By Mathew K. Jallow, Associate Editor

A recent Daily Observer editorial captioned: Senegal continues to destabilize Gambia, was rather baffling to most Gambians. Evidently, The Daily Observer is suffering from the bat syndrome; seeing things upside down. There is only one person who is destabilizing the Senegal and Gambia region, and that person is Yahya Jammeh. Besides, no one in the international community should take Jammeh’s whining seriously since both he and his regime have lost credibility at home and abroad. The accusations that the Senegalese Jakai rebels helped Col. Ndure Cham escape is not going to shock anyone, on the contrary, if that is true, then we Gambians not only thank the rebels for that act of kindness, we also hail them as our heroes. We as Gambians are thankful that Col. Ndure Cham has escaped with his life; otherwise he would by now have been reduced to one of Jammeh’s death statistics. Consequently, it is the Jakai rebels who deserved the Medals of Honor, which Jammeh gave to his mother and his Cassamance musicians last year. We thank the Jakai rebels for extending a helping hand to our dear brother, Col. Ndure Cham, but the rebel’s job is not quite done yet, because they may still see more of our citizens fleeing into their Cassamance jurisdictions to escape Jammeh’s killers: his NIA and his Green Boys.

That said, it was both dumbfounding and sobering to know that The Daily Observer does appear to have some ounces of sympathy, the only problem is that it is reserved for the innocent civilians and villagers caught in the crossfire between the warring Cassamance rebels. This “humane” side of The Observer has not been evident in recent memory, but the fact that the paper is now speaking out on behalf of the Cassamance citizens who became or may become collateral damage in this fractional Cassamance skirmishes, is laudable. However, for us in The Gambia, the misplaced sympathies The Daily Observer is exhibiting, begs the question: Where was The Daily Observer when all the politically sanctioned murders, attempted murders, and tortures were being and continue to be carried out by Jammeh’s NIA and his Green Boys? Where was The Daily Observer, when Daba Marenah and five other young Gambians were murdered without the benefit of a judicial process? Where was The Daily Observer when so many of our fellow citizens are still disappearing from the face of the earth? Where was The Daily Observer when Jammeh’s henchmen executed Private Camara and many of our military sons, nephews or cousins? Where was The Daily Observer when scores of Gambians are being arrested and detained for no reason, whatsoever, and without due process, all across our country? Where was The Daily Observer when all our educated and most productive citizens are languishing in our prisons and jails or fleeing the country in droves to countries in the region and to Europe and the U.S.? Where was The Daily Observer when Jammeh’s regime murdered nearly two-dozen innocent Ghanaians and dumped their bodies on the Atlantic coast? The government of Yahya Jammeh and The Daily Observer are complaining and whining about the sad predicament facing Cassamance villagers, as they rightly should, but where is their compassion for The Gambian families whose children; sons and daughters, fathers, mothers, uncles and friends are being murdered or thrown in jail by the government of Yahya Jammeh, for absolutely no reason? Today, no one really knows how many Gambians are stuffed and packed in our dirty, stinking, mosquito and rat infested prisons and jails, what is clear is that over the past year or two, about forty inmates have been known to die of diseases there. Besides, many more have been tortured, with some destined to carry their scars for the rest of their lives. All these atrocities are happening right under the nose of The Daily Observer, but for some reason, the paper that is speaking out for the villagers in Cassamance, is ignoring far worst atrocities happening within their borders; to their own fellow citizens. How does that make any sense? That is the height of hypocrisy. If The Daily Observer chooses to ignore the murders, attempted murders, tortures and disappearances in our country, they should just shut up. And if they hope to arouse the sympathies of the international community, forget it. No world leader of repute will shed any tears if by any means necessary, Jammeh is removed from power, and The U.S, U.K, E.U, A.U, U.N, ECOWAS will immediately recognize any new civilian government that replaces Jammeh. In light of this, it is in my opinion way over due for Gambian dissidents to meet in the U.S. or in Dakar, Senegal, to discuss the future of our country, in particular, the transition to a multi-party democracy, and the drafting of a new Constitution. Because Yahya Jammeh has the national elections locked in his favor for the next five decades, we must figure out how we must remove him by whatever means necessary. Everyday that we do not act, is a day wasted.

Finally, as if that were not enough, The Daily Observer is accusing the Senegalese government of complicity in what The Gambian authorities believe is a movement designed to overthrow Jammeh’s regime. Further, the paper is engaged in fear mongering when The Gambian authorities accuse the Senegalese authorities of having a grand design to make The Gambia a province of Senegal. We are not moved by these allegations. Yahya Jammeh is suffering from delusion and paranoia, and he is seeing the devil behind every door. Why has The Observer chosen to ignore the fact that Yahya Jammeh has for the past decade provided weapons and financial help to the Cassamance rebels of Salif Sardio, and he is even right now offering them sanctuary in our country? Is this not sanctioning the killings of Senegalese soldiers and innocent civilians in the Cassamance? It is. As a result of his direct involvement with these rebels, Jammeh has contributed to causing the death and destruction of innocent Cassamance lives, as well as to members of the Senegalese security forces. But, beyond that, he is in a way bringing the Cassamance conflict into our country, endangering the lives of our citizens on the Foni and Cassamance border and throughout the Kombo region, while our military are sitting there, and not making any attempts, whatsoever, to fight the rebels back to the Cassamance where they belong. These acts of treachery against our people and the government of Senegal have given President Abdoulaye Wade a good reason to march his soldiers right up to The State House to pluck Jammeh out by the ear, kicking and screaming. If there are Gambians planning to overthrow this murderer Yahya Jammeh, then that is reason for all Gambians to celebrate. We only hope that there are real plans being made to remove Yahya Jammeh by whatever means necessary, in order to end his reign of terror and nightmare facing our people. The international community will have no sympathy for the Jammeh regime should Gambians decide to take up arms to remove his government. Jammeh’s removal would be the best thing to happen to The Gambia since independence. Right now, an unknown numbers of Gambians have fled the country to all corners of the world and can’t wait to return home to rejoin their families, which also begs the question: Who gave Yahya Jammeh the power to cause so many of The Gambia’s best and brightest to flee their country for the safety of foreign lands, separated from their fathers, mothers, wives, sons, daughters, uncles, cousins, and friends and neighbors? If Col. Ndure Cham, Capt. Sana Sabally, Major Kalifa Bajinka and other dissidents in the area are, as the government believes, indeed planning to overthrow Jammeh’s regime, that to us is more than good news, it is great news; it is wonderful news; it is beautiful music in our ears, and we cannot wait to see that day become reality. We hope our patriotic military and security service officers back home, and all our disenchanted young men from Bijilo to Koina will be on the side of the suffering people of our country. Walk across the border to Senegal if necessary, or take a donkey cart if you have to, or beg and borrow money to get to Senegal to join the movement for freedom and warriors for democracy. It is time to get rid of Yahya Jammeh. He has destroyed our country, and we must turn a new page now. We have drifted toward anarchy, lawlessness, and dictatorship for far too long now. Let’s get busy and do something to free our country from the clutches of this murderous dictator, Yahya Jammeh. It is past time for us to end this tyranny my fellow countrymen. And this time, the book title will be, “Meet you in Banjul.”All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this article or any other article or image, or portions thereof, in any form or context without the expressed permission of The Gambia Echo Newspaper.