Decency dictates that we adhere to decorum at all times. You can tell the scumbags and the worst of the rotten by the way people act in circumstances where basic norms of humanity are supposed to be followed. Those basic norms are the reasons why we have the Geneva Convention for example. That Convention established protocols in war with a view to set rules as to what is acceptable and not acceptable even in situations where mortal enemies are engaged in a confrontation.
How to treat prisoners of war, return of dead bodies to the opposing side, not shooting when the enemy surrenders, are all rules that every decent country must follow. The ones that are not following these rules are scolded for their lack of decency and respect. As it turns out; criminals, Terrorist, scumbags, evil people are not surprisingly the main culprits.
So when Yahya Jammeh decided to not return bodies of the December 30 attacks, it did not come as a surprise since that man is evil, vindictive, criminal, and lacks basic human decency. This is the man who wouldn’t to this day hand over the bodies of the prisoners who were executed in 2012 for decent burial by their families who would also need that to bring closure to their sad ordeal. The man is a Terrorist and has no morals.
To add insult to injury, Jammeh decided at the last minute to organize a marathon race in Banjul on the same day (December 30) that families of the Freedom Fighters of that fateful day’s attack a year ago are mourning the dead. He asked the various Security units to compete for various prizes. According to our sources, the Army took the first prize: D1,000,000 ($25,000), while individual prizes of D13,000 ($325) and D10,000 ($250) went to first and second places respectively. This was his way of mocking and taunting the families in what he considers the victor’s justice – The Gambia is surely doomed.
What makes this latest irresponsible act of callousness even more bizarre is the fact that while he is dishing out all these cash prizes to the soldiers, the salary obligations to those very security personnel have been recently difficult to meet. That problem is so acute that the Military Finance department had to take a loan from the Gambia Revenue Authority (GRA) to be able to pay the soldiers. The State House is also bankrupt according to Fatu Radio sources there. But then again, all this is expected of a man who metes out all sorts of abuses on those very soldiers, including beating them with cables, arbitrary arrests, disappearances, killings, working as slave labor at his farms and businesses, and all other forms of abuses. Considering that Yahya cannot physically on a one to one basis beat any of these soldiers, one is left with no choice but to wonder what is going on in the minds of the current crop of soldiers in that country.
We find comfort in the fact that the Diaspora, with the leadership of Tukulor Sey, Oumie Andrews and Ndey Jobarteh, gave a fitting tribute to those men who put their lives on the line for Gambians on December 30 resulting to the death of Lamin Sanneh, Njaga Jagne, and Alagie Jaja Nyass. We commend them for a job well done. We shall never forget!
