Gainako Newspaper

....SANA B SABALLY
.................Is He The Only Pariah?
................................................................By (GON)..........................May 8th, 2007

In today's front-page, (GON) questions the public if Sanna B Sabally is the only Pariah
in the Gambia society. In it, (GON) calls on the many others that witnessed the dark history
to come out and explain; what happened, what they contributed, what they saw, and how
much wrong is done.

Country Men! Hear (GON)! I say unto you beware of those that are quick to
castigate and pass judgment on one individual, for many of these men were once
toting guns for the AFPRC

Many people have made Sana Sabally the No 1 pariah. There is so much innuendo, facts, and fiction
surrounding him that it almost amounts to mass hysteria. The events of November 11th 1994 while
despicable have become synonymous with one man-Sana Sabally. Some conspiracy theories have
even tried to rewrite history by alleging that he is in some way responsible for the death of finance
minister Koro Ceesay. While the later can be simply dismissed due to the irrefutable fact the man was
incarcerated at the time. However the larger issue of the events of November 11th cannot and should
not be seen as an isolated event, rather it should be seen in a broader context of the culmination of a
series of unlawful acts beginning July 22nd, 1994 and still continues to this day. The murder of Deyda
Hydara, the April 10th, 2000 Student massacre, the failed assassination of lawyer Ousman Sillah, the
disappearance of politician Foday Makalo, and many others are prime examples of this continuation.

I would start by asking these fundamental questions primarily to members of Gambia security services.
Especially to those writing in the on-line forums, blogs and newspapers?

(i) Were you part of the AFPRC that unlawfully overthrew a democratically elected Government?

(ii) Did you attempt like Major Chongan to prevent this unlawful act?

(iii) Were you rewarded as a consequence of the event of July 22nd, 1994 to position of influence
......and authority due to your complicity?

(iv) Were you part of the November 11th alleged conspirators?

(v) Did you consider your failure to stop the July 22nd coup as an act of cowardice?

(vi) Are you willing to admit your role in any unlawful order against the Gambian people asked for
.....t.their forgiveness?

This is necessary in establishing the degree of guilt and or complicity for a lot of people many of whom
after falling out of favor with the AFPRC/APRC find really convenient to demonize their former
compadres. There is no doubt that Sana Sabally was involved in the event of November 11th, but to
what degree? Was he acting unilaterally or with other members of the AFPRC some of whom are still
in power or at large. Was his exhuberance miscontrue as evil incarnated thus making him the perfect
patsy or was there more sinister and silent players involved?

It should be noted that when Sana Sabally was sent to jail no mentioned was made of the alleged
crimes of November 11th at his trial or his alleged extra judicial killings by the very men who had the
means, motives and opportunity to charged him. In fact upon his arrest a public announcement was
made urging anyone to come forward with information of his wrong doings. Is it that the degree of
complicity is wider than we know? Or is it that the AFPRC is guilty of selective prosecution? Or is
that as some conspirator theories puts it Sana's only major crime was insisting on the junta staying only
for 2 years?

These questions and many more are the basis of understanding the problems that has been happening
in the Gambia since 1994. We therefore called on our current and former soldiers: Rtd. Colonel Sarr,
Rdt. Major Chongan, Rtd. Captain Ebou Jallow, Rtd Lieutenant Minteh, Rtd Captain Sanna B.
Sabally, Rtd. Major Bajinka, Rtd. Lieutenant Jaieh Sowe, Rtd. Captain Singhateh (Senior & Junior),
Ousman Sonko, and many others at home and abroad to rejoin to the debate and tell Gambians what
happened while the Gambia was under their eyes.

Editor's note: GON doesn't take sides. We only know as at now a crime was committed. The
perpetrators of such heinous crimes are still at loose everywhere. To start the healing process, the truth
must be told as it happened. We will protect any one's identify for forwarding information. We look
forward to hearing from you.

....A REJOINDER TO MR SARR
....In the matter of Sabally vs Minteh, Chongan & Sarr

..............................................................By Yero Jallow..........................May 8th, 2007

I must thank you for a healthy reply, and be rest assured that I didn�t for one bit
misunderstand your previous and present write-up. Having followed some of your
track record, you were indeed a patriotic soldier of time, and went through so
many adventures which earned you so much respect from the younger ones.
Though, some of us never met you in person, but �Meet me in Conakry�, a
famous book of true adventure you co-authored is no hidden secrete to Gambian
history.

If it is mild, allow me to totally agree with your assertion only with a �but�
to sending Mr. Sabally to the gallows. We will be destroying a lot of history.
The killing of another brutal tyrant, Sadam Hussein, should have been handled
different. But today, Iraqis lost that opportunity of knowing those that
coordinated with Sadam, because he wasn�t alone in his destruction of innocent
humans.

Mr. Sarr, you will also agree with me that Mr. Sabally and the others are regrouping themselves in
Senegal and Cassamance. Lets not underestimate their presence there. Lets negotiate justice instead
of isolating them to the extent that their repulsion some day will be become the cankerworm we would
have to fight. That would be too fatal. If you followed some months back, two of our editors
challenged Mr. Sabally to admit on his wrongs, apologize to Gambians, and wait for time to submit
himself to justice. Mr. Sabally took to silence, and once he sprouted back from the dense forest,
decided to boycott his pieces to Gainako. To the extra mile, we even approached Mr. Sabally for an
interview which he turned down to our dismay.

With the pieces that Mr. Minteh authored over the time, one sees a lot of conformity. They are very
revealing. My sympathy goes to the families of the victims of November 11th, and the many other
hated black elevens that passed in Gambian history since July of 1994. Mr. Minteh who is reading this
piece knows my stance on these brutal Gambians. Mr. Minteh quoted me on my true observation on
Mr. Sabally, and that is Mr. Sabally being entangled in-between walls of fears. I am in no way a
sympathizer to any cruel person. It is my belief that we shouldn�t equate the injustices they meted to
us, lets we also become victims of others. Lets work out a deal that will not lead to more destruction,
but that which will flourish justice, where even the one who is wrong will agree that justice has taken
place.

I understand Mr. Minteh�s frustration over the time. I understand yours also, and the many others
included the respected peaceful dove Ebrima Chongan who saw hellfire under a barbarous regime that
subjected innocent Gambians to their whims and caprices, and stripped them naked all rights for
existence.

I hope my write-up will never be interpreted as supporting Mr. Sabally. I hope what motivated me to
rejoin to the debate was only to support the families of those affected currently and in the past. I hope
I was fair and honest in asking Gambians to welcome Mr. Sabally in a spirit of negotiating only true
justice. I hope I didn�t annoy those dripping tears as a result of what they encountered. I hope I was
me, with no interest whatsoever, other than calling for true justice.

I am in no way the one to forgive Mr. Sabally if he is guilty of the crimes he allegedly committed. It is
the Gambian people that will decide the criminals of the land, and no one should be immune to justice.

I rest my case while calling for a unified Gambia. I thank you for a nice reply. It again shows the
respect you command. It�s a very honest appetizer.

�True peace is not merely the absence of tension; it is the presence of justice.� Dr. MLK Jnr.

In the struggle,
Yero Jallow (Dalton)
USA

......A REJOINDER TO
.....Mr. Yero Jallow's Article
...................By Samsudeen M. Sarr .............................May 7th, 2007

Mr. Jallow my decision to respond to your article is partly predicated on my conclusion-rightly or
wrongly-that you are an honest person with a genuine desire to help set the records straight. I also
think you believe in forgiving those that are willing to come clean on their sins especially those
committed by pure mistake. However, on this particular case I think you are besieged by the troubling
conflict of reconciling how to characterize the seemingly repentant personality of Sabally the refugee
today and the little you might have known about his demonic past as vice chairman of the AFPRC
government.

But before elaborating on that argument, I believe it critical to furnish you with a brief but important
profile of Sabally before the July 1994 coup. My first encounter with Mr. Sabally was in September
1990 when he was a corporal at Yundum Barracks serving as a clerk in the only battalion office in the
GNA. Physically he was an unusually small man in size and height, coupled with a shy demeanor that
had deceived a lot of his superiors including me to view him as too frail and needed special protection.
Secondly in addition to his indisputable credit at the time for being absolutely polite and discipline, he
was religiously very pious in a way that could have earned him the position of Imam in the camp.
Don�t get me wrong. Those were all pretentious behavior.

I was however literally his guardian angel in the barracks because of my admiration of his unique
character that I had regrettably fallen for especially after he was commissioned as officer. Anyway
within the short period he had served as second lieutenant, the British Army Training Team (BATT)
commanding officer, Colonel Jim Shaw had twice attempted to get rid of him from the army for his
failure to properly perform certain military duties at Kudang and Yundum Camps; in both cases I had
relentlessly spearheaded the team of officers who came to his defense & successfully got Col. Shaw to
spare him his wrathful charges and recommended court martial. As far as the British commander was
concerned Sabally didn�t have a place in the army under any capacity. Yet we thought it was mere
prejudice on somebody whose character was by all the superficial indications highly exemplary.

But on July 22nd 1994 after the curtains of the coup d�tat theatre were raised and Sabally assumed
the center stage of a principal actor, instead of performing his duties with those godly principles that
we had believed were in him, and could have guided his thoughts and actions through the struggle, he
instead shamelessly adopted a very satanic approach towards the mission. With Sadibu Haidara by his
side and the AK 47 rifles, the grenade launchers and M60 machineguns in their hands, Sabally was
possessed by an immoderate zeal that had totally restricted his range of human understanding and
God�s demanded mercy on all his subjects.

Mr. Jallow you might settle with your honest conviction that Sabally and Haidara were betrayed by
their compadres, Jammeh and Singhateh, but to those of us and of course our family members who
were victims of their evil activities, that so-called betrayal of having them chained and locked up on
January 27, 1995, was the greatest miracle from the supreme being.

I have briefly mentioned my arrest and detention by the two thugs and assassins on July 27, 1994 and
also tried to illustrate their torturous and murderous footprints on November 11 1994; but I think I
had left out the clear view of the stupidity and callousness in which their actions were conducted. For
instance you may find this hard to swallow but on that notorious torture morning of September 6, as
the helpless victims screamed for mercy all we could hear in that atmosphere of terror was Sabally�s
piercing voice threatening them to say their last prayers for the last time in this world.

You see Mr. Jallow, while Sabally and Haidara never gave us the reasons for arresting me and my
fellow officers-obviously there was none whatsoever-most of us still believe that if they were not
grounded, we would have most likely remained in jail for a very, very long time, or even died there.
Invariably if Lieutenant Minteh was captured that November day of 1994 when Haidara and Peter
Singhateh had gone to his home to arrest him, without doubt, his remains would have been
decomposing among the heap of executed officers buried in a latrine pit at Yundum Barracks.
Sabally, you must understand, is not only living in denial of all the things he had done wrong with
Haidara but has once again shamelessly put on his human cloak of religious deception waiting for the
appropriate moment to remove it for his true heart of a Gestapo.

Anyway Mr. Jallow, I wouldn�t mind compromising with you over your fair proposal to give Sabally
another chance if he is willing to come out frankly and confess to his past action with a commitment to
ask for forgiveness. My only doubt over the whole issue is whether Sabally will ever heed that
proposal and discard his frequent poppycock writing laced with religious preaching merely to
camouflage his guilt.

Anyhow offer him that challenge and use it as a yardstick of measuring the level of his sincerity on the
subject. If he wouldn�t come clean and confess to the truth, then you know with absolute certainty that
he is not a changed man; but if he does, then be rest assured that I will come back and praise you for
redeeming a lost soul. I�ll consider it a deal between you and me.
If he doesn�t know where to start from, I could certainly jump start him with this question that family
members of his victims are still dying to know from him: Where are the remains of the men executed
on November 11, 1994, and why were their corpses not handed over to their family members for
proper burial in proper cemeteries? Extrajudicial execution of any human being is an unacceptable
crime, but burying them in latrine pit is gross.

Mr. Jallow please accept my sincere apology if any of my statements conveyed above offend you in
any way or means.

Lieutenant Colonel Samsudeen M.Sarr (rtd)
Former commander GNA

Editors Note:

It is our firm conviction that the events of November 11th 1994 will forever be remembered as
amongst the darkest day in the history of our beloved country, GAMBIA. A day that will forever lived
in infamy.While it not for us to pass judgment, that is for the Gambian People. Ours is a moral duty an
obligation to remind the Gambian people that a crime was committed, matter of fact a heinous crime
by people representing the state in which many were summarily executed. All this without due process.
To date no official investigation or enquiry has been made to establish the facts and enable the people
to placed blame and or punishments for the guilty. This is a fundamental step necessary to enable the
victims, perpetrators and the country at large start the healing process.

Having said this it is also imperative to mentioned that in the past Sana Sabally had find it convenient to
disseminate his point of view across through various papers including Gainako until now. While we
hope Sana's current decision to change this practice is in no way related to our firm policy of posting
opposing views. A conviction that has come to define us. A label we are proud to carry and which we
shall never compromise.

Gainako is proud to say that we do not believed in CENSORSHIP as aptly put by Voltaire centuries
ago "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it."

(GON)

.....A REJOINDER
....TO SENIORS SARR,SABALLY & MINTEH
......................................By Yero Jallow (Dalton).............................May 6th, 2007

Mr. Editor,

As always, Gambia and true Gambians. The difference is like day and night. While
ex VP's new birth of care for Gambians is admirable, but the records of what he
allegedly did still lingers in the psalms of his hands. As before, I challenge Mr. Sabally
to heed to the following. One, to admit on his wrongs (if any). Second, to apologize
to those that suffered in his hands.

Mr. Sarr, just like Mr.Minteh earned good reputation in the past, therefore, it is my humble view that
their narration on the November massacre and other episodes remains something Mr. Sabally would
need to shed more light on. I followed his previous versions on events while he was a VP, but I
couldn't control vomiting anger and rage over open admission of killing Gambians. While I couldn't
doubt Jammeh and Edward disappointing him and his former ally, the late Hydara, but it is to be
added that Mr. Sabally is accused of the same misdeeds to Gambians.

I am very happy for Sabally in the sense that God gave him another chance to repent, and glorify the
lord. I will advice him to take courage more in addition to his born-again style to tell us truthfully more
of what happened. As Muslims and Gambians, we are all brothers and sisters, but the fact remains, if
you hurt Gambians, then you isolated yourself from the Gambian family. Don't expect to get a cheap
ride. There is nothing wrong for Mr.Sabally to repent. There is nothing wrong for him to put his quota
forward. There is nothing wrong for him to mourn his former friend, Sadibou Hydara. But what is
wrong is their own alleged misdeeds, which continues to haunt them wherever.

At least, one can tell from the Ex VP's latest pieces, he is feeling remorse, and isolation. Though, our
Gambian society can welcome back people, but such people must come back through the right door.
My last word to all Gambians is welcome the former VP to the Gambian society with a strategy of
establishing true justice, reconciliation and unity. I also go the extra mile to understand peoples'
frustration over those that allegedly committed these atrocities because of power intoxication. As a
preacher of justice, Mr. Sarr shouldn't underestimate his utterance of sending Mr. Sabally to the
gallows. Such justice is truly insane. Human rights activists all over are calling for the abolition of such
ways of justice.

I thank you all for a healthy debate, and I hope you guys will continue to feed history with the truth, as
things unfold daily.

In the struggle,

Yero Jallow (Dalton)
USA

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