A THANK YOU STATEMENT TO PROFESSOR SAINE FOR HIS SPECIAL REVIEW OF MY BOOK.

By Lt. Col. Sheriff Samsudeen Sarr

I want to first register my sincere appreciation for the special contribution made by Dr. Abdoulaye Saine for reviewing my book: Coup De'tat By The Gambia National Army on your paper. It was after all highly reassuring to see a professor of his character and caliber take his precious time to do such a tremendous job for all of us. I therefore, made it a point of duty to have the paper read and discussed with my entire family including my eight-year old boy, Samsudeen Sarr Jr. who didn’t have a clue what we had talked about or the conclusion we had arrived at. However, the consensus was that I must write this thank-you paper on their behalf for Dr. Saine’s kind gesture and The Gambia Echo’s staff especially, the Chief Editor Mr. Ebrima G. Sankareh for his cooperation. We also prayed for all of you for good health and great success. Having said that, I also believe I owed Dr. Saine and your readers some explanation over his questions and comments about the content of the book. Without doubt, I must admit his last comments that with better known publishers and more capable editors the general content of the book could have been improved to a higher standard. That was a point well noted and might be looked into for a possible second edition in the future. For specifics, I would certainly rectify the name Philip Bensuda which should have been Ahmed Bensuda, the former Permanent Secretary at President Jawara’s office. I would also want to correct the typographical error on the date The Gambia became Republic in 1970 and not 1978. And perhaps, the language could be refined to sound smoother and easier to understand. But there were special reasons why I had to settle for Xlibris despite my earlier understanding of their limitations as US publishers. You see, for years since I arrived in the USA in 1999, attempts I had made, uncountable ones for that matter, to seek help for the production of this book had simply dragged me into tough road blocks and unbridgeable obstacles. If I were to share the list of names of individuals and organizations I had sought help from just to be shoved away for no serious reason, but to perhaps kill my aspirations, many people will agree with me for doing it my way in the end. The desire to have the book completed and published was like a constant obsession challenging me to do it or accept being defeated by the Jammeh government. But as I also explained in the book, the misconception, misinformation and mischaracterization of the coup in 1994 by curious civilians in particular, was another critical factor behind the force that was driving me to my objective. In the end I had to convince myself that there was no Swaibou Conateh here who could have possibly rendered me the necessary help I was searching for. As a school teacher twenty years ago after painstakingly succeeded in finishing my manuscript on "Meet Me In Conakry", my first pacesetters book, I had first approached one of the Education officers in Banjul to take a look at it and give me his opinion about the story. It was an embarrassing attempt. The guy looked at me straight in the face and warned me to learn to know who I was and what I was capable of doing. I still could remember his exact words that sunny afternoon. "Just because you have graduated from Yundum College you think you can write a book? I have my Masters degree and I don’t dream about writing a book". He laughed over what he felt was my silliness and asked me to go away with my garbage. The abuse and insult in my face didn’t stop there; many more Gambians consulted to just read it refused to do so and simply handed me back over the papers. One of them even lost the copy I gave him. Thank God I had saved extra copies for such eventualities. Then I spoke to Swaebou Conateh about it and he offered to read it. In two day he read it and endorsed it as a publishable story. I was thinking of doing it at national level but he thought it could go international. That’s why I now say that this time it was a shame that there was no Swaibou Conateh. But I guess that experience twenty years ago had prepared me for what I had encountered here this time. I have always reminded myself that attempting and failing is far more progressive than avoiding an attempt because of the fear of failure. I just could not be stopped.

The second issue was about my application for asylum that I said in the book was filed as a former PPP supporter. Dr. Saine wanted to know why I used the PPP instead of coming out plain with the genuine fear I had had about the APRC government that caused me to go on self exile. I thought I gave a clear reason for that in the book. But missing it means there was some ambiguity in that chapter. It was however my attorney, Mr. Goldberg who felt at the time that it was the best way he could guarantee me a success in the case. It was evident that he had never had a case like mine; and going by immigrations rules and regulations, there was nowhere he could find the INS act addressing cases like mine. I was throughout apprehensive about his recommendation, but since I didn’t know any better, I had to settle for what he could comfortably build his case upon. Anyway, coming to the case of the tough lady who interviewed me, I merely touched on the surface of that character while snaking my way into the actual stories I wanted to cover there. That’s where I started to explain the details of what I think was wrong with President Jawara’s regime adding a little pinch of variety with the story of Amadou Diallo, the Guinean immigrant mistakenly shot and killed by some New York police officers that year. I also made a short reflection there on the coup crisis that rocked Burkina Faso resulting to Captain Thomas Sankara being killed by his best friend, Blaise Campaore. Yes I tried to second guess the possibilities behind the agent’s hostility towards me to even associating it with her dreadful sinuses that morning, yet eight months later after she had finally decided to submit her findings on my case the results ended confusing more over her character than help me drew a reasonable conclusion over it. It had nothing to do with her possible suspicion of my complicity over the death of Yaya Drammeh or any other Gambian at all. The woman categorically disapproved my application on the basis that her findings didn’t show her anything to indicate that I was a soldier in the first place. In other words she had reported that I simply lied to her about being a soldier when I was never one in the past or present. The case was taken from her and handed over to another agent who approved the application two weeks later without even meeting me. Those who were closely monitoring my case including former lieutenant Momodou Camara who tried to help me with a letter from Jawara were aware of that funny report from the hostile INS lady. I don’t think she even knew where exactly Gambia was in the global map. However, since the approval of my asylum I have successfully helped a number of GNA veterans in the USA applying for political asylum especially after President Jawara retuned home and reconciled with Jammeh. INS prosecutors have been using that lately to deny applicants asylum. In the last immigration court case I attended on behalf a former member of the Gambia security forces, Jawara’s return to Gambian was the central argument forwarded by the attorney. But the officer finally won his case anyway. As a result, I later knew that I could have won my case without using the PPP story or even hiring a lawyer. My lawyer didn’t know, and I didn’t either.

The next point raised by Dr. Saine was why with all my sophistication I accepted to work for Jammeh after being released from 10 months of incarceration. Once again I thought those reasons were clearly given in the book. But to cut it short, I simply didn’t know how to live in the country with such an antagonistic position to a new military government that was overwhelmingly powerful. If I were not offered a position, or if Sabally and Haidara who actually arrested and detained me physically were still in the system, then that question would have put me in a more embarrassing position. Furthermore if I had left at time, the story about my attempt to kill Yaya that was widely spread in the country would have been jolted up to a more extreme fabrication. Perhaps they would have by now come up with the story of how Mr. Bakary Darbo and I fired RPG rifles at Jammeh and he turned into a giant ant and chased us across the Senegalese border to England and America respectively. But with the joke aside, I had wondered what yardstick or barometer Dr. Saine had used to conclude that my sophistication should have prevented me from working for Jammeh; with all respect to the professor I don’t think I had anything exceptional to make me more sophisticated than all those educated elite who served under Jammeh. And serving under Jammeh didn’t mean being transformed into a bad person. On the last point discussed by Dr. Saine about the two professors in DC, I am sure but sorry to say that he somehow missed the gist of that story. In the book I spoke about dealing with only one professor who was generous, kind and cooperative throughout my stay with him. There was nothing hostile about this seemingly dignified gentleman. If he thought I was a killer or had a hand in the killing of Yaya Drammeh, he did not for once show me any sign of that feeling. If I were quizzed over what I had felt about the professor, I would have confidently stated that he could trust me with his life. The problem I therefore mentioned happened within an hour or less at the African restaurant where for the first and last time I had met the second professor introduced as the first professor’s very close friend. It was also the first time I even heard his name. So for the hour we spent together, I think my mind was at first preoccupied with trying to figure out who he was and why we were meeting him that evening for a "Super Kanja" dinner. Then even when the chi chat or questions began over how I felt about Jammeh’s government, the atmosphere was cordial and appeared purely friendly. Then the new or second professor came up with the pivotal question of how corrupt Jammeh was. In the book I explained how I thought the question was unnecessary and how I still went ahead to try and explain an incident where I suspected government corruption being played. In recalling the names of those who were on the dubious deal with Jammeh I called the name of a Gambian businessman who happened to be the second professor’s nephew. At that moment, the man got fired up as if I had told him that I just killed his nephew. Amazingly however, he didn’t directly say anything against me or express his doubt over what role I had played, good or bad, in the Jammeh government. No the professor’s anger, by every measure was focused on two characters, Captain Ebou Jallow and the late Ousman Koro Ceesay. I think in a meeting Jallow and Ceesay held with him or both of them in 1994, while they were active Jammeh workers, at some point along their conversation the professor felt the men referred to them as "niggers in America". So for the rest of the brief moment we stayed in the restaurant to finish up the gross meal, the second professor vented his frustration and madness with Jallow and Ceesay and seemed to have derived a special satisfaction over how they ended up with the regime they had been serving. He never said anything against me or about suspicious things I had done in my past military life. And he also never expanded on the role of his nephew on the Jammeh’s corruption subject. That was what I would call-to borrow the late Sadam Hussain’s adjective-the mother of all double standards. My final deduction from that dinner session was simple. It was another one of the numerous huddles and dead ends encountered on my way to publish my story. But I knew I could bridge that one.

Finally, to end everything, I would like to draw the attention of Professor Saine to the topic of the motorcade shooting of the taxi driver by Almamo Manneh. The motorcade was actually Jammeh’s and not Sabally’s. I thought it was another editorial blunder, but when I revisited that chapter, I confirmed it to be Jammeh’s and not Vice Chairman Sabally’s. Plus the driver didn’t necessarily die. He was saved at the RVH. Other than that, I wish to once again thank Dr. Saine very much for his kindness and well appreciated comments. Coup  D’etat By The Gambia National Army. Copyright © 2007. 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.

To buy the book,call:1888-795-4274 Extn.(7876) 0r visit Samsudeen sarr at his website: www.samsudeensarr.com