Barely three hours after our editorial captioned “Yahya Jammeh: A President, liar or terrorist”, a withering indictment of the Jammeh regime, had an erudite Professor of Law at a prestigious Law school in Maryland sent us the letter below. We have read the article as instructed and found it very educative and hope that our readership too will find it so. However, the erudite professor wishes to remain anonymous and hopefully one day, he too will write us an editorial on human rights and the rule of law in The Gambia.

"Dear Ebrima,

Reading your Jan 13 piece, I have the impression that you are not very fond of the President.

More seriously - How long can this go on?  At what point do those around him act in concert, and in their own collective interest?

The parallel between what has happened to journalists in The Gambia, and what has happened to their brethren in Sri Lanka, is striking.  I am sending you a link to one of the most extraordinary pieces of journalism that I have ever read.  The man who wrote it was the founder and Editor of what is today the only Sri Lankan newspaper not controlled or intimidated by the government, The Sunday Leader. He was an old friend of the President of Sri Lanka, Mahinda Rajapaksa; they went to school together.  On the first Sunday in January last year this man, Lasantha Wickrematunge by name, visited his old friend the President at The President's House, something he did every couple of weeks.  When he left that day, he went straight home and began to write the article which the link will take you to.  Four days later, on the Thursday, Lasantha was murdered, shot dead while driving to his office.  Three days after that, on the Sunday, his newspaper published the article.

Sincerely,

XXXXX."

Click on the link below to access the article:

http://www.thesundayleader.lk/2010/01/10/and-then-they-came-for-me/comment-page-1/#comment-11749