" people’s parents and children are missing" I Can,t Go Home -Darboe

The Gambian  Mandela Lawyer Oussainou Darboe as his suppoprters called him now and his 37 UDP peaceful protesters are taken back to Mile 2 prison this afternoon, Reports from the high court onfirm.
Speaking from the High Court premeses our iron lady reporter said the case has not yet been mentioned all what was going all these days is legal challenginges and counter challenges on the  bail  conditions and also  some paper work.

However, the issue of the missing five arrested protestors whic is  now reduced to four is as usual the bond of contention. The missing five were Ebrima  Solo Sandeng, Fatoumatta Jawara, Nogoi, Modou Ngum, and Fatoumata Camara.Confirm  reports indicated  that Fatoumata Camara one of the missing five was brought  before the courts over the weekend.

Lawyer Mandela A:N:M: Darboe prefers to return to  Mile II Saying " I  want my  supporters produced dead or alive. That  leader of the biggest opposition United Democratic Party (UDP)  refuses  to entertain or discuss his bail in the court today insisting that the state must  fully account for all those arrested on the 14th  of April along with Solong Sandeng.

Lawyer Darboe still maintained that his release would be meaningless if his supporters were still unaccounted for. He specifically called on his party supporters to remain calm and be law abiding in this difficult time. Lawyer Darboe said it will be immoral for him to go home and enjoy the comfort of his family when other people’s parents and children are missing and the state is keeping mute over that.

The UDP leader is said to be in high spirit despite the difficult conditions at the notorious Mile II prison.

The Gambia government is yet to produce Solo Sandeng and two other women: Fatoumatta Jawara and Nogoi Njie.

The matter is adjourn to wednesday 27th April 2016.

Senegal Standing By Oppressed Gambians

Thousands of Senegalese on Friday joined Gambians to protest against President Yahya Jammeh’s use of excessive force on innocent civilians. The protest, held in the Senegalese capital Dakar, provided an opportunity for protesters to display Dictator Jammeh’s tyranny, which include enforced disappearance and cold-blood murders of his opponents.

Placard holding Gambian protesters want Senegal to help them take care of their leader. They describe President Jammeh as a “bloodthirsty leader” who enjoys unleashing terror on his subjects. One protesters shown on Senegalese media explained how he wast arrested, detained and robbed of his wealth. Like many victim of Jammeh’s repression, he too fled the country.

Senegalese government officials listened to protesters as they explained the terror hanging over Gambians. Unlike in their home country where they would be killed for protesting peacefully, Gambians protested on the streets of Dakar without hindrance. No one questioned why they protested. That is why a former Gambian Foreign Minister thanked Senegal for not only guaranteeing security for them but also allowing them to protest and express their concerns to them. “This symbolises Senegal’s respect for the rule of law and brotherly relations with its Gambian brothers,” Dr. Momodou Lamin Sidat Jobe told Senego TV.

“Senegal did not say it will remove Yahya Jammeh from power but they have put truth on his face. He is told what he is doing is unlawful. Senegal will do all it takes to make sure there is peace and stability in the Gambia. Senegal has done everything it could to help Jammeh to succeed but he demonstrated his disrespect and arrogance,” Mr. Jobe said, blaming Jammeh for summoning Senegal at the ECOWAS Court when he disrespected the regional economic grouping after the last elections. “Jammeh didn’t want to listen to ECOWAS when he wanted to kill but he has the audacity to summon Senegal before the same body. That is why I said Yahya Jammeh has no logic.”

Mr. Jobe condemned Yahya Jammeh’s use of excessive force on peaceful protesters, including Lawyer Ousainou Darboe and his party’s leadership. Jobe said Senegal’s reaction has lifted their spirit to move forward with the fight to end tyranny and impunity in the Gambia.

Civil society activists who joined the Dakar protest asked President Jammeh to halt unleashing terror on innocent Gambians.

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source:www.kaironews.com

Senegal Protest Threatens Gambian Dictator

By now, it is clear that Dictator Yahya Yahya Jammeh knows he is a thorn in everyone’s flesh. He is no longer a Gambian menace but a regional one. A single soul who goes around biting whoever he crosses path with as if he is a mad dog. Even the fingers that feed him have not been spared Yahya Jammeh’s poisonous venom. Was he not the one who milked Taiwan to the core only to dump the Asian Chinese nation when his financial request was denied? He is like a bull cow that gores even his closest relatives, friends and colleague presidents. Like Judas, he betrays everything, including his own words. Was he not the same person who swore to the Holy Quran that he would not allow anyone to rule The Gambia for 10 years? The man who badmouthed ousted former regime ministers for being “corrupt and flamboyant” said his seventh generation would remain rich. Yahya Jammeh whose Continent Bank account on July 22nd 1994 was in the red is today richer than the State, holds stakes in conglomerates and even own properties worth millions of dollars across the world, leaving Gambians to battle abject poverty, hunger and starvation. Besides hummers, he owns crocodiles, wolves and buffalos. Most of these wild animals and reptiles feed on Gambian fish resulting to shortages. Because he has dug his finger into everyone’s eyes, he is not at peace with himself when he watches mass protest against his belligerent behaviour on televisions abroad. He can dictate his useless television on what to cover but what powers does he have over journalists outside the country? He is so scared of the Senegal mass protest on Friday that he rushed to Kanilai. Yahya Jammeh’s main problem is his ego, arrogance, ruthlessness, greediness, rudeness and low inferior complexity. All these follow him even when he sits on the diplomatic table. Anyone who reads Weakileak Cables on The Gambia knows what we are talking about. His brutality on his government’s critics is premise on fear of losing power. Rule by fear is not sustainable otherwise Muammar Gaddafie of Libya would not have been taken down by a generation of freedom hungry youths who were born in his leadership. I am more determined today that Jammeh is on a borrowed time. All the writings are written on the world. Any government whose top secrets are in the public domain can’t survive long because there are too many enemies within the system. These are the people who blew the whistle on the coldblooded murder of Solo Sandeng and brutal torture of innocent women opposition activists. Only a coward leader tortures or kills to consolidate his powers. 

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 source; www.kaironews.com

Armed And Security Forces On Red Light Stand-by

Gambians in the Greater Banjul Area and West Coast Region early Saturday morning saw columns of military vehicles moving fast to the coastal village of Kartong. The government’s failure to announce the reasons for the deployment of armed soldiers in hundreds in the strategic Kombo South village has left many people wondering what might be going on. Armed military men, deployed in key positions in the country, appeared to be in a war mood.

Surprisingly, even soldiers who have been forced to go on standby, were not told the reasons. “All of us have been asked to report to military barracks across the country,” one senior military official confirmed. “But we are yet to be told the reasons. Henceforth, all of us will be on standby until Monday,” he said.

For the first time in history that even Fire and Ambulance Service officers have been asked to also join the impromptu standby. “The police and National Intelligence Agents also are not spared. Those who work in offices have be called to report to work immediately,” said a security source.

Most people who spoke to Kairo News likened the impromptu standby to “a state of emergency.” The only difference is that the government fell short of declaring a state of emergency. One source blamed the development on President Yahya Jammeh’s fears of being attacked by Senegalese forces. “He is scared by the mass protest of Gambians and Senegalese against his government in Senegal,” a source said. “Like cowards all over the world, Jammeh is scared of even his shadows. Fear has entered his soul and occupied it.”

President Jammeh, who travels to his birth place of Kanilai, is reported to have been alarmed by the presence of several Senegalese military at the Gambia-Senegal border. The borders have closed for more than two months after Yahya Jammeh increased ferry tariff 1000%.

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source: http://www.kaironews.com

FIFA President Gianni Infantino must end silence on Qatar human rights abuses

Gianni Infantino must use his meetings with Qatari officials to press for reform of laws that leave migrant workers at risk of exploitation and abuse, sometimes even forced labour, said Amnesty International before the FIFA President visits Qatar from 20-22 April.

“Gianni Infantino has a golden opportunity to show that under his Presidency FIFA will promote human rights. Without robust engagement starting right now, every football fan who visits Qatar in 2022 is likely to directly encounter migrant workers – in hotels, sports venues, shops – whose human rights have been abused,” said Mustafa Qadri, Amnesty International’s Gulf Migrants Rights Researcher.

So far Gianni Infantino’s response to revelations of abuse on Khalifa stadium in Doha has been business as usual for FIFA: heavy on PR, light on tangible reform.

Mustafa Qadri, Gulf Migrants Rights Researcher, Amnesty International

“It is essential that FIFA publicly call on Qatar to tackle the systematic exploitation and abuse of World Cup workers, largely driven by the sponsorship system in Qatari law that leaves workers at the mercy of their employers. Amnesty International spoke to more than 200 workers and every single one of them reported abuse of one kind or another. And that was at just one stadium and its surrounding facilities. What happens when work on seven brand new stadiums peaks in 2017?

“So far Gianni Infantino’s response to revelations of abuse on Khalifa stadium in Doha has been business as usual for FIFA: heavy on PR, light on tangible reform. FIFA laid the foundations for a World Cup built on abuse with five years of laissez-faire response to reports of abuse in Qatar. If Infantino fails to confront the issue during this visit, in the face of well-documented abuses, he will erect the scaffolding for continuing exploitation.”

Background: The Ugly Side of the Beautiful Game

On 31 March 2016, Amnesty International published a report exposing abuse of construction workers building Khalifa International Stadium in Doha, Qatar, which will host a World Cup semi-final in 2022. FIFA’s response was shockingly indifferent to the abuses, which in some cases amounted to forced labour. The main contractors named in the report were unaware of abusive companies operating on their worksites. Some of the companies also claimed to be ignorant of the fact that their workers had paid huge fees to work in Qatar and were being paid less than initially promised.

The report said FIFA must call on the Qatari authorities to publish a timetable for systematic reform ahead of an expected mid-2017 peak in World Cup construction, when the number of World Cup stadium workers is expected to hit 36,000.

On 14 April, John Ruggie, a professor at Harvard’s Kennedy School, published a FIFA-commissioned report on the organization’s business practices. While the report set out broad organizational human rights measures, it does not specifically tackle the human rights crisis in Qatar

UDP Leader Takes On Gender Activists

The woman managing the leadership of the United Democratic Party (UDP) has protested against inhumane and brutal torture of peaceful opposition protesters, particularly vulnerable women. Yam Secka, the UDP deputy Secretary General, abhorred the tortures meted out on the party’s executive female members: Fatoumata Jawara, Nokoi Njie and Fatou Camara.

Mrs Secka vented her anger at the High Court in Banjul on Thursday where the party leadership, including Secretary General Lawyer Ousainou Darboe, were arraigned.

She wanted to know the position of the Gambia’s vocal women’s or gender righrs activists with regard to the tortures of their fellow women. Yam Secka called on women groups and activists to avoid selective protection in their campaign. She saw no reason why these groups and activists are keeping mute about violence against innocent young women political activists. Their long silence on such a horrible story  is inexcusable.

Gambian gender activists have always decried about lack of women political leaders. The UDP’s election of more women in influential leadership position was not publicly praised or appreciated by Gambian gender activists who issued President Yahya Jammeh for banning female genital mutilation.

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source:www.kaironews.com