THE DEATH OF AN EVIL  BRUTE-MUSA JAMMEH

By Lt. Col. Sheriff Samsudeen Sarr

If I am not mistaken, I think it was your brilliant Co-Editor Mathew K. Jallow who once coined the phrase “bat-syndrome” in describing certain jackasses consciously or unconsciously attempting to twist our perception of the world upside down. It was the same characters that I was reminded of when I read those disingenuous elements quoted at the cemetery eulogizing the dead brute Musa Jammeh. Trying to flip the script on the notorious profile of such a sociopath was a shame to all the speakers and the listeners. A man the mention of whose name alone struck a lot of fear and anxiety in the hearts of people living across The Gambia didn’t deserve any form of praise let alone being glorified as a patriotic army officer.

Musa in the first place could not have possibly been commissioned as army officer if the rules and regulations of The Gambia National Army (GNA) established by the British Army Training Team (BATT) two decades ago were not flouted by the Jammeh administration. Jammeh may very well be aware of what I am talking about; so for him to disregard all the ethical benchmarks founded on well entrenched military principles just to create a ruthless band of thugs, called “Jugulars” (lethal killers) headed by Musa Jammeh for his personal protection was, to put it mildly, absolutely irresponsible.

Tumbul Tamba (another dead “Jugular”) Musa Jammeh, Alagie Martin, Kausu Camara and all those other commissioned morons could not have possibly made it into the officer corps if the system had considered their qualifications and not their imbecilic demeanors.

You see Mr. Sankareh GNA prospective officers were pre-required to attain the minimum qualification of five passes in the GCE O’Level exams including English and mathematics. In addition to having those credentials the applicants must go through a rigorous testing program to further establish their competence in reading, writing and above all communicating clearly in the English language. They will also have to pass tests aimed at determining their endurance to handle stress, measuring how well they could analyze and appreciate critical military tasks and of course measure how robust they are physically and mentally. It was a combination of challenges put together to identify the over all qualities of the candidates.

The Musa Jammeh I knew couldn’t know what the acronym GCE O’ Level stands for; he couldn’t speak or write simple English although he had perfected his knowledge of the broken one; and basic arithmetic to him, not mathematics, would be like differential equation to a third grader. To cut to the chase, this man like all his deadly colleagues was nothing but an undereducated degenerate without conscience and couldn’t care less about the existence of a God. Decorated with a military rank that placed him above the law, armed with lethal weapons, bolstered by a gang of desperate gold diggers, Musa Jammeh choreographed a level of terror in The Gambia that will be remembered as the darkest phenomenon since Edward Singhateh was grounded.

M.Jammeh, Edu Singhateh & Y.Jammeh Triplets of Evil 

Slowly torturing his helpless victims, in several incidents to death was an act he had once boasted of being his best entertainment in life. Gambians in general are god-fearing and very peace loving. Celebrating human life has always been our preference over destroying it; joy over sorry, love over hate and certainly laughter over tears have for centuries symbolized the beauty of our traditions. I don’t care what anyone may say about The Gambia or Gambians, the underlying beauty of our heritage is how from infancy we are nurtured to appreciate what brings us closer together as humans rather than divide us. While religious, ethnic or racial differences have been tearing apart the rest of mankind in an irrational war of hate that might eventually destroy our civilization, Gambians in their small benevolent enclave have evolved with the right formula on how people could positively get along irrespective of their congenital differences.

To therefore even think that the likes of Musa Jammeh, Tumbul Tamba, Alagie Martin, Kausu Camara and the other members of the so-called “Jugulars” were born and raised in The Gambia with our true values and traditions fully inculcated in their spirits baffles the imagination of every reasonable Gambian. These people could even murder their parents if the price was right. Consequently when we see them being finally removed from our midst in a way reminiscent of those special divine interventions, we should happily praise the Lord and not try to compose the kind of hypocritical eulogies delivered at their funerals.

But I must say this Sankareh; the most regrettable attributes on the existence of these ignoramuses is not after all the terror and fear they had instilled in the hearts of the defenseless and innocent people while they were alive or the wonderful sigh of relief and satisfaction derived from seeing them dead and buried, but most important of all would be the predicament eternally shouldered by their descendants, especially their children who will live to suffer an unfair share of their fathers’ crimes. I still boast about what my father did for my whole family and I, an honor I will proudly carry as long as I am alive and would sincerely want my children to as well emulate those similar virtues from their forebears.

But just think about how it would always resonate to Gambians when a child claims to be the son or daughter of Musa Jammeh, a.k.a. Maliamungu a.k.a. Chemical Ali or Tumbul Tamba (a.k.a. Pol Pot the human liquidator). Further imagine how it would feel if in that same vicinity the children of murdered Daba Marena, Alpha Bah and the others also ask for the legal reasons why those criminals butchered their parents.

One Gambian has however raised to me his concern over the mystery and speed at which both Tumbul and Musa acquired what seemed to be the same kind of illness and died within six months. Being the top two Commanders of the “Jungulars” with the ongoing report that there are few more of them recently showing symptoms of the same ailment, my concerned friend sees beyond mere statistics of monsters dying one after the other. I was going to say who gives a darn about them as long as they are on the brink of perishing for the good of humanity until he drew my attention to what he suspects is a calculated campaign by somebody to get rid of all the brutal “Jugulars”. Ask for what particular reason and he quickly said, “They’ve done too much and know enough to indict the Jammeh government in any international human rights court.”

It was a statement that left me scratching my head for more facts.

Nevertheless, there is indeed a big puzzle lingering over where President Jammeh stands in this whole confusion. After claiming worldwide that he could cure every kind of disease known to mankind, I think he owes it to his believers to explain how his most obedient henchmen were killed by a sickness that evidently beat the potency of his mumbo-jumbo medicines. Where was that voice that he said would speak to him straight from the Quran letting him know when a person must die? Has it gone mute or is it another one of those things he would soon dispute as something he had never said before?

Mr. Sankareh: I cannot conclude without once again revisiting my recent topic of interest, the MFDC trial in The Gambia. I have done a little research over the week and was startled by the information I gathered from various sources. The men being tried according to one informer are actually members of the MFDC who for quite a while now have been cooperating with the Senegalese government to stop the war, restore everlasting peace, repatriate the refugees who fled the region, and help start a positive reconstruction scheme. They are after all the good ones who deserve support for their realization that another little nation carved in the region called Cassamance will only pose serious problems to the inhabitants and their neighbors. Without independence they are already going after each other’s jugular veins over disagreements on how to organize an all-inclusive government with the different interest groups aiming at divergent objectives.

They will for instance be very well likely to wrestle with the kind of official language the new nation would adopt after independence. English for Jammeh’s information could completely be ruled out. However the Mandinkas concentrated at the southern part of the region tend to fancy their affinity with Guinea Bissau and might root in for Portuguese instead of French; the Jolas on the other hand whose transaction have throughout their struggle been conducted in French might prefer to retain that patrimonial dialect. By all indications that could be a major sticking point to any aspiration for unity or progress. And the chances are Senegal, Gambia and Guinea Bissau will be caught up in the whole mess for perhaps two or three more decades again ultimately wrecking the fragile economies of all those nations. Apparently if peace is not given a chance the desire for political, social and economic progress will continue to elude our societies forcing everyone into taking the risk of leaving the region. No wonder, everyday thousands of our desperate people perish at sea in their attempts to leave their suffocating homes thanks to the difficulties posed by the Cassamance war. Yes it is my strong opinion that the war in Cassamance, for over two decades, has negatively affected the social and economic progress of the entire region and until we find a permanent solution to it, our future will remain bleak.

Therefore, those Cassamance rebels determined to find and establish that peace, in my conclusion, merit every support and encouragement and not the prosecution they are facing in The Gambia.

As a matter of fact the money they are accused of receiving from the Senegalese government that many Gambians are made to believe is payment for them to carry out spying activities in the country are special stipends for their upkeep and encouragement in their noble course. My informer also said that the reason Jammeh is subjecting them to such humiliation and punishment is to break their trust in the Senegalese government something that he believes would leave them with the Hobson’s choice of returning to their old way-WAR TILL INDEPENDENCE. Anyway, it looks like he is doing a pretty good job in driving a wedge between the peace-seeking rebels and their Senegalese sponsors especially, when President Wade’s government seem to be indifferent to the illegal prosecution their allies are subjected to in The Gambia. Even if Jammeh is on his old tricks like what happened to the Senegalese custom officers who were arrested, tried and sentenced but immediately pardoned, I think the rebels have over suffered in the Gambia and their trust in the Senegalese government already shaken.

Extending the time it is taking to conclude the case is not also helping but causing more damage to the peace process. I am now reading that the rebels are accusing The Gambia government of killing some of their colleagues. If that is true then I will say that Jammeh has now crossed the line and in the process created for The Gambia a complex situation fraught with all kinds of problems and pitfalls. It could be the ultimate cause of his downfall. Keep that in mind.