissau and I were so optimistic that the opposition was going to win the elections and convinced that Jammeh was finished, I sold my cooking utensils, withdrew my savings and headed to Guinea Bissau. I left Conakery with a heavy heart on September 5th, 200l and stayed in Bissau to wait for the presidential elections. Numerous dissidents in Bissau were poised to return but unfortunately, Yahya Jammeh the coward rigged the elections.
ECHO: Were you disappointed?
Joof: Very, very disappointed. But I was most disappointed with the politicians, that no one could organize a demonstration to kick Jammeh out of State House really surprised me. The man is the biggest coward in the entire nation, if the opposition had marched in their thousands towards State House, no soldier could have stopped them. In fact, some soldiers would have eventually joined the civilian population to remove the dictator.
ECHO: Did you regret selling the restaurants?
JOOF: No Sir, because I had saved some good money and was really weighing the options, what next can I do for my country?
ECHO: Such as?
JOOF: What else other than removing the dictator, that to me should be the intention of every good citizen- how to remove Yahya Jammeh for a better Gambia.
ECHO: Gambians have a democratic tradition and they believe that one day the opposition will win with a landslide and Jammeh will leave office democratically.
JOOF: Yahya Jammeh has killed so many Gambians that he will never leave democratically and take it from me that the only way to remove the dictator is through force and no one will do that for Gambians but ourselves. Sometimes when I read news on the Internet, I laugh not because it’s funny but that our situation is very pitiful.
ECHO: How do you mean?
JOOF: I mean only force can remove Yahya Jammeh from State House and the sooner we know that the better. This should not be taken to mean that Sir Jackal does not like democracy but that Sir Jackal likes democracy and because he is convinced that Yahya Jammeh is a dictator he knows that only force can dislodge him from office. My friend, here is a President who threatens to send civilians six feet deep, arrests journalists, tortures people and kills school children and Gambians still believe that he is a democrat. Where is Deyda Hydara? Where is Daba Marenah? Where is Koro Ceesay? Etc, etc.
ECHO: So what other options were on your plate?
JOOF: Having lived in Guinea Conakery from 1997-2001, I decided to come closer to home with my savings and I arrived in Dakar on Friday November 2nd. 2001 and my first port of call was the human rights offices of RADDHO-Recomtre Afrikaine Pour la Defense Des Droit de L’homme. The officer who interviewed me was generous enough to give me 10,000 CFA and asked that I return to the office on Monday. My return to the office Monday was the beginning of a long interview and a very boring asylum process. It was there at RADDHO that I ran into brother Omar Joof (no family ties) the student leader who was also running from the Jammeh government after April 10-11, 2000 student demonstration in which over a dozen students were summarily executed.
ECHO: Did Senegal grant you asylum?
JOOF: Senegal-no! Remember Senegal had wanted to arrest me and extradite to the Jammeh government after the Kartong incident. I applied for the UNHCR package but the procedure is so complicated that you have to be interviewed by Senegalese Gendarmerie officers as well as various others agents and agencies-too bureaucratic. I finally was approved as a “genuine asylum seeker” on July 16th. 2002. I was on the UNHCR resettlement program but before they could get to me I had decided to leave Dakar with the assistance of some West African navigators.
ECHO: Senegalese?
JOOF: I am so sorry but I cannot divulge their nationality for some genuine reasons but can I tell you that they were nice people; they even gave me 1000.00 Euros for pocket money. So on December 30th. 2003 we left Dakar with 150 West African immigrants on a fishing trawler, cruised the mighty Atlantic and set sail on the Spanish tourist resort island of Tenerife on January 7th. 2004.
ECHO: So you celebrated New Year’s in the Atlantic?
JOOF: Trust me, New Year’s did not even cross my mind. Since I fled The Gambia I have been preoccupied with more important things like what to do for Alieu Bah, Lt. Jarjue and Lt. Jammeh. There is not a single day that I do not think of these soldiers and my prayers are always with them.
ECHO: How was the arrival on the Spanish island?
JOOF: I arrived in Spain with no ID other than my asylum file from the UNHCR offices in Dakar. Once the trawler docked, the Spanish Coast Guards came aboard and hell broke loose but within minutes, I was ashore with my briefs case. I took a taxi to the nearest hotel and then flew to the Spanish city of Barcelona from where I flew to Hamburg, Germany arriving on February 10th. 2004 and since then, I have been living here.
ECHO: You like it?
JOOF: Yes Germany has democracy, a free press and media; no one worries about going to jail because the politicians do not like what you say. But there is no place like home and that is why all of us living abroad should come together and fight for a return to democratic rule in The Gambia. Let us be one so that we can be free from Yahya Jammeh’s dictatorship. How many people will he kill before we will unite as one people?
ECHO: Sir Jackal thank you very much for the time you have taken and The Gambia Echo is so gracious for the interview.
JOOF: I am so happy to talk to you again and please keep up the good work. Tell Mathew Jallow that I like him and my best wishes to my brother and boss Samsudeen Sarr. I hope that one day we will all return to The Gambia, ever united to bring peace and democracy to our people. For me Sir Jackal, I am ever ready and if you guys in the US need me please let me know.