By Baba Galleh Jallow
Washington, DC
- Gambians in the United States
are planning to hold a powerful demonstration outside the Gambian Embassy in Washington
on Friday December 2.
US based pro-democracy groups, Save The
Gambia Democracy Project (STGDP) in collaboration with the Movement for the
Restoration of Democracy in The Gambia have called on all Gambians to join 'a
peaceful demonstration to register outrage at the illegal arrest of the NADD
leadership.' Reactions on two major Gambian Internet mailing lists, the
Gambia-L and Gambia Post, suggest an enthusiastic response from Gambians to the
calls for a demonstration.
In a short release issued earlier this week, STGDP said it
expects Gambians from all over the United States
to converge in Washington to
demonstrate their support for arrested opposition coalition NADD leaders Hon. Halifa Sallah, Hamat Bah and Omar Jallow (OJ).
The three were arrested last week and three days afterwards,
arraigned before a Justice MA Paul, a Nigerian judge in The Gambia. Hon. Sallah and OJ were charged with sedition while Mr. Bah was
charged with the illegal possession of government documents. All three NADD
leaders refused to enter a plea and asked to be tried by another judge since,
in their opinion, the presiding judge, could not possibly be impartial
considering the fact that he had had some friction with the arrested opposition
leadership in the recent past.
Most observers of the Gambian situation feel that the three
men can never get a fair in Justice Paul's hand.
Meanwhile, the arrests of the three opposition leaders have
received widespread condemnation both at home and abroad. Gambians across the
globe as well as human rights organizations have condemned the arrests and
called on the Jammeh regime to release the men.
11/29/05
Source: The Independent
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