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.

Lt. Colonel Samsudeen Sarr (Rtd.) 

Anyhow, it should indeed be first things first. That means responding to Mr. Mboge’s critical analysis of my article first and concluding with that of Mr. Mathew Jallow’s. As for the other two, John and Nyang, I’m not really familiar with them and not too keen to engage them. One of them believes that Jammeh owes me an apology for the “bad things” he did to me. He just doesn’t get it. Every day of my life now, I get up to praise God, President Jammeh and my former boss in the army Lt. Col. (Rtd.) Babucarr Jatta for giving me the motivation and drive that compelled me to leave The Gambia and come to America. Having America and losing The Gambia is the best thing to happen to my family, and me especially, when I look at my children today. They are also very much appreciative of my decision to bring them here where they consider their permanent home now.  I was always afraid of their future as a soldier in The Gambia’s post-coup-d’e-tat era with a justifiable fear that every day I left my house to go to work could be my last day in this world. The frequent agony of encountering death, the atmosphere constantly impregnated with conspiracy and betrayal, the superstitious mentality of having more faith in jujus and marabouts than God our Creator and above all, the occasional pain of seeing men under my command killed or others being killed by them was a lifestyle I was happy to abandon for good. I even once accidentally pulled the trigger of my own 9MM gun and shot myself on the right thigh at close range. My leg was fractured in four places in an injury that could have killed me if I was not rapidly airlifted to Dakar, Senegal for treatment. Yet bozos in The Gambia instead of investigating how and why it happened, believed I was testing a bulletproof juju, while my Senegalese colleagues in the Confederal army equally blamed me for not carrying such amulets for protections. But in America I am thankful for realizing my greatest potentialities, enjoying the best freedoms, the diversity, the culture and certainly the people. If there is anything I should tell Jammeh therefore, it should be to praise him rather than blame him for letting me go. By my judgment, everything that I was supposed to do for The Gambia has been done in the same way I accept that The Gambia has finished offering me everything it could for the rest of my life. And I thank God for it.

Having said that, I now ask that you bear with me on the length of the material which I hope Mboge will not reduce to being long and without substance as he stated about the previous one.

But before that, I would bolster my last suggestion with a missing caveat over how the “Sabarry” mission should be undertaken. The prisoners or their family members, on their behalf, must first consent to the efforts of whoever undertakes the mission to Jammeh. If they decline the intervention, pursing it will be wrong legally and morally. If appealing the case is what they would rather do, and then they should be left to do exactly that. But I have my doubts over whether even the late Johnnie Cochran who successfully defended OJ Simpson in 1995 would have done any good if he had been alive and taken the case. And, with Pap Saine collapsing due to sickness and many Gambians saying that he does have a chronic preexisting medical condition-coronary disease and more- then encouraging the poor fellow to remain defiant until he dies would tantamount to euthanasia. I call it a preexisting condition because by merely going to Mile 2 Prisons one is instantly infected with a new disease. 

Sam Sarr I also understand suffers from similar health conditions and needs constant medication with special diet to keep him in shape. The lady with the seven-month-old baby is another heartbreaking one. I will therefore continue to call for the exploration of what I think is the only effective action to help these people regain their freedom the “SABARRY” approach. It is easy and sometimes very exciting to be cyber warriors prescribing to the Gambians from a safe distance about how to fight the “Jammeh dictatorship”; but those on the ground, know better and at times even think that we must be way out of our minds. Just last weekend after the journalists were sent to prisons, thousands of civil servants, security service personnel and private citizens from all works of life converged on Kaninlai to reaffirm their support to President Jammeh’s leadership. These gestures further demonstrates to him and the world that Gambians love him; and for the few who do not, he perceives them as mere enemies and a threat to the stability of his regime on a forty-year timetable.

So it boggles my mind when the warriors insist on a confrontation course with the contention that “Dictators” are not supposed to be negotiated with no matter what. On Friday August 14, 2009, Senator Jim Webb of Virginia went on an official mission to Myanmar to negotiate with General Than Shwe over the possible pardon of Aung San Suu Kyi whose crime was not of any serious magnitude to warrant taking her to court, let alone sentencing her to 18 months house arrest. The woman, a political icon and a democrat in her country, genuinely popular among her people has tried all kinds of resistance with little success. Mr. Webb differs with the US government for treating Myanmar as a pariah nation and gave a plausible reason for his conviction. Sanctions, he has explained, the most America could do to the isolated country is ineffective because everything the military regime needs is provided in abundance by China, their immediate neighbor whose socioeconomic and political interest for supporting General Shwe wouldn’t be compromised. When UN Secretary General Bankey Moon officially visited the country late last month with the hope of convincing the military junta to let him meet the woman they categorically denied it to him. That was like telling the nations of the world to take a hike. Therefore, what I believe is prudent in the case of the journalists particularly is to either negotiate for possible good results or play hardball and lose regrettably. The rest of the world hardly cares and if they do, they don’t seem to see the effectiveness of the tough approach any more. In this case, other than what was aired on BBC focus Of Africa during the Amnesty-International-sponsored demonstration at the UK Gambia Consulate, little or nothing has since been covered about their trial or conviction. In Hilary Clinton’s recent tour of Africa her primary message to African leaders was to adopt pluralistic governments and respect the rights of their people. If The Gambia was a major concern to America like those countries on her list, I guess she would have at least made one or two comments about the situation there.

But she visited President Mubarack of Egypt not to reprimand him about staying in power indefinitely or why he has over thousands of prisoners of conscience/ political prisoners permanently incarcerated in jail; or why so many Egyptians have been forced into exile because of his undemocratic ways, but to ask him to help the USA in their effort to find durable peace in the Middle East, especially on the Palestinian-Israel quagmire.  Senegal’s model of democracy is now being threatened by what they say is President Wade’s scheme to groom his son, Karim Wade to succeed him after his term ends. I still don’t want to believe it.

So why can’t we pause for a moment and re-examine the ineffectiveness of some of our dogmatic beliefs in a bid to attempt a shift in tactics for more constructive engagement? I don’t think anyone would have encouraged his father, brother, uncle or sister under such predicament to endure the trauma these people are going through under the guise of a fight for freedom. Those who seriously believe that there is a necessary fight to be fought for the people in The Gambia would be considered more genuine if they had returned home and showed the people how to do it best. If Lamin Waa Juwara could give up the confrontation after realizing that the people’s interest he had always passionately placed above even his family’s are the same people who wouldn’t care about his plights or try to come to his rescue when he needed them, then considering the futility of the same fatalistic approach should not be condemned as traitorous. I even believe that he was almost too late to wake up and change the trajectory of his suicidal approach. He had been incarcerated in every concentration camp called prison in the country, beaten, slashed and nearly abducted for possible assassination while the Gambians continue to dismiss him as an extremist and dreamer. The guy was eventually going to die with many people simply seeing it as good riddance.

I am afraid these journalists wouldn’t want to go through half the pain and trauma Juwara endured. Spending ten months in Mile 2 from a personal experience was enough to teach me how to seriously avoid re-entering there. In 1999 when I thought I could once again go there for the false allegation that I physically attacked my boss, I left the country for good. Starting from the thuggish prison guards who are wired with no emotions and don’t give a darn about whether you are guilty of any crime or not are the first to usually give you your initial dose of shock when you arrive. Nothing special is required from these men to qualify for the job. The horrible ones were local wrestlers with impressive winning careers in the different arenas that caught the eye of the prison commissioner who was a junky in the game. You know those solidly built wrestlers with muscles that look like layers of woven strings wrapped around their hands, chest and legs, having palms so hard that if you struck a match stick on them it lights up? Unfortunately for me, I had three of these hunks to strip-search me in the most dehumanizing manner when I first arrived on the morning of July 26 1994. They had been told that I was too dangerous and therefore, should pay special attention to me more than any of the detainees, a warning I thought was interpreted as “kill him if you have to”. When I appeared too slow to unbuckle the strap of my wristwatch one of them just ripped it off leaving bleeding bruises on my skin. My shoelaces and waist belt were yanked out with brute force with everything in my possession confiscated as if they were stolen property. Then to my horror after sizing up the dungeon they put me in my cell as I started taking note of the items in the surrounding. The bed was flat timber elevated on concrete slabs with one blanket as the sheet and serves as cover as well. I later learnt that no one could remember when the blankets were last washed. Every other item was in plastic form. The basins for food, one-gallon container for water, the breakfast cup for pap and Sunday tea and the chamber pot for toiletries, all in colored plastic forms. That was it. No spoons, forks, knives, toilet papers, tooth brush, paste or soap; and definitely no books, newspapers, radio, timepiece, or anything for entertainment or to engage the mind with. I wore the same clothes for two months.

As for the food you wouldn’t imagine that humans were fed with that stuff. So it amazed me when hunger involuntarily drove me into being addicted to it. For the first two days my appetite was killed by the shock of finding myself there. But when the body started craving for replenishment of essential nutrients, I began to eat ravenously. The pap for breakfast was the first meal I tasted in the menu. Oh don’t mistaken the pap with the regular ones moms prepare at home for breakfast or the ones sold in the streets during Ramadan called “Monoe” or “Ruye”; no this was “Ogy”, in its worst form and taste, the kind of pasty pap underprivileged mothers force their malnourished babies to consume or die. No milk or sour cream that goes with the proper serving of homemade pap. I will skip the lunch which one could never understand the recipe it was cooked from until the server tells you what he believes he was serving. I thought the arrogant prison officer was kidding me when he gave me my first lunch and said it was “Durango” (peanut-butter soup).

The dinner was brown “Futoe” or “Cherreh” served with half bunger fish boiled in plain water and salt.

Then there was sunset and all hell broke loose. Actually the time to go to bed was 5:00 pm, but until there was total darkness after dusk, you wouldn’t know the terror that loomed around. I think when god was creating the mosquitoes in the Gambia he got fascinated with the swamps behind the walls of Mile 2 prisons, because it seemed as if all were created at that location. With no insect repellants or mosquito nets compounded by the openings on the wall that allow them to fly into the cells in millions, our suffering became life threatening. Malaria caused by mosquito bites kills more Gambians annually than every disease in the country does, combined. When the mosquitoes start leaving at dawn and you wanted to recover from the sleep you were deprived the whole night, the thousands of toads in the same creek took their turn of blasting the atmosphere with loud croaking that cut right through your heart.  I was so afraid of getting sick primarily because of the order not to be seen by any doctors in or out of the confined area. Going out was ruled out. That was Mile 2 in brief; the details of what we went through in months or years will make any realistic person cringe.

That’s not a place for any human being including the worst felons, and certainly not for these journalists who have better things to worry about their families and personal welfare than fighting for the freedom of the Gambians at such cost.

Let me now get to Mr. Momodou Olly Mboge’s rejoinder on my last paper. He sure knows how to dampen spirits in debates. That’s how I translated his remarks that my paper was merely long but lacked substance. But on the contrary, it was in fact, his response, which indicated that it was more of a matter of disagreeing with the substance than its absence in the “long” text. I could admit writing long papers but I couldn’t agree with writing one without substance, although some readers agreed with him all the way. I also believe he merely misunderstood my line of argument and as a result, came with a line of criticism not consistent with the facts I presented. By now, he probably would have realized that I do not believe in the concept of liberation fighters, especially those in Africa or The Gambia where contemporary politics is still undergoing its evolutionary process. And it seems like he harbors an opposite viewpoint to mine over that. Thus we might find it hard to be on the same page. However, Apartheid in South Africa which was globally viewed as an unacceptable government; rooted on the worst form of human rights violation, economic, social and psychological degradation of millions of people by a few, purely on racial grounds was nothing comparable to the APRC government in The Gambia. The comparison really evokes my laughter.

In the case of Patrice Lumumba, I found nothing spectacular about the legacy of the man. I don’t even understand what he achieved in the Congo after dying for a course that was never fulfilled. If Mr. Mboge has not already read the book, Challenge of The Congo by Kwame Nkrumah, published in 1967 covering every detail of that crisis, I will urge him to do so. Even Nkrumah who was at the time the President of Ghana and was in total support of Lumumba’s demand for Independence in the Congo, one free of foreign involvement, fell apart with him before he was killed. It was a major international engagement in 1960 by the UN with a fully deployed peacekeeping force composed mainly of Western forces. Ghana contributed a contingent of a Brigade size under the command of Colonel Joseph Ankrah who six years later in 1966 succeeded Nkrumah after the latter was overthrown in a military coup.

In that operation, the Ghanaian troops were ordered by the UN field commander to occupy Lutuaborg, Kasai, a strategic area that as a result denied Lumumba access to the national radio station that he desperately needed to speak to the Congolese people. Nkrumah frantically tried to intervene without success and showed that at one point Lumumba insisted that President Nkrumah ordered the immediate withdrawal of the Ghanaian contingent from his country, whose help he said were no longer welcomed. In the end he was killed disappointed with everything he had believed in about, country, his people, the world, the UN, friends and associates.

Lumumba was just another radical of the sixties who outwardly tried to campaign on a positive naturalistic political philosophy. That was impossible at a time and in a world polarized by the cold war bull crap between the Soviets and the West. Many had concluded that the CIA won there, but had their reputation tarnished in the death of the Congolese leader. After his death, despite his huge followers, the people merely adapted to his departure and continued with the government they had, instead of the socialist state he had intended for them.

With the final collapse of communism, ending the universal belief in the so called dictatorship of the proletariat as a viable alternative system of government to capitalism, Lumumba like Che Guevara, Amilcar Cabral and many of such revolutionaries who died for the course seemed to have wasted their lives for nothing. They didn’t have a clue about the future of what they were fighting for. For these misguided political martyrs, apart from being named after few monuments here and there with Patrice Lumumba having an Institute built in his memory and name in Moscow, nothing of substance emanated from the struggle they died for to “free their people”.  And I don’t think the people understood or even cared after they died.

Their sorry demise typifies the fate of political warriors harboring the misconception that the seemingly enthusiastic masses they consider as devoted followers will never let them down. BIG MISTAKE! I believe it was Adolf Hitler who said in his book Mein Kampf, published in July 1925 that the majority of people are ordinary followers. That relates squarely to third world countries’ political dynamics these days. Depending on the masses for absolute political support in these poverty-stricken countries is delusional.
When Omar Jallow (O.J), Halifa Sallah and Hamat Bah were arrested just before the last election for no tangible reason, at a time when the masses were really behind them, everyone quickly curled back to their safe zones and acted as if nothing had happened. It had to take the intervention of the former Nigerian Head of state General Olusegun Obasanjo, pleading with Jammeh for mercy before the politicians were released. Did they pursue the matter any further than that? I don’t think so. Was that a smart move? Absolutely! If those heavyweights could accept a plea deal on their behalf, why can’t these patriotic, innocent journalists take the same route?

When it comes to politics and the sentiment of the masses in The Gambia, this is what I know concerns them most. People indeed look forward to general elections primarily because of the individual benefits they enjoy in the short campaign period. The free food served during political rallies, provided most of the destitute with the one-time chance of eating rice “Benachin” and meat, barely affordable in their homes. What the politicians promise them about future development project for the masses when they were voted for, or the free tickets to fly to the moon and back didn’t matter. It was all about the food, period. One would be amazed by how involved the masses are in the food served, the best cooks, who are getting extra to take home and how many where the next rally is organized.

It’s like when we were young in Serekunda and the special “Gamos”, organized as Islamic guest nights to celebrate the life and death of Prophet Muhamed. For many of the guest especially the boys it was never about god or the preachers’ eerie sermons to the audience to prepare to go to hell fire when they died as non- Muslims, alcohol consumers or as bad Muslims. Neither was it about the promise of going to heaven for being good Muslims where life was eternal and freedom about doing anything limitless. We went there to consume the tea and bread and butter served in the late hours of the night. Tea bread and butter were also delicacies few families could afford. I was sure that even the adults seen dozing off after the tea serving was over, purposely attended for the tea party. We even developed special skills on where to sit under the tent to enjoy the first serving that was always better sugared with extra milk.  Ebou Faal couldn’t be
convinced that the tea brewers seen going home in the morning with their water kettles meant for ablution were all full of stolen tea for breakfast at home. So going by what the preachers would say about alcohol consumers and thieves of any kind going to hell Ebou was positive that all the tea brewers were toast on judgment day.

Invariably, the huge crowds in political rallies in The Gambia care less about what the politicians say on campaign platforms. It’s all about the “Benachin” and meat.
The other anticipated benefit is the opportunity to sell their voting rights to the party willing to pay the best price. After the elections, nothing changes other than their paper voter’s cards rendered uselessness for another five years. That’s why incumbents never lose elections in African countries that have no term limit for the president. Jammeh like former President Jawara will continue to win because he is rich, more willing to spend than even his predecessor, slaughters the fattest bulls and gets the best cooks for the best “Benachins” that would feed almost all. The opposition is broke and can hardly afford enough tea to go around. That’s what politics in The Gambia is all about. Besides, Jammeh now has a modern bakery making the best and cheapest bread in the country that many agreed has driven the “Tapalapa” bread market to the brink of bankruptcy; so just wait and see what this Pipe Piper would do with his bread flute to the
hungry masses in the 2011 election. Let’s not also forget that the entire public and private sector in the country willingly or unwillingly rally behind the incumbent with every resource at his disposal.

Anyhow, I have repeatedly advocated for term limit as the best antidote to military intervention in any kind of government, elected or not. Yet it is imperative that any term limit must be complemented by an attractive legislature for the protection and good treatment of ex-presidents whether voted out after their first term or after the second.   

But violence as a mean of change should never be an option. Samuel Doe in the name of political change killed Tolbert; Prince Johnson by the same rationale killed him; and Charles Taylor who started the actual liberation war against Doe might spend the rest of his life in jail. Over 150,000 Liberians died in the circle of violence. Guinea Bissau’s political tragedy is still fresh in our memories blanketed in a state of hopeless doom and gloom. That’s the common end result of political violence.  And these countries are far worse off than they were before the militant went into rampage.

Apparently if Jerry Rawlings of Ghana could change from being the most brutal leader Ghana or Africa had ever experienced with track record of horrible human rights abuse during his time, then I think anybody could change. We just have to be patient and abandon that microwave mentality of having the food cooked right away for consumption. Jammeh could one day wake up and do exactly what Rawlings did for Ghana in a more impressive manner. But until then, engaging him positively could yield progressive result for the country.

But I always imagine the kind of crisis Gambia would have been plunged into if Jammeh had one day asked the people to come up with the name of a Gambian leader he could immediately hand over power to in a consensus selection. I don’t know about anyone but as for me I will back Lamin Waa Juwara all the way to the statehouse. Now who would you pick? Just a food thought. 

Let me conclude by answering Mr. Mathew Jallow’s question that asked what was soft in President Jammeh that I believe negotiators could tap for the freedom of the journalists. First it is important to mention that I was there and had worked closely with Jammeh for three good years. Negotiating with him can really work. But I’ll limit the examples of his compassion to one thing he did really well among several I would love to share if you wish me to. You’re going to hate me for this, Bro.

One of the major reasons why a coup was possible in the GNA was the serious mistake made by the PPP government about the fate of the first two soldiers killed in Liberia in 1990- Private Sama Jawo and Corporal Modou Bojang. Several ECOMOG peacekeepers were also killed that day from the barrage of shelling, targeted by Charles Taylor’s rebel forces to their position. Nigerian, Ghanaian, Guinean Sierra Leonean and Gambian soldiers all died in that attack. Every country flew their dead back home to their family member for burial. The Gambia government on the advice of the British Army Training Team (BATT) commander, Colonel Jim Shaw (someone I always thought was a loony) sent a message to ECOMOG headquarters to find a gravesite for their burial there and not to bother about sending them to their families. For compensation, their parents were given D300.00, about $30.00 each at that time. That epitomized the abuse GNA soldiers suffered for a long time under the regime and contributed tremendously to what caused the rebellion in 1994.

I wouldn’t go into the details of how well he treated me after I was released from jail, in May 1995, but in June the following month, he chartered a plane for me and sent me to Liberia to exhume and return the bodies of these gallant soldiers back to The Gambia. They were not even buried in a regular graveyard but at the outskirts of the port of Monrovia beside a huge refuse-dumping site. When they arrived, Jammeh insisted on giving them state burial at The 22nd July Square in Banjul with their parents invited to witness the honorable parade. They were each compensated with D10, 000.00 about $1000.00 each. 
Where that compassion came from, Mathew, is where I believe hides his soft spot, which is reachable.  Yes he could be impulsive and take drastic regrettable actions, but he is also capable of understanding when approached in the right way, right place and by the right people.
I know saying anything good about Jammeh triggers angry reaction from the Internet warriors but since you ask for it, standby to defend me if the assault starts.
By the way, I learnt from a friend that folks are accusing me of agreeing with Jammeh to go back to the Gambia and be promoted to a general. I told him to tell them that they got the rank wrong; it’s a field Marshall’s rank and not a general’s, which looks all good to me.

Last but not the least I have a change of mind to comment on the list of names supposedly released by the NIA about wanted dissidents including me which I found really questionable. But the editorial in The Echo supported by the rejoinders covered the necessary details. I was sure it was all baloney.

I’ll continue to pray for Pap Saine and the others and wish President Jammeh would once again exercise his compassionate tendencies and forgive them in honor of the upcoming holy month of Ramadan starting this Friday. And thank you Mr. Pa-Pierre for understanding my position. I needed it sooooo badly.
Amen!!!!

 

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