Ramadan Special:Virtues of Ramadan

by Maulana Muhammad Zakariyya Kaandhawi

Salman (RA) reports that " On the last day of Shabaan, Rasulullah (SAW) addressed us and said, 'O people there comes over to you a great month, a most blessed month in which lies a night more greater in virtue than a 1000 months. It is a month in which Allah has made fating compulsory by day. And has made sunnah the Taraaweeh (Nafilo as in Mandika) by night. Whosoever intends drawing near to Allah by performing any virtuous deed, for such person shall be the reward like the one who had perform fardh in any other time. And whoever performs a fardh shall be blessed with the reward of 70 faraa-idh in any other time.

This is indeed the month of patience, and the reward for true patience is paradise. It is the month of sympathy with one's fellowmen. It is the month wherein a true believer's sustenance is increased. Whosoever feeds another who fasted, in order to break the fast (at sunset), for the feeder there shall be forgiveness of sins and emancipation from the fire of hell, and for such feeder shall be the same reward as the one who who fasted (who he fed) without that person's reward being decreased in the least."

Thereupon we said, "O Messenger of Allah, not all of us possess the means whereby we can give a fasting person to break his fast." Rasulullah (SAW) replied, "Allah grants the same reward to one who gives a fasting person to break the fast a mere date, or drink of water or a sip of milk."

"This is a month, the first of which brings Allah's mercy, the middle of which brings His forgiveness and the last of which brings emancipation from the fire of hell. Whosoever lessens the burden of his servants in this month, Allah will forgive him and free him from the fire of hell. And in this month, four things you should continue to perform in great number, two of which shall be to please your Lord, while the other two shall be those without which you cannot do. Those which shall be to please your Lord, are that you should in great quantity bear witness that there is no diety to worship except Allah (i.e. recite the Kalimah Laa Ilaaha Illallah) and make must Istighfaar (beg Allah's forgiveness with Astaghfirulaah). And as for those without which you cannot do, you should beg of Allah enterance into paradise and ask refuge in Him from hell."

"And whoever gave a person who fasted water to drink, Allah shall grant that giver to drink from My fountain, such a drink whereafter that person shall never again feel thirsty until he enters paradise."

Abu Hurayrah (RA) relates that Rasulullah (SAW) said "My ummah were given five things for Ramadan which were not given to anyone except them. For them the smell from the mouth of a fasting person is more sweater to Allah than the fragrant smell of musk. On their behalf, the fish in the sea seek forgiveness for the fasting persons until the break their fast. Allah prepares and decorates a special garden in paradise everyday and then says (to it), "The time is near when the faithful servants shall cast aside the great trials of the world and come to you." In this month (for them) evil-minded Shaytaan is chained so as not to reach unto those evils to which they normally reach during other months besides Ramadan. On the last night of Ramadan they are forgiven."

The Sahaabah (RA) thereupon enquired, "O messenger of Allah, is that last night Laylatul Qadr? Rasulullah (SAW) replied, "No. But it is only right that a servant should be given his reward on having complete his service."

Ubaadah bin Saamit (RA) reported that Rasulullah (SAW) one day said when Ramadan had drawn near, "Ramadan, the month of blessing has come to you, wherein Allah turns towards you and sends down to you His special mercy, forgives faults, accept prayers, looks at your competitions for the greatest good and boasts to His angels about you. So show Allah your righteousness from yourselves. For verily the most pitable and unfortunate one is the one who is deprived of Allah's mercy in this month."

Abu Saed Khudri relates that Rasulullah (SAW) said, "Everyday and night in Ramadan Allah sets free a great number of souls from hell. And every Muslim during everyday abd night there is a time when duaa is certainly accepted.

Please remember me in your duas.

To be continued

More media organisations decries jailing of GPU Six

The Media-for-Democracy in Nigeria group (MFD), comprising Media Rights Agenda (MRA), Journalists for Democratic Rights (JODER), Independent Journalism Centre (IJC) and the International Press Centre (IPC), hereby decries the jailing of six Gambia journalists on August 6, 2009.

The affected journalists including three officials of the Gambia Press Union (GPU), Sarata Jabbi Dibba (Vice President); Emil Touray (Secretary General) and Pa Modou Fall (Treasurer); as well as The Point Newspaper's Pap Saine (Publisher); Ebou Sawaneh (Editor) and Sam Sarr, Editor of Foroyaa newspaper were all sentenced to a two year jail term and fined USD10,000 each for alleged sedition and defamation by a High Court.

The MFD calls on Nigerian President Umaru Yar'Adua to show leadership as the Chair of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) by intervening in the matter to secure a reversal of this unwholesome judgment particularly in the light of the fact that a Nigerian judge has been used to perpetrate this travesty of justice.

We call on West African, African and international human and civil rights movements not to spare any effort towards ensuring that the unwelcome jdugment is reversed as it constitutes unacceptable affront on press freedom in the country. We surely cannot keep silent in the face of this grave injustice and assault on the union and journalistic rights of the jailed colleagues.

It is indeed worrisome and certainly provocative that the alleged sedition and defamation arose from the jailed journalists' persistent demand on Gambian President Yahya Jammeh to account for the gunning to death of Deyda Hydara on December 16, 2004. The killers of Hydra, former publisher of the Point and well-known critic of President Jammeh's government, are yet to be apprehended five years on. The MFD demands the unconditional release of the six journalists.

President Jammeh should realise that neither their imprisonment nor other forms of assault on the media in the Gambia will stop the international media community from demanding that his government accounts for the killing of Hydara by finding the killers.

GPU-USA Sends More Money to Chief Manneh Family

Press Release

The GPU-USA has disbursed more funds to help the family of dissappeared Gambian journalist, Chief Ebrima Manneh. A couple of weeks ago, GPU-Gambia received a little over D12, 000 from GPU-USA Treasurer Joe Sambou. The monies were channelled through GPU President Ndey Tapha Sosseh.

This morning, Ndey Tapha forwarded the email below from one of her colleagues in Bajul reporting that another installment of D2,500 has been handed over to Chife Manneh's father. The GPU-USA will continue helping Chief Manneh's family as lond as funds permit.

We continue to solicit contributions to the Chief Manneh Family fund on an ongoing basis. Those wishing to contribute can send their contributions to Joe DSambou in the U.S. or Njok Malik Jeng in the U.K. The GPU-USA weishes to thank all who have chipped in to help this family. Below is the relevant portion of the email forwarded to GPU-USA by Ndey Tapha Sosseh.

"Yesterday we took the money - D2,500 to the family of Chief manneh in Kombo Lamin. Receiving the money on behalf of the family, Sarjo Manneh the father of chief Manneh once again commended GPU Gambia and the GPU USA for the love and care both unions have demonstrated since the missing of his son three years ago. He aslo prayed for all."

Thanks all.

Baba G. Jallow
Secretary General
GPU-USA

At Jammeh's mercy

RPT


Whenever I take a serious look at the Gambia, the more worried I get concerning the political situation of the country. The country is fast sinking and nothing is being done to save it.

By PK Jarju

It is sinking not because the general population is unaware, but because they feel they cannot do anything to stop it.

The Gambia looks like a hijacked ship being flown to an unknown destination. For the past 14 years, a man who many Gambians don't want as their head of state is holding a gun to the captain's head and the passengers and the rest of the crew are all too terrified to say a word or stop him.


The principles that were supposed to make you and me safe in our own land of birth and protect us from such political madness have been badly tampered with to favour the head of state. He is given full control of our land of birth and is empowered to do whatever he wants, anytime, anyhow and to anyone.

He is applauded for anything he does or say whether good or bad. The head of state is said to love our country so much so that anything he does or says is seen as in our best interest. He is seen as a messiah, puritan and reformer hand picked by Almighty God Himself to make the Gambia a prosperous country and a giant of the sub-region.

As a country of true believers, we believe in anything we are told by our head of state even when he told us without any prove that he have discovered a cure for HIV/Aids. Despite him being the richest Gambian, we contributed millions of our hard earned taxes towards his HIV treatment programme.

Patriotism to our head of state, is defined by how much you love and support him. He comes first and the country second. You cannot claim to love the country without loving him. Be the most qualified Gambian but there is no job for you in any government department if you don't worship the head of state.

Our head of state is the heart of all government organs. They operate round him and him alone. The executive dance to his tune and the National Assembly smoothens his path. Every bill he drafted is quickly enacted into law. The judiciary feared him and follows every order he barks.

Anything which is against the head of state is seen as an enemy. And enemy that should be destroyed in the national interest. Criticisms are never welcome. Try telling the head of state how to govern the people and life will be made difficult for you. So difficult that you wish you were never born.

Journalists get bullets put through their heads, their houses and printing machines set on fire, arrested, tortured and media houses closed down on bogus charges. Political opponents are always hunted down, arrested, tortured, jailed or buried six feet deep.

Gambians don't trust each other any more. We cannot talk freely to each other without looking at our backs. Political discussions are out of the way. Talk about the head of state and you risk spending months in a secret detention centre, where you will be tortured and subjected to all sort of inhumane treatment.

Once you are arrested, forget about getting a lawyer. Many of the top lawyers will simply say no to your request as they don't want to upset the head of state. Our legal practitioners according to the London based International Bar Association are "operating under challenging conditions due to the existence of ongoing incidents of harassment and intimidation, which have created a climate of fear in the profession.

It added that government exhibits hostility and suspicion in its dealings with the legal profession which it perceives as an oppositional force, and there is currently an atmosphere of fear amongst lawyers, emanating from the attempted murder of a lawyer and several other incidents of harassment and intimidation of lawyers, that they may face serious adverse consequences as a result of their acceptance of certain causes on behalf of their clients.

The name of our head of state's is sacred. He is worshipped like Lord Voldermort in the Harry Potter series and disobedience is regarded as the worst crime.

In The Gambia today, an accused person is presumed guilty even before being tried in court. Get arrested by our security officers and you risk losing all your friends. You become stigmatised and people become even too scared to get close to you. Fall out with the head of state and no company will dream of even employing you as a cleaner. Ask former KMC mayor, Abdoulie Conteh, for Imam of Banjul International Airport to name just a few and they will tell you.

It may be easy to convince yourself that because you have good personal relations with senior people in the Gambian government you Will be protected in someway if things go wrong. Maybe if you are a close family member of the head of state. If you are an ordinary Gambian then you are on your own.

Your highly placed friends will deny ever knowing you for they have their own careers, their own lives to protect.

What a tragic demise of democracy in a country that shelters the headquarter of African Centre for Human Rights studies? God help us.

Gambian soldier reported missing

By Fabakary B. Ceesay

Information gathered by Foroyaa spoke of the arrest and detention of Private Alagie Saidykhan of the Gambia Armed Forces and a native of Jarra Kanikunda in the lower River Region. According to the information, the soldier went missing since early May, 2009, at Farafenni Military Barracks. Private Alagie Saidykhan is said to be stationed at Farafenni with the second Infantry Battalion and was said to have joined the army in intake 28.

Foroyaa contacted the relatives to find out the veracity of the claims. A cousin brother of private Saidykhan alleged that Saidykhan was arrested at Farafenni barracks and escorted by the military police (MP) to Banjul. He indicated that since that day they did not know his whereabouts. He said they tried to locate him at various security installations but to no avail.
Foroyaa has been contacting the Public Relations Officer of The Gambia Armed Forces, Lieutenant Omar Bojang but no information is forthcoming concerning the matter. He on many occasions asked for more time to look into the matter from the concerned authorities. Up to the time of going to press, we could not get any reaction from him on the matter.

FOROYAA

Report backs novel approach to improving forest governance

Researchers working with forest community groups and policy makers in ten countries in Africa and Asia have developed a novel way to improve the flow of social and environmental benefits from tropical forests, according to an independent evaluation of an International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) project published today.

"With forests set to take centre stage in a new global deal to tackle climate change, there is a desperate search underway for proven ways to improve governance to ensure that forest resources are managed for the public good,” says project leader and head of IIED’s Natural Resources Group, James Mayers .

“That search should look at what’s been achieved by the Forest Governance Learning Group (FGLG). Its experience shows how to improve governance in ways that lead to tangible changes in policy with positive impacts on people who depend on forests.”



Through stimulating, for example, improved parliamentary debate, enhanced civil society action and more informed journalism, the project has achieved impacts such as:



· Forest-dependent households living around Mabira forest in Uganda have more secure livelihoods after action which successfully reversed a government decision to degazette the forest and convert it to sugar plantations

· Small scale forest enterprises in South Africa can now operate within a framework of simplified, rationalised and improved policies

· Indigenous community groups in Orissa state, India have increased access rights to collect and manage non-timber forest products in state forest land

· In Vietnam , improved governance frameworks have enabled practical actions for locally beneficial community forestry

· Several investments in logging deals that were over-exploitative of local forests and livelihoods have been questioned and prevented by high-level action in Mozambique



In each country, IIED and partners set up FGLG teams to bring together representatives of communities, governments, civil society organisations and businesses to explore the drivers of poor forest governance and to influence national and sub-national policymaking.



The groups enabled varied stakeholders to build trust and learn from each other whilst identifying positive policy changes suited to local circumstances and priorities.



To assess the work’s impact so far and what can be learned from it, IIED commissioned an independent evaluation by Tom Blomley of Acacia Consulting.



Blomley’s report, published today, concludes that the project’s specific object of improved governance of forest resources in ten countries in Africa and Asia “will largely be met in most of the ten countries”.



It adds: “Strong examples of this come from Ghana , South Africa and Indonesia where important policy changes have been effected as a direct result of the work of the learning groups in those countries.”



The report notes that the level of impact generated in terms of learning, as well as improved governance, is high despite the project’s modest cost.



“The decentralised manner in which FGLG has worked across the ten countries has provided an important testing ground for locally-driven and innovative approaches,” it states.



James Mayers adds, “Many forest problems are questions of social justice. Where FGLG country teams are working well they have shown how practical steps to greater social justice and sustainable local livelihoods can be taken even when very powerful players are up against them. This provides strong lessons for efforts to support forest governance as a climate change mitigation strategy – known as REDD (Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation).”



The FGLG project has been funded by a grant from the European Commission and co-financing from the Dutch Government (DGIS). A new proposal to extend the activities of the initiative for an additional five years from January 2009 has been approved by the EC.

Our Encounter With Jammeh's Witch-Hunters

Jambur villagers speaks out


By Dan McDougall
Banjul, Gambia


DRESSED in ankle-length vermilion robes, adorned with hundreds of tiny cracked mirrors, the witch-hunters had first been spotted by watchmen, through the flames of their campfires, emerging from the bush in the dead of night.

Aroky Bajung, a mother of six, was one of the first sleeping villagers to wake. She caught fleeting glimpses of ceremonial gowns glinting in the moonlight as the tall strangers flitted between houses like ghosts. She grabbed her children and cowered under her bed, praying for morning to come.

By daybreak the fitful dreams of the villagers of Jambur in western Gambia had become a terrifying reality as they woke to the sound of screams and a spidery trail of blood and animal entrails. Before them, flanked by mysterious red-cloaked strangers, stood the notorious Green Boys, Gambia’s feared private militia.

“We have work to do here,” the soldiers shouted. “The president’s work.”

Within two hours the soldiers had seized more than 100 people. Simultaneously across Gambia another 1,200 suspected witches, both men and women, were rounded up. Shaking with fear, they were taken to secret government detention centres.

Here their nightmare really began. In the name of Yahya Jammeh, Gambia’s dictator, they had been singled out for exorcism. Accused of being witches, they were blamed for the death of the president’s beloved aunt. By nightfall at least six had died after they were forced to drink a mysterious potion. Those who survived the foul concoction spent the following days racked with pain. Some claimed to have bled from their eyeballs.

An Amnesty International report noted that Jammeh, 44, has presided over a dramatic deterioration in human rights. Last week he sacked his ambassador to Washington a day before she was due to meet Amnesty officials to discuss human rights abuses.

Until now the villagers of Jambur and 20 other small communities have been too terrified to speak out against their president and his witch-hunt.

“I remember the scarlet flashes, the glinting of their robes. My children wake up crying, asking me when the men are coming back to take them,” said Bajung, 35. She believes she was seized because she had tried to help an elderly neighbour.

She added: “Here we are taught to worship the elderly. The witch doctors were smearing them with paste and shouting spells at them. When I tried to stop them I was bundled onto an army bus.”

Within an hour she and 100 others from Jambur were taken for a mass exorcism. They were forced to strip and drink the concoction that made them hallucinate and gave them severe pains. “People were vomiting blood and having fits. It was terrifying,” she said.

During the witch-hunts, which were orchestrated by the Green Boys, Jammeh’s most militant supporters, thousands fled over the Senegal border. Others were shot in the head.

In the tiny village of Makumbaya, Hawa Jallow and Kaody Soee, the first and second wives of Mamadou Bah Fulla, 60, said the murder of their husband by the Green Boys had left their family destitute. Jallow said: “The Green Boys said they had come for the witches who had killed the president’s aunt.

They said the president had heard in a dream that witches had come to kill her and now they must pay the price.”

After a few days other villagers began to return but there was no sign of their husband.

“We went to the nearest barracks to ask where he was, but nobody knew,” added Jallow. “A week later we found out he was dead. A doctor who looked at some of the other victims said they had kidney problems from drinking the potion.”

The witch-hunts are only a small part of the deadly and bizarre behaviour of Gambia’s president. In a recent speech in Banjul, the capital, he repeated his belief that all journalists should be killed. Recently he jailed six of Gambia’s most prominent journalists for two years.

Earlier this year Jammeh held a mass demonstration of his homemade cure for Aids. He invited thousands of local victims of the disease to abandon western anti-retroviral drugs and line up at the gates of his palace to try his herbs and banana remedy. A doctor who criticised the call to abandon the medication was jailed.

Superstition and mysticism go hand in hand under Jammeh’s erratic rule. He regularly threatens to behead homosexuals and drive them out of the country. He also declared that only he can drive through the giant arch built to commemorate his 1994 coup.

He has won three elections since seizing power. The first, in 1996, was dismissed as “unfair” by observers and the second, in 2001, was won with 53% of the vote after a campaign marred by bloodshed. He won two-thirds of votes cast in 2006 but opposition leaders complained of intimidation.

Back in Jambur, Karomo Bojang, an imam, is one of 40 Muslims taken in the witch-hunts. “Why did they use witch doctors to force me and my neighbours to drink some unworldly potion?,” he asked.

“We are living among madness. Our lives are in the hands of a lunatic.”

Courtesy of the Sunday Times, UK

Rantings of an Angry Despot

By Baba Galleh Jallow

When I make my wanted list people say I make my wanted list. They go out there and open their big mouths and say Jumus is this Jumus is that. When I say yes they say no. When I say left they say right. When I wear my special juju they say oh he’s wearing his special juju this, his special juju that. And when I put them on my wanted list they say he has put us on his wanted list. Well, they can all go to hell but they will be on my wanted list and if they don’t like it let them come and face me here. Maa Ko Tey Beh Teyatiko! Wahal? Maa Ko Wah!!


I must tell you all that I am sick and tired of all the nonsense that so-called journalists and intellectuals spit out of their big mouths. They say they are criticizing Jumus because Jumus appointed missionary judges. Or they say they are criticizing Jumus because Jumus sent some stupid idiots to prison. Or they are criticizing Jumus because Jumus says he will deal with criminals in this country. Or they will criticize Jumus because Jumus has a zoo and a private plane. Or Jumus can cure this or Jumus can cure that. Or Jumus has done this and Jumus has done that. Well I will tell them that I do not give a damn what they say or what their masters in the so-called western democracy say. If you decide to say that Jumus is wrong, or Jumus should not say this, or Jumus should not say that, you must be prepared to go on my list, to go to jail, or go six feet deep. In fact, you will go six thousand feet deep. And let your so-called western democracy do anything about it. Munemu? Haa? Jumaaleng?


When I risked my life to free this country from the corrupt regime of the former so-called president, where were all of you big mouths who now say Jumus is this and Jumus is that? Ha? When I got out of my bed in the middle of the night and carried my heavy gun and risked my life to save this country, all of you were lying in bed with your wives and having good dreams. And now you come here and say Jumus this and Jumus that. If you carry your gun and go into the forest and you kill a deer, who will say that the deer you killed is not yours? Or if you go into the forest and climb up a big tree and pick some fruit, who will say that the fruit is not yours? Do they not know that if you go hunting or you climb a tall tree a wild animal could attack you or you could fall down and break your neck? Why then should any stupid fool come out and say Jumus should not do this or Jumus should not say that? Or Jumus should be democracy or Jumus is not fair or Jumus this Jumus that and Jumus the other thing? Haa?


I want you all to listen to me very carefully because I am sick and tired of all this nonsense talk about so-called democracy or so-called human right rule of law or some such nonsense. If you go to the so-called west and you wear so-called western clothes and you want to come here and talk to me about so-called democracy, I will put you on my wanted list. You don’t know what so-called democracy is and you say you want to tell me some nonsense about so-called rule of so-called law and so-called human right. If you think you are wise or you are brave, come face me and try to tell me all that so-called nonsense. All of you big mouths hiding in the so-called west and trying to criticize me do not even know what your so-called democracy, law of rule or human right means. Human right human right my foot! You say human right human right but you don’t know what human right is. And you say you want to criticize me because I am not human right. Haa?


You commit crimes in my personal country and you run like cowards and you go and beg the so-called west for asylum. And then you open your big mouth and say Jumus should not say this, Jumus should not say that. You don’t even know that the so-called west came to Africa and stole our ancestors and our gold and silver and they made us their slaves. And when we fought and drove them out, now they want to come back to Africa and colonize us again. And they use you so-called journalists and so-called intellectuals and so-called civilians to criticize me and try to make me afraid so that they can come back and colonize this country. I will tell you that if they want to do that they will do it over my dead body. If they are brave and they think they can challenge me in my own personal country or tell me what to do, let them come and face me right here. They will then know who Jumus is. They will then know that Jumus is not afraid of anything in this world or the next. Or even in outer space. As for some of you traitors, you are all guilty of treason and sedition and defamation according Section 67, sub section 2 of my own personal criminal code. And I will put you on my wanted list and if I catch you – if I catch you - Ballayy Ballayy Ballayy, you will know who Gankal Jumus is.


When I employ my own personal judges to enforce my own personal law and pay my own personal judges in my own personal country with my own personal money, you open your big mouths and say Gankal Jumus should not employ a missionary judge, or judge so and so is a missionary judge. Or judge so and so is a missionary judge because he is not from our country. How dare you say our country? Haa? You all have no shame because this is not your country. If you think this is your country and you call yourself a man, come and face Gankal Jumus. You will then know that one day follows another and that I am not someone you can joke with. Ballayy Ballayy Ballayy, if I catch you – if I catch you - you will know that fire is hot!! Isa mad day!! That’s all I have to say.

Pap Saine 'very sick': medical source

One of six journalists jailed on August 6 for criticising Gambia's President Yahya Jammeh is "very sick" and was hospitalised overnight, a medical source said Thursday.

Pap Saine, the managing editor of the daily The Point and Gambian correspondent for Thomson-Reuters, "was rushed to hospital on Wednesday after he collapsed in his prison cell," said the source, who asked not to be named.

Media watchdog group Reporters Sans Frontieres (RSF - Reporters Without Borders) expressed concern in a statement Thursday about Saine's heart condition and said he had lost consciousness at one point in the court case.

"He needs to have a pacemaker inserted in his chest but the operation cannot be performed in Gambia and the authorities have prevented his repeated attempts to travel to Senegal for the operation," the RSF statement said.

The organisation also expressed concern for the only woman among the six, who have all been sentenced to two years in prison for publishing a statement critical of Jammeh in a case that has led to international protests.

Sarrata Jabbi-Dibba is a nursing mother with a seven-month-old baby whom she was breast-feeding, but on August 8, "prison guards took advantage of what they said would be a routine medical examination to take the baby from her," RSF said in the statement.

"They then promised she would be able to see the baby at least twice a day, but it is now with the Gambian child services at Bakoteh, 20 kilometres (about 12 miles) outside the capital..."

Jabbi-Dibba has thus not seen her child since August 8, it said.

The journalists are being held in the Mile Two prison in Banjul, after being convicted for a statement that criticised Jammeh after he told state television that the government had "no stake" in the 2004 murder of investigative journalist Deyda Hydara.

Jammeh instead suggested that Hydara's love life had led to his murder by unidentified gunmen, but the papers carried a Gambia Press Union statement protesting at provocative remarks and character assassination.

Hydara, the editor and co-founder of The Point and the Gambia correspondent for Agence France-Presse (AFP), was gunned down in his car on the outskirts of Banjul on December 16, 2004.

The authoritarian Jammeh has ruled Gambia for 15 years.

Reporters Without Border

Heavy Rains Cause Havoc In Upper Saloum

The Point

The heavy rains that lasted for several hours on Monday night, 10th August 2009 destroyed over 200 houses, 150 bags of rice and 200 bags of coos in Upper Saloum District, Central River Region.

Large quantities of clothing, mosquito-nets and bed sheets have also been destroyed.

Eye-witnesses also confirmed the death of 60 sheep and 50 goats, as a result of houses that collapsed on them.

The villages affected by the disaster are Njau Sey Kunda, Njau Woloff, Bantato Kerr Isaab, Bantanto Ker Waka, the Battis and Ker Galajo, all in the Upper Salum District.

Some of the displaced victims, most of them women and children are living in school classrooms, while others are sheltered by neighbours. The victims are currently struggling with acute shortage of food, clothing and shelter in all the affected villages.

The Governor of the region, Alhagi Gangie Touray, is appealing for immediate assistance in cash or kind from philanthropic organisations, the Disaster Management Agency, under the Vice-President’s Office, and other individuals who can assist to relieve the sufferings of the victims.

Source: Picture: Governor Alhagie Gang

Halifa Sallah writes to President Jammeh

Source: Foroyaa Newspaper

Mr. President,
It is now 3am in the morning. Sleep has surrendered to high level mental alert. Morning has enveloped my mind before the break of dawn. This is of course not unusual for those on whose shoulders rest the welfare of others. Such people have too little sleep to dream. What comes as dreams and nightmares to others stand right before their eyes as the naked realities they have to ponder during the early hours of the morning. Just as in the case of the witchcraft fiasco, duty has compelled me to knit my brow to find solution to a National tragedy.

Mr. President, the incarceration of Sam Sarr is not my major pre-occupation. Sam Sarr in prison is Halifa Sallah behind prison walls. We have both accepted the view since we cemented our relationship in 1977 that to be imprisoned and killed for righteousness sake is not a tragedy but a manifestation of the triumph of the human will against the temptation of self preservation and obsession for comfort in the face of duty’s calls for sacrifices in order to address the vital concerns of a generation.

We understood from the very beginning that to serve a people who are yet to take full charge of their destiny is not an easy task. It must cost sweat. It must cost unrewarded discomfort. We therefore became resolved not to run away from difficulties and hardship in our quest to make the sovereign people to realize their sovereign power and thus know how to exercise it in order to become free, dignified and sovereign. Once they become sovereign and have the authority to decide their destiny without inducement or intimidation, the cause of true liberation would have been won. This is why in our youthful days we used to sing the following song to consolidate our perseverance.

If you cut my hand I will still hold on
If you cut my lips I will still speak out
If you cut my feet I will still march on
No turning back, No turning back.

I am sure at this very moment Sam will be murmuring these words in his cell knowing fully well that it will not be long when the future generation will visit his cell as they are visiting Mandela’s cell at Robin Island to marvel at his undaunted fortitude and indented courage or valour to stand up for his principles, regardless of the peril or the cost.

I am not worried about Sam. I am writing to you about the state of the Nation, one that is now placed under your trust. I am writing from the vantage point of a person who has also sought to occupy the very position you are now occupying as a public trustee.

Hence I am in a better position to read your mind and contemplate what I would have done differently if I were in your position. This is what compelled me to address this letter to you.
Mr. President, every Nation has an internal and external personality. How it sees itself matters but how others see it also matters. It is the duty of every head of state to defend the internal and external reputation of a state.

Mr. President, I would like you to exploit your quiet moments to reflect on the genesis of the case of the six journalists. Rewind the tapes and play back the content of your statements about Deyda’s murder. If I were in your position the most I would have said is that I will leave no stone unturned in pursuing the culprits and bring them to justice. I would not have added a single word after the full stop. This would have been followed by diligent investigation of the case and constant call for public support to assist the investigators.

The drama at the court house, which witnessed the reading of your remarks and that of the President of the Gambia Press Union and coupled with the leading of evidence by Sam Sarr, on the substance of the statements, has brought the murder of Dyeda into sharp public focus. I must tell you without equivocation that the conclusion of the case is shocking to many people.

The media practitioners were convicted on all six counts. They are sentenced to 2 years imprisonment for each of the four counts which are to run concurrently. This means that they are sentenced to a mandatory imprisonment for a period of 2 years. They are to pay a fine of 250,000 dalasis for each of the other two counts which adds up to a total sum of 500,000 dalasis failing which they will serve jail terms of two years for each count.

In short, if they fail to pay the fine of D500,000 dalasis they will serve four years of imprisonment in addition to the two years they are currently serving. I can assure you that if the stiff sentences were in connection to Dyeda’s murderers, there would have been loud applause.

The legal outcome of the case of the journalists is known but what is important to you as a head of state is the impact it has on the internal and external personality of the nation you are heading. It is for you to ask those you trust to give you an impact assessment of the outcome of the case. It is for you to determine whether the association of Dyeda’s unresolved murder case with the diligent prosecution of journalists and stiff sentences meted out to them is enhancing or endangering the reputation of your government at home and abroad.

The Constitution has given you prerogatives to be able to provide redress to public concerns. It is my conviction that the best decision you could make with respect to the six journalists is not to wait for outside concerns to be registered with intense rapidity, on the contrary you should take the initiative to release them unconditionally.

Mr. President, it was mentioned during the proceedings that sedition shares a border line with treason. Mr. President, both Sam Sarr and my humble self were offered Ministerial posts after the 1994 coup but we declined the offer because of our conviction that we will only serve a government which derives its existence from the undiluted consent of a people freed from inducement or intimidation.

It is obvious that since 1987 Sam Sarr had never stood as a candidate for elections. He has devoted all his life to contribute to the empowerment of the people from an intellectual and civic point of view. In these two past years he has devoted his time to the production of learning materials for schools. He has produced two books on Mathematics for lower and upper basic schools and is now working on the third book for senior secondary schools.

He has also prepared manuscripts for producing a book on physics and journalism. Sam’s mind is not the devil’s play field which is fertile for mischief making. It is fertile for Knowledge production and ideas on how to serve humanity. He is a knowledge producer and a conscious sovereign person who deals with issues of governance from the standpoint of social conscience and social justice.

The way forward therefore is to put an end to this chapter by releasing the journalists and order diligent investigation into Deyda’s murder by relying on the available evidence.

On my part, I will pause for a while to gauge the National response. If there is delay in this response I will tour the sub-region to find out whether any head of state would accept to be an interlocutor by organising a round table to facilitate a resolution of the current problem. I will reach out farther a field if the response is slow.

Finally, if everything fails, I Halifa Sallah will not sleep in a comfortable home while Sam Sarr is incarcerated. I will demand that I join him and stay in prison until the Gambian people decide to support agenda 2011 and the Presidential candidate who will participate in the elections and accept to run a provisional government for a period of two years to five years in order to give a fresh start to the Gambian nation and sovereign people.

At first glance it would appear that our values are akin to the doctrine of turning the other cheek. In actual fact, no leader, including your very self has personal power. What you control is state power which belongs to the people. This power could either be derived from consent or seized.

We do not consider it moral to seize what we do not own. We do not want to be accused of being war lords like Foday Sankoh. We therefore are fully determined to inspire people through leadership by example. We will show the people that we are willing to suffer imprisonment and even death to promote the consolidation of a sovereign republic where leaders would be controlled by Constitutional instruments, Oversight institutions, civil society segments, wisdom of advisers and an enlightened populace fully conscious of their sovereign power to put and remove governments in office.

We are convinced that sooner or later the people will come to give full support to those who toil and moil day and night for them to enjoy liberty, dignity and prosperity and embrace them to guide the destiny of our dare mother land.

I however hope that your government which now controls the affairs of this country will spare us from martyrdom and rise up to its responsibility to create the environment where political parties can move in and out of office without any witch hunting, victimization, revenge or imposition of a reign of terror.

Yours in the service of the nation

Halifa Sallah

Womens' Right Movement Petitions Jammeh

His Excellency

Sheikh Prof. Alh. Yahya A.J.J Jammeh
President of the Republic of the Gambia
State House
Banjul

Date: 10th August, 2009

Your Excellency, The Womens' Rights movement of the Gambia would like to appeal to your good office regarding the matter of the jailed Journalists and in particular regarding Sarata Jabbi's case.

We would like to draw your attention to the fact that Sarata is a lactating mother of a 7 month old baby boy, who is incarcerated with his mother at the Mile 2 Central prison. The baby is completely innocent of the circumstances for which his mother is serving sentence. We are of the opinion that the baby's tender age requires that he be with his mother at all times, as no other person or institution can assume her role and responsibilities towards him.

The baby boy is totally dependent on his mother for feeding, care and support, which must be provided in an environment free from distress and frustration. The prison in which she has been incarcerated is not such an environment. In the light of this, we urge you to prevail in this matter with urgency, taking into consideration your government's commitment to upholding the basic principles of human rights and respecting the Conventions, Constitution and Policies it has ratified.

Your Excellency, it is not in the best interest of the child that he be obliged to formula feeding: his mother's choice to breastfeed him should be upheld: it is thus essential that they not be separated. The situation in which she currently finds herself threatens the proper nutrition of the child.

We also urge you to take into consideration that breastfeeding is a natural life saving process that only a mother can give to a child. Anything that threatens this puts the health and survival of the child at great risk.

We are aware that children are the most vulnerable groups with regards to nutrition due to the combined increased risk of death due to diarrhoea, pneumonia and under nutrition. This child faces this possibility if the mother remains in prison. An alternative to incarcerating a breast feeding or pregnant woman is to give a non-custodial or non-institutional sentence. This is the first option that should be considered given the special circumstances of Sarata and her seven months old baby who is totally dependent on her.

We wanted to take this occasion to remind you of some of the relevant articles regarding the matter of nursing/lactating and pregnant women in the International Conventions to which The Gambia is a State Party.
The African Charter on the Rights of the Child

Article 30: Children of Imprisoned Mothers:

1.States Parties to the present Charter shall undertake to provide special treatment to expectant mothers and to mothers of infants and young children who have been accused or found guilty of infringing the penal law shall in particular:

2. Ensure that a non custodial sentence will always be first considered when sentencing such mothers;

3. Establish and promote measures alternative to institutional confinement for the treatment of such mothers; and

(d) Ensure that a mother shall not be imprisoned with her child;
The Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa (Maputo Protocol)

Article 24: Special Protection of Women in Distress The States Parties undertake to:

b) Ensure the right of pregnant or nursing women or women in detention by providing them with an environment which is suitable to their condition and the right to be treated with dignity.

Provisions of the Childrens' Act 2005 The Gambia

Section 218: Restrictions on Punishment

A child shall not be

1. Ordered to be imprisoned; or

2. Subjected to the death penalty or have the death penalty recorded against him or her

2. A court shall, on sentencing an expectant or a nursing mother, consider the imposition of a non institutional sentence as an alternative measure to imprisonment.

3. Where institutional sentence is mandatory or desirable, an expectant or a nursing mother shall be committed to and be held or detained at an appropriate centre or place designated by the Secretary of State for that purpose.

4. No mother and child shall be held or detained at an appropriate centre in pursuance to subsection (3) for a period longer than the time the child would have attained the age of six years.
5. Where a mother who has completed her nursing period is further given a sentence of imprisonment, the child shall be treated as a child in need of care and protection and may be committed to the care of the person who will ordinarily have custody, or by a committal order to

1.His or her father; or
2.A fit and proper person
The 1997 Constitution of the Republic of The Gambia

Section 29: Right of Children

1.Children shall have the right from birth to a name, the right to acquire a nationality and subject to legislation enacted in the best interest of children, to know and be cared for by their parents.

In the light of the above provisions we urge you to intervene in this case to protect, promote and respect the rights of this innocent child and his mother, who is performing a biologically required responsibility to protect life.

We would like to call your attention to your commitment to womens' concerns and to protect the child and his mother in her sex specific role as a lactating mother. This is an issue we fervently solicit.

Yours faithfully
The Womens' Rights Movement in The Gambia

Signed on behalf of the Movement

Dr Isatou Touray
Executive Director

IFJ and INSI Join Global Call for Release of Pap Saine and Co

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and the International News Safety Institute (INSI) today called for the urgent release of jailed journalists in Gambia, adding their voices to growing global protest at the press freedom crisis in the country after judges jailed six journalists for two years last week because they had supported a statement by the country's press union criticising the government.

"Intolerant government has created a culture of neglect for free speech and human rights," said Aidan White, IFJ General Secretary. "The jailing of journalists simply because they express dissent is a sign of a country betraying the fundamental principles of democracy. These colleagues should be released without delay."

The journalists jailed include three members of the Gambian Press Union, an IFJ affiliate, and two reporters from The Point newspaper and one working for Foroyaa newspaper. According to agency reports, the court in the capital Banjul sentenced them to two years in prison and fines of 250,000 dalasi ($9,700) each, said the source, who was present at the hearing.

Seven were arrested in June after the Gambia Press Union issued a statement critical of the government's treatment of journalists, especially after the killing in 2004 of veteran reporter Deyda Hydara. One of the seven was later released.

"This was a trial that showed the dead hand of political interference in the honest work of journalists," said Rodney Pinder, Director of INSI. "This action, added to the killing that preceded it, underlines the continuing threat to the safety of all news media who are trying to do their jobs, often in circumstances of great danger."

INSI and the IFJ are also calling on democratic governments and world financial organisations to review their development aid to countries like Gambia where journalists work under threat of violence or imprisonment.

The IFJ and INSI said that the decision to prosecute the journalists on charges of seditious publication and criminal defamation for republishing the press union statement was inexplicable and vindictive. It was, they said, an attempt to "intimidate the entire community of Gambian journalists."

The two groups said that there were also urgent humanitarian concerns over the medical condition of one of the journalists, Pap Saine, who needs medical attention for a heart condition and collapsed in court at one stage during the trial.

Press freedom required for good governance"-Hillary Clinton

Reporters Without Borders (http://www.rsf.org)

Press release
US secretary of state Hillary Clinton should stress the need to respect press freedom during her talks with government officials on the seven-nation African tour she has just begun in Kenya, Reporters Without Borders said today.

“We welcome the US secretary of state’s decision to accord Africa a tour of this length,” Reporters Without Borders said. “We share her interest in combating corruption and we would like to stress that this requires defending press freedom. A journalist who exposes kickbacks, fraud or embezzlement in Africa is immediately harassed, arrested or even jailed.”

The press freedom organisation added: “This tour offers the United States a chance to send a strong signal to African leaders by insisting that they pledge to respect basic freedoms. It also offers a chance to send a message of encouragement to their citizens, who are often punished if they dare to express their views freely. It is regrettable that certain countries are not on the programme, such as Gambia, which has the worst press freedom situation in West Africa.”

On the first day of the Nairobi leg of her tour yesterday, Clinton urged African states to combat corruption and crime and to promote “good governance.” Before leaving the Kenyan capital, Reporters Without Borders thinks she should ensure that the authorities are deploying all possible resources to solve the murder of freelance journalist Francis Kainda Nyaruri, whose decapitated body was found in a forest in the southwest of the country on 29 January.

Shortly before his death, Nyaruri said he had been threatened by police officers whose behaviour he had criticised. “Only the arrest of both the perpetrators and instigators will serve to reassure Kenya’s journalists, who have been deeply traumatised by this appalling murder,” Reporters Without Borders said.

While in Nairobi, Clinton is also due to meet Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, the president of Somalia’s transitional government, which has been weakened by the Islamist militia Al-Shabaab’s offensive. With 14 journalists killed since the start of 2007, Somalia is the deadliest country in Africa for the media and the US government should encourage the authorities to protect journalists.

While the arbitrary arrests, kidnappings and murders of journalists in Somalia are already extremely worrying, Clinton should bear mind that an Al-Shabaab victory over the government forces would have a dramatic impact on basic freedoms and especially freedom of the press.

After South Africa and Angola, Clinton will have an opportunity in Kinshasa to share her concern with President Joseph Kabila about the impunity enjoyed by those who killed Radio Okapi journalists Serge Maheshe and Didace Namujimbo in Bukavu (the capital of the eastern province of Sud-Kivu).

The trial of those who allegedly gunned down Maheshe on 13 June 2007 was a complete fiasco that has been denounced by many local and international human rights groups. The military court in charge of investigating the murder of Namujimbo, who was shot in the head on 21 November 2008, has yet to hold its first hearing.

Clinton’s talks in Nigeria with President Musa Yar’Adua will undoubtedly touch on the recent deadly clashes between the security forces and Islamist militants in the north of the country as well as Nigeria’s oil-fuelled powerhouse economy. She should also remind him that journalism is a dangerous profession in Nigeria.

Journalists are constantly the victims of street violence, heavy-handed raids and beatings by the police and the State Security Service, and arbitrary arrest by provincial governors, who often abuse their authority. After Gambia, Nigeria is the West African country that shows least respect for press freedom, according to the 2008 Reporters Without Borders press freedom index.

While on her way from Liberia to Cape Verde, the former First Lady would ideally detour via Banjul in order to tell Gambian President Yahya Jammeh how much his behaviour appals human rights activists and pro-democracy campaigners.

Seven journalists who are leading members of the Gambia Press Union are currently being harassed and prosecuted for criticising Jammeh. At the same time, he has been making provocative and threatening comments about journalists on the state-owned broadcaster GRTS and does not hesitate to throw leading figures in prison as if they were common bandits.

“Firm condemnation of this situation by Washington would have the merit of ending the deafening silence about Gambia’s human rights violations and would reassure the sizable Gambian diaspora in the United States,” Reporters Without Borders said.

“The US intelligence services could also take the opportunity to release the information they have about the circumstances in which Deyda Hydara, the editor of the privately-owned newspaper The Point, was murdered in 2004,” Reporters Without Borders added. In the course of two detailed investigations into Hydara’s murder, the press freedom organisation found evidence indicating that President Jammeh’s security services were involved

UDP Reacts To GPU Six Conviction

The conviction of EBRIMA SAWANEH and his colleagues last week is the climax of the continuous erosion of the freedom of speech which started with APRC decrees No 70 and 71.

Whilst there is no dispute that every government to enact laws and provide for the appropriate mechanism for these, no government has the moral authority to deprive any class of citizens the right of freedom of expression of views and opinion by the use of archaic colonial legislations that have lost relevance in their countries of origin.

Media Practitioners(the Private) press have valiantly warded off the evil effects of decrees No 70&71 and the Newspapers(Amendment) Act 2004 by the proprietors and managers of various media houses fulfilling the stringent conditions stipulated in these Decrees and Act.

The current administration in the Gambia that falsely prides itself as a democratic one took umbrage under the now repealed section 210 of the constitution to enact the ill-fated National Media Commission Act which itself was repealed.

The administration’s inability to use the Media Commission Act to suppress the free press in the Gambia led it to craft other obnoxious amendments to the Criminal Code in 2004 by providing for mandatory six months imprisonment without an option of fine for Sedition and Possession of seditious publication redefined libel (criminal) and provided for “a term of imprisonment of not less than six months without an option of fine”.

The 2004 amendment created the offence of false publication and broadcasting imposing the same punishment as it does for sedition and libel. Realising that the 2004 amendment to the Criminal Code has not produced the desired negative effect on the independent media, the administration enacted yet another press muzzling legislation in 2005 which amended sections 51,178 and 181A of the Criminal Code by increasing the sentences provided for to range from a fine of not less than D50, 000 to no more than D250, 000 or imprisonment of not less than two years and not more than five years.

These amendments show how the administration has resorted to the use of legislation to scuttle the growth of a free and vibrant press in the Gambia. It shows how an unscrupulous regime can give an aura of legality and lawfulness to its objective of restricting freedom of expression guaranteed by the Constitution. No journalist exercising his right to publish any material and no person exercising his right to freedom of speech and expression has a right to malign others or without justification defame others. It is equally true that no one whatever his position in society has a right to make any statement that is derogatory, contemptuous or insulting to any person. Those who enjoy certain constitutional privileges and immunities must be circumspect and well measured in their remarks about other people.

We do not question the legality of the conviction and sentence imposed on Mr. Sawaneh and his colleagues. We however question the moral justification for their trial and subsequent conviction and sentence when one considers that the two media houses reproduced the reaction to some aspects of the President’s interview with KEBBA DIBBA of GRTS.

We are also concerned with the custodial sentence because it is bound to have adverse effects on the media houses these imprisoned journalists work for as well as the Gambia Press Union. Messers Sawaneh, Pap Saine and Pa Modou Faal all working for the Point Newspaper whilst Sam Sarr and Bai Emil Touray both work with Foroyaa Newspaper. Any objective and dispassionate on looker cannot but conclude that the sentences are meant to close down these Media Houses.

Sarata Jabbie Dibba, Bai Emil Touray, and Pa Modou Faal are respectively the Vice President, Secretary General and Treasurer of the Gambia Press Union. The custodial sentence imposed on them coupled with the absence of the President of the GPU from The Gambia will greatly hamper the effective functioning of the GPU-the result a press union on paper.

The other moral dimension about the custodial sentence relates to Sarata Jabbie Dibba’s participation in the publication of the seditious and defamatory matter might be, consideration ought to have been given to her peculiar condition. The Children’s Act does envisage people in Sarata Jabbie Dibba’s situation and accordingly directs all courts in sentencing an expectant or a nursing mother to consider the imposition of a non institutional (custodial) sentence as an alternative measure to imprisonment.

The trend in the world is to ‘de-criminalize speech.’ This is in accord with all modern Constitutions. The Gambia should not be an exception to this. The Gambia proposed to and lobbied other African governments to agree to the adoption of the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights-the Banjul Charter. This Charter provides for freedom of the press and freedom of expression.

We need not to move beyond rhetoric and give concrete expression to our commitment to respect the rights of the media and media practitioners. We must do all it takes to demonstrate to our African brothers and others outside African that the Gambia is a deserving host for the African Centre for Democracy and Human Rights Studies as well as the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights.

The Jammeh administration should as a matter of urgency introduce a bill in the National Assembly to repeal these oppressive legislations that curb the freedom of speech and the press.

England, unlike the Gambia, does not have a written constitution to enforce and interprete; indeed it has no Bill of Rights in the 1880s to enforce but a distinguished Judge in dealing with sedition and freedom of speech said’ You will recollect how valuable a blessing the liberty of the press is to all of us, and sure I am that the liberty will meet no injury-suffer no diminution at you hands”.

Let the Jammeh administration take note of this and as a first step to halt injury to the liberty of the press order the immediate release of Mr. Sawaneh and his colleagues. The immediate release of these great servants of the public will not only assure press freedom but will also unite SARATA JABBIE DIBBA with her seven month old baby who is in great maternal care and comfort and this is a right every Gambian child is entitled to.

UNITED DEMOCRATIC PARTY

SECRETARIAT, BANJUL

10 AUGUST 2009

A Challenging Year for Journalists

The Point Editorial

This year has been a challenging one for journalism in The Gambia. So far, it has been one court case after another, culminating last Thursday in the conviction and sentencing to a two-year jail term of six journalists. It all began with the false publication charge against The Point newspaper this February. Barely had that case got underway when the citizenship of the paper’s managing editor Mr Pap Saine was deemed suspect. He was arraigned before the Banjul Magistrates’ Court to prove his citizenship. He was eventually acquitted and discharged – just as the false publication was to be dropped later.

But Mr Saine hardly had time to celebrate his court victory. He had scarcely reached The Point offices when he was invited to the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) headquarters for questioning over a publication in The Point’s issue of 15 June 2009. He was there with Sarata Jabbi-Dibba, Ebrima Sawaneh, Pa Modou Faal and Emil Touray. Later they were joined by Sam Sarr and Abubakar Saidykhan. Sarr, managing editor of Foroyaa newspaper, had published the same article a few days earlier. All of them were later charged with a six-count charge of conspiracy, sedition and criminal defamation.

While this case was going on, another journalist was also sentenced to a fine of fifty thousand dalasis for publishing false information.

Only one of the seven journalists (Abubakar Saidykhan) charged with conspiracy, sedition and criminal defamation was set free as it shown during that he was simply trying to take photos while his boss Sam Sarr was arrested.

It is superfluous to go into the details of the trial here; it was like a soap opera that held the nation spellbound while it lasted. Every night, people stayed glued to their TV sets to catch up on the latest developments in the case, just as they besieged newsstands every morning to keep abreast of the turns and twists in the case. In the defining moments of the trial, both Saine and Sarr asserted that they published the said article “in the interest of democracy and press freedom”, as enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human and Peoples’ Rights, and to promote the free flow of information as the country’s constitution upholds divergent views. Both men were strong and resilient and inspiring and noble in their most trying moment yet.

We are grateful to all those who stood shoulder to shoulder with us during our ordeal - friends, relatives, and well wishers. Your presence, words of encouragement and material support were the tonic that kept us going throughout the trial – and still keep us going into the unknown future. Sooner or later we shall look back to Thursday, 6 August 2009 as the day when Gambian journalism was re-built rather than broken.

“Nothing happens to any thing which that thing is not made by nature to bear.”


Marcus Aurelius

Unacceptable Affront on Press Freedom

The Media-for-Democracy in Nigeria group (MFD), comprising MediaRights Agenda (MRA), Journalists for Democratic Rights (JODER),Independent Journalism Centre (IJC) and the International Press Centre(IPC), hereby decry the jailing of six Gambian journalists on August6, 2009.

The affected journalists including three officials of the Gambia PressUnion (GPU), Sarata Jabbi Dibba (Vice President); Emil Touray(Secretary General) and Pa Modou Faal (Treasurer); as well as The Point Newspaper’s Pap Saine (Publisher); Ebou Sawaneh (Editor) and SamSarr, Editor of Foroyaa newspaper were all sentenced to a two-year jail term and fined USD 10,000 each for alleged sedition anddefamation by a High Court.

The MFD calls on Nigerian President Umaru Yar’Adua to show leadershipas the Chair of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS)by intervening in the matter to secure a reversal of this unwholesomejudgment particularly in the light of the fact that a Nigerian judgehas been used to perpetrate this travesty of justice. We call on West African, African and international human and civilrights movements not to spare any effort towards ensuring that theunwelcome judgment is reversed as it constitutes unacceptable affronton press freedom in the country.

We surely cannot keep silent in theface of this grave injustice and assault on the union and journalisticrights of the jailed colleagues.

It is indeed worrisome and certainly provocative that the allegedsedition and defamation arose from the jailed journalists’ persistentdemand on Gambian President Yahya Jammeh to account for the gunning todeath of Deyda Hydara on December 16, 2004.

The killers of Hydara, former Publisher of The Point and well knowncritic of President Jammeh’s government, are yet to be apprehendedfive years on. The MFD demands the unconditional release of the six journalists.President Jammeh should realize that neither their imprisonment norother forms of assault on the media in the Gambia will stop theinternational media community from demanding that his governmentaccounts for the killing of Hydara by finding the killers.

GPU Six Jailing Unconstitutional

Says MFWA, WABA


The Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) and the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) said on Monday that the charges against the six jailed Gambian Journalists were unconstitutional and untenable.


The two therefore appealed to President John Evans Atta Mills to intervene directly through diplomatic means to get President Yahya Jammeh of the Gambia to release the journalists immediately, end repression of free speech and stop the gross human rights abuses in the Gambia.


The six were tried on six counts of "sedition" and criminal "defamation" charges and convicted on August 6, 2009 to a total of eight years imprisonment to run concurrently without any option of a fine.

They were also ordered to pay an amount of 250,000 Gambian Dalasis (about 18,000 dollars) on each of the remaining two counts or serve another two years on each of the counts.

The charges stemmed from a June 11, 2009 press statement that criticised President Jammeh over comments he had made slandering Deyda Hydara, co-proprietor and editor of the "The Point" who was murdered in 2004 by unknown assailants.

At a joint press conference to register their protest against The Gambia authorities' decision to jail the journalists, one of whom is a nursing mother, Professor Kwame Karikari, Executive Director of MFWA, said they were appealing to President Mills to intervene based on the current MOU on the murdered Ghanaians.

Prof. Karikari said the repressive regime of President Jammeh had held the country to ransom over the last 14 years, and that Ghana as a peace loving and democratic country could not sit by for the situations to explode before she used her limited resources to send soldiers there for peacekeeping.

"It has undermined the independence of almost all national institutions including the judiciary, which has been bastardized. Judges have been dismissed arbitrarily by the regime and the repressive conditions within the judiciary are forcing some to resign and take up other jobs," he added.

Prof Karikari said the growing horrific human rights situation in neighbouring Gambia might roll back progress in the sub region if not checked.

"We contended that if steps are not taken for a peaceful improvement in the situation in the Gambia, the country will be propelled into a violent conflict by bad governance. The tension and fear prevailing in the Gambia can only lead to this unwanted eventuality," he added.

Prof. Karikari said they would send a formal request to President Mills, as well as to the President of the ECOWAS Commission, the Chairman of ECOWAS, and the ECOWAS Council of the Wise to make the same appeal.

Mr Akoto Ampaw, a Lawyer and Media Activist, said a team was in the Gambia three weeks ago in solidarity with the jailed journalists and had concluded that they were likely to be convicted because there were no laws in the Gambia.

He said it was the responsibility of everybody to act in solidarity with colleagues in other parts of West Africa.

Meanwhile, the West African Bar Association has also condemned the conviction and called on the African Union and ECOWAS to take urgent steps to compel President Jammeh to release the imprisoned journalists.

It also asked him to comply with the order of the ECOWAS court made on June 5, 2008 for their immediate release.

GNA

The First Week Without Sam Sarr

Editorial Foroyaa
It is like a funeral. People are pouring from all corners of the country to express their shock and concern. Some cannot hold their tears. The students who used to have evening classes in physics, Mathematics and other subjects are now in limbo.

Social science teaches that prisons are correctional institutions where those whose behaviour falls short of the good standards set by society as lawful behaviour are kept for sometime to facilitate their rehabilitation. Once this rehabilitation is effected they are placed back into society to live productive and contributive life.

Those people with exemplary characters who are incarcerated are referred to in political science as prisoners of conscience. Such people are those who stand up for their beliefs regardless of the peril or the cost. Sam Sarr had an honours degree in Physics and Mathematics 33 years ago. He taught A level and O level courses at Gambia High School for over a decade preparing the future generation to become the builders of a society of liberty and prosperity. The Generation he taught is gradually taking charge of the destiny of this country. They are now in their late thirties and forties.

Despite the fact that his education was grounded in the physics and mathematics Sam realized that a Physicist and Mathematician without social conscience could make instrument of mass destruction just to commit genocide against a whole population. He was convinced that education should go hand in hand with the nurturing of the social conscience.

History has taught him that a half educated person without social conscience is a virtual criminal. Such a person would live only for himself at the expense of others. Such a person would not hesitate to perpetrate all sorts of injustice against his or her fellow human beings without any feeling of guilt or remorse.

This is why Sam taught his students to have social conscience through plays like “belful na bone na throat” meaning that “Foolish pride is a bone in the throat”; “Habatee amut Ngering Haajalo la isi” “pomposity is the root to social discord and social conflict” and so on and so forth.

His plays sought to teach his students to embrace humility and detest greed, love truth and abhor falsehood, cherish justice and shun injustice. He wanted their hearts to speak the language of compassion so that they would not make any righteous person to suffer for promoting truth and justice.

We hope that as the students he taught go to their beds each night they would ask themselves whether they are utilizing their offices to promote justice or injustice, freedom or servitude, emancipation or enslavement, humility or pomposity, temperance or greed, poverty or prosperity.

If they are promoting justice, freedom, emancipation, humility, temperance and prosperity they are assured a final resting place in the valley of the exalted for eternity. On the other hand, if they live on this earth to perpetrate injustice, servitude, enslavement, pomposity, greed and poverty they are assured a final resting place in the dustbin of history.

Sam belongs to the category of people who works day and night to wipe tears from the face of the living instead of making them to shed tears. He belongs to the exalted category of society. He may undergo trials and tribulations but sooner rather than later history will absolve him; sooner rather than later we will re unite with him in grace and glory. This is the verdict of justice and common sense and it is incontrovertible.

A Travesty of Justice

by PK Jarju


Thursday August 6, 2009 will always be remembered by Gambians as one of the darkest days in the Gambia legal history. It was the day when falsehood triumph over truth. It was also the day when the country's judiciary failed in its motto Fiat Justicia.

The jailing of the six journalists to two years in prison with hard labour by Justice Emmanuel Fagbenle is outrageous and very shameful indeed. It is very shameful because it clearly expose the lack of independence in our country's judiciary and the desire of Yahya Jammeh and his regime to keep the Gambian people in a perpetual state of darkness and passive subjugation.

The jailing of the journalists is not surprising. Because Jammeh have threatened to deal with them severely while they were being tried. Their conviction tantamount to persecution rather than prosecution. Secondly, since Jammeh have promised to interfere in the work of our judiciary, there is no doubt that he must have heavily influenced the harsh punishment meted out to the journalists whom he accused of tarnishing his image.

The jailing of our colleagues is very painful but it will not make us cry or abdicate our duties as journalists and sons and daughters of the Gambia. Jammeh and his regime may be able to inflict their conditions on us, but the more resilient we will be. This is because we love the Gambia and do not want to see the country slide into a conflict situation.

The Jammeh regime have to be really honest to the Gambia people. Our work as journalists is not in anyway geared towards tarnishing the image of the country or creating political instability. Despotism, irresponsible governance, violations of people’s rights and freedoms, lack of respect for the rule of law among others is what is tarnishing the Gambia's image.

Gambian journalists are not criminals. Our rights to freedom of expression is guaranteed by Section 25 of the 1997 Constitution and further protected by Article 9 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples Right and Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) which the Gambia have ratified. Our conscience is clear.

So if Jammeh thinks that sending us to prison, arresting and torturing us or killing us will scare us away from our noble profession then he is making a terrible mistake. Let him take a look at the number of online newspapers that are emerging every day and are trying to keep him accountable to his electoral promise.

If he can be able to stop all these journalists from practising their profession then I will grant him victory.

The disgraceful manner in which Jammeh is ruling our beloved Gambia is deeply harming the Gambia. Since the jailing of Fiona and David Fulton in December 2008, the number of Britons going to Gambia have dropped significantly. And there is no doubt that this year's tourism season is going to be a disaster because many tourists are saying that they will not go to a country where the regime does not respect people's right to express themselves.

In conclusion, I would like to propose the setting up of a trust fund to help support the families of our jailed colleagues. All these journalists are married with loads of dependants and likely to face a lot of hardships if we don't give them the support.

May Almighty Allah continue to shower his blessings on the Gambia.

US demands release of convicted reporters in Gambia

(Reuters) - The United States on Friday described as "outrageous" and a "travesty" the conviction of six journalists in Gambia for sedition and defamation and demanded their immediate release.

"It violates not only accepted international norms, but the imperatives of governance of the 21st century. This action is a travesty, given Gambia's current leadership of the African Union's Human Rights Commission," said State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley.

Crowley, who was in South Africa with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, said the conviction of the journalists violated not only "accepted international norms, but the imperatives of governance of the 21st century."

The journalists were jailed on Thursday for two years and include three members of the Gambian Press Union, two reporters from The Point newspaper and one working for Foroyaa newspaper. One of the journalists for The Point, Pap Saine, also reports for Reuters.

Reuters issued a statement on Thursday expressing concern for the health of Saine, who needs medical attention for a heart condition and collapsed in court at one stage during the trial.

Seven journalists were arrested in June after the Gambia Press Union issued a statement critical of the government's treatment of journalists, especially after the killing in 2004 of veteran reporter Deyda Hydara. One of the seven was later released.

"The United States, along with other responsible countries, have and will continue to protest this action until the journalists are released," said Crowley, in unusually stern diplomatic language.

"In this day and age, any government that is afraid of ideas and tries to suppress the truth will isolate itself and fall further behind responsible countries that embrace universal principles," he added. (Reporting by Sue Pleming; editing by Dominic Evans)

The Dialectics of African Despotism

By Baba Galleh Jallow

The conviction of six Gambian journalists by a Nigerian judge of the High Court is not an imposition of justice. It is a denial of justice. People who rightly commit crimes may justly be convicted and sentenced in a court of law. But the six journalist jailed by Emmanuel Fangbele have not committed any crime. They are merely victims of a political dispensation that is totally and absolutely under the control of one individual who has made himself synonymous with all the institutions of state, all the arms of government, and the very law itself. These six innocent people were put through the formal motions of trial, but they were presumed guilty the day they were arrested and were presumed guilty throughout the process of their so-called trial.

The kind of situation under which these six journalists were put on trial and sentenced can only happen in an environment of despotism where there is absolutely no regard for the rule of law, the constitution, and human worth as far as these run counter to the whims and caprices of the despot himself. Sending six innocent persons to jail for merely criticizing remarks by the president is the height of judicial hypocrisy and a demonstration of extreme contempt for the Gambian people, the Gambian nation, and the sensibilities of human kind in general.

It is a classical manifestation of the nature of African despotism, which is guided by neither ideology nor even vision, but merely by the greed for power and an obsessive desire to impose by force what has been called “a culture of monolithic uniformity.” A uniformity of views, opinions, desires, actions, and aspirations that must all be co-terminus with those of the blind-minded and blind-hearted despot himself.

In an African despotism such as we now have in The Gambia, there is a great deal of empty talk about patriotism, about enemies of the nation, about the determination of the despot – who pretends to love the country more than anyone else – to fight and subdue all so-called unpatriotic forces in the country. The label of traitor – which the despot rightfully carries – is instead slapped on all who dare to question the words or actions of the despot.

All citizens are expected to crawl on all fours, to be willfully blind to the dictates of truth and justice, and to swallow all lies and injustices uttered by the despot. Those self-respecting citizens who refuse to do so are summarily brought before emasculated judiciaries and sentenced to jail terms or heavy fines. If they are particularly critical of the despot, they are brutally murdered or made to disappear. Such was the fate of the students of April 2000, of Deyda Hydara, and of Chief Ebrima Manneh, to cite a few examples from The Gambia.

The African despot is a fascist without even the benefit of a fascist ideology to guide his actions. At least the kind of fascism that existed in Italy under Mussolini was built around a set of ideas which could be analyzed and exposed for what they were. In an African despotism such as we now have in The Gambia, all there is to analyze is the dark and evil personality of the despot himself, which is so empty of substance that one is hard-pressed to find a point of analytic departure.

In an African despotism, the frontiers between penal and non-penal deeds are totally effaced. The law becomes not an instrument for the punishment of criminals, or an institution for the maintenance of peaceful order, but a bogey for the frightening of the population and a sword for the slaughter of principles and human dignities. African despotisms turn the law into a malignant instrument of remote control and surveillance in the service of the callous despot. The law watches out for wrong smiles on the faces of people looking at an image of the despot, listens to wrong words spoken in reference to the despot, browses the pages of journals for wrong words directed at the person of the despot. In every case, the law, now transformed into a monstrous public enemy number one, is ready to pounce on perceived offenders and tear them into shreds for the benefit of the despot.

In an African despotism such as we now have in The Gambia, society becomes reduced to a giant masquerade of lies and pretences. All who wish to survive are compelled to keep their minds dormant and their mouths shut. People are compelled to deny their true opinions and express only fake opinions in praise of the despot. An atmosphere of general mistrust is created in work places and public places because unprincipled liars have made it dangerous to express any opinions that are not complimentary to the despot. Unscrupulous and callous individuals take advantage of the high premium placed on sycophancy and lying to cook up stories of unpatriotism against innocent folks and deliver them up to the monster despot. Jealous individuals eying top positions in work places can have their colleagues removed by telling lies about them to the despot.

In such a society, the despot divides the people into two factions. Those who negate their humanity, ignore truth and justice, willfully lie and torture innocent individuals are considered the good and the loyal. Those who cling on to their humanity, who insist on telling the truth, who speak up for justice, who will never lie and refuse to crawl on their stomachs like miserable reptiles – those are considered the criminal elements. Society is therefore stood directly on its head: Truth becomes lies, lies truth. Injustice parades around as justice and the law is rendered an instrument of illegality and criminality.

Criminals are glorified and the innocent harshly punished. These are the dialectics of African despotism, the dialectics that have dragged many African societies into the hellhole of violent conflict; the dialectics that Yahya Jammeh has now imposed upon The Gambia; the dialectics that must be understood and neutralized before it is too late. Or is it already too late?

Mercenary Justice Revisited

By Baba Galleh Jallow

Justice Immasculate Fanabululu sat there, his chin on his palms, his elbows on the large mahogany desk. He stared below at the defense counsel as the lawyer listed the various reasons why his client should be granted bail. Justice Immasculate Fanabululu did not really hear what the defense counsel was saying.


All he needed to know was that counsel was applying for bail. The rest, as far as he was concerned, was of little consequence to him because he was no position to grant or refuse bail. He was there to do whatever it was the powers that be wanted him to do with any accused person brought before his court. So Justice Immasculate Fanabululu, bored to death, just sat there and day-dreamed as counsel for the defense ranted on about constitutional rights etc etc.

Suddenly aware that counsel for the defense had finished ranting about constitutional rights and the right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty and similar nonsense, the magistrate ordered silence and announced that this court would take a brief recess in order to consider the matter of the defense counsel’s application for bail.

Back in his office, Justice Immasculate Fanabululu picked up his phone and dialed. Some one picked up the phone.

“Hello. This is Justice Immasculate Fanabululu, trying a case under the orders of His Excellency the President. I would like to speak to His Excellency please. He said to call him with any questions.”

Justice Immasculate Fanabululu was put on hold. For twenty long minutes, he sat there holding the receiver in his sweating palm to his sweating ear. He felt sleepy but dared not so much as move lest His Excellency comes to the line. He wanted to take a leak but dared not move. He pressed his legs together to prevent the pee from licking out. He was in such a hurry to get His Excellency on the line that he had forgotten to use the bathroom before calling.

Now he was paying for his stupid mistake. He had been made to hold the line for up to one hour or more before and if that happened today, he would have no option but to let it go and change into his other gown. He had done it before and found himself in a serious quandary. That is why he always brought an extra gown with him to the court and kept it in his drawer, just in case. He hated this stupid case because unlike the others, he had received no specific orders at to what to do.

Often he was told jail the defendant for ten, fifteen, twenty years, for life, as the case might be. Or he was just told, kill him. Then he knew exactly what to do. But on this one, His Excellency had not issued any specific order to follow. He had just said, I want the defendant jailed. And so he had to call to make sure because he did not want to do anything stupid. One never knows with the Big Oga. Better sure than sorry. And so he pressed his thighs together and held on to the line for dear life.

After twenty long minutes, Justice Immasculate Fanabululu jumped in his seat when the unmistakable voice of His Powerful Excellency suddenly boomed into his buzzing head.

“Yes?”

“Eh Your Excellency, Justice Immasculate Fanabululu here. Sorry to interrupt your busy schedule sir. Hope your day is going well sir.”

Justice Immasculate Fanabululu had almost forgotten what he had called the president about. Beads of sweat ran down his face as he tried frantically to remember.

“Yes?”

“Yes sir Your Excellency. You know we are always here to serve you sir and sometimes we hate to disturb your busy schedule sir.”

“Look you better tell me why you called. Don’t you know that as head of state I have other important things to do?”

“Oh yes sir please accept my apologies sir. Eh - it’s about Case X sir. The defense lawyer is applying for bail and making a lot of noise about the constitution sir. But for me what is important is what Your Excellency wants me to do sir.”

“So why did you call then?” His Excellency sounded miffed, and that was not a good sign.

“Just to know what Your Excellency wants me to do sir because this lawyer is making a lot of noise in my court about bail and stuff sir.”

“You want to tell me that you don’t know what I expect you to do? If that is the case you better prepare to go back to your country. I have no time for this. Anyway, send them to jail without possibility of fines.”

“Yes Your Excellency sir . . .”

The line went dead. Justice Immasculate Fanabululu froze in mid sentence. His Powerful Excellency had loudly banged the phone on his ears and left him with the mournful drone of a dead line. Justice Immasculate Fanabululu was sweating profusely and shaking from head to toes. He had forgotten all about wanting to pee. He grabbed a kerchief and wiped his drenched face and neck. Clumsily placing down the receiver, he struggled to compose himself well enough to go back into the courtroom.

He cursed himself for his stupidity. He was simply trying to please the Big Oga and look what he has done to himself. The thought that he might be fired and sent back to his native country to become just another face among the crowds of uneducated tricksters was too terrible to contemplate.

He could never go through the same shit he had endured before receiving the support he needed to get on the list of interested candidates for magistracy in this country. He winced at the memory of the extreme humiliation he felt working as a pimp for corrupt politicians, cleaning the offices and toilets of useful contacts, sometimes being forced to bend down and get injected with streams of slimy rot. No, he would die if he was fired from that position. He would rather die. But maybe if he did the right thing today . . .

Back in the courtroom, a loud murmur arose from the audience as a stone-faced Justice Immasculate Fanabululu surfaced after what seemed like a century. He wasted no time in declaring the outcome of his reflection on the propriety of granting bail to the accused. As soon as order returned to the court, he announced his decision.

“After due consideration of the complexities involved in this very important case, I recognize that the accused have a right to bail according to the constitution and laws of this land,” he announced, pausing for dramatic effect as smiles lightened up the faces of the accused, the defense counsel, and the family and friends of the accused.

“However,” Justice Immasculate Fanabululu declared, “the defense counsel’s application for bail is hereby denied. The defendants are hereby sentenced to serve indefinite prison terms with no option of fines. Case closed.”