British Tourist In Court For Insulting President Jammeh!!!!

By Staff Writer Justice Sam, Banjul

Rene Beulen, a British national has denied insulting Gambia’s President Yahya Jammeh, a court in Brikama heard Tuesday. The British subject, who appeared confident while on the dock, has been charged with sedition. If convicted, Mr. Beulen will serve between six months or nothing less than three years behind bars. Court records say Rene Beulen insulted President Jammeh. The particulars of  the offence indicate that Beulen this past Saturday accuses President Jammeh of discriminating against white people by increasing taxi fares for visiting tourists.  Beulen was said to have also accuses  President Jammeh of being greedy and corrupt.  Police say the accused was using profanity language against the commander-in-chief, a charge the British subject vehemently denied. 

Invites Freedom Editor For A Conference!!!!!

Participant invitation - "Outlook Africa: Investing in Africa's Growth and Health" - Brussels, April 29-30, 2009

Mr. Pa Nderry M'Bai

Managing Editor / Publisher        

Freedom Newspaper, The Gambia

PARTICIPANT INVITATION

Outlook Africa:

Investing in Africa’s growth and health

 A two-day international summit co-organised by Friends of Europe,

Total, the World Bank and Gallup

Wednesday, April 29 (18.00 – 19.30) and Thursday, April 30 (09.30 – 15.30)

Bibliothèque Solvay, Brussels

With the participation of Louis Michel, EU Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Aid

 Dear Mr. M'Bai,

I am writing to invite you to attend a two-day international summit entitled “Outlook Africa: Investing in Africa’s growth and health”, co-organised by Friends of Europe, Total, the World Bank and Gallup with media partner Europe’s World. The summit will be held at the Bibliothèque Solvay in Brussels on Wednesday, April 29 from 18.00 to 19.30 and Thursday, April 30 from 09.30 to 15.30.

 UNDER DISCUSSION:

This international summit will provide a global platform to debate the EU-Africa relations. The summit will bring together senior representatives from the EU, the African Union and international institutions, national governments, industries, social partners, academics and NGO representatives from around the globe. The event will discuss the following issues:

- Can we protect Africa from the economic crisis?

- Fine-tuning EU-Africa trade and investment

- Getting Africa’s infrastructure right

- Report card on overcoming Africa’s healthcare challenges

London Letter: Halifa Sallah – Politician or Human Rights Hero?

“Editor, 

‘IT IS A MATTER OF SOCIAL JUSTICE’, writes Halifa Sallah in his letter to President Jammeh reproduced below. As readers may know from my postings when this “witches” nonsense began, I, like many Gambians and friends of The Gambia, have been at one with Halifa Sallah. I have edited and highlighted parts of his letter because I think the letter contains a clear clarion call, a manifesto no less, for those concerned with Human Rights in The Gambia. I trust this edited and highlighted version will emphasis the key issues in Mr. Sallah’s courageous position for your readership – and indeed for posterity because, like Nelson Mandela’s Rivonia Trial speech, Mr. Sallah’s message contains truisms for all time. 

I believe this whole “witch-hunting” thing was, in Mr. Sallah’s words, a “miscalculated aberration” - but the Human Rights abuse that ensued was an outrage to all right thinking people everywhere. The outrage was compounded by the arrest and detention of Mr. Sallah for a week. I, like most of your readers, remain grateful for his courageous stance on this matter.  

Nevertheless, I must say that Halifa Sallah should follow the great examples of Dr. Martin Luther King and Mahatma Gandhi. At the risk of being accused of interfering with Halifa Sallah’s right to seek whatever political office he wishes as a citizen of The Gambia, I would advise that Halifa Sallah the Human Rights Conscience of The Gambian Nation should not be seeking political office. I say so because great visionary individuals like him are diminished by participation in political partisanship. Look at what happen to Nelson Mandela? The great man, in pursuit of political office, stooped so low as to order the ANC security to shoot Inkatha Freedom Party demonstrators – even before he became President! Who is to say that a President Halifa Sallah would not do the same if the opposition APRC demonstrators “threaten peace”? Halifa’s position on Human Rights is a position that appeals to every right thinking person - whatever our political, tribal or religious loyalty. As Halifa himself puts it in his letter below: “I can now say with utmost sincerity that this matter went beyond partisan, tribal, gender or other parochial considerations”. Absolutely Mr. Sallah and that is why a long-term APRC-supporter like me supported your courageous stance. But your message, and your Human Rights mission, will be that much stronger if you yourself are not a politician seeking political office – on a necessarily, by definition, partisan ticket. Halifa Sallah the “non-partisan, non-tribal, non-gender and non-parochial” Human Rights Hero is what The Gambia, and indeed Africa, needs.  

HALIFA SALLAH’S LETTER TO PRESIDENT JAMMEH 

(Slightly edited and key sections highlighted by Dida Halake) 

President of the Republic of The Gambia

Ufs: Secretary General

Office of the President

The Quadrangle 

Attorney General and

Secretary Of State for Justice

Marina Parade 

26 March 2009 
 

“Witch Screening” - A Lawful Policy or Miscalculated Aberration 
 

I am compelled to address this memorandum to you so as to seek further clarification regarding the content and ramification of the presumed “Government policy on the screening of witches” (quote from The Gambia’s Director of Public Prosecutions). 

Attached under the copy of this memorandum is a copy of the charges proffered against me for your perusal. The thread which runs through all the counts is the presumption that there is a “Lawful Government policy on the screening of witches”. 

Mobut’s Gold Case Surfaces On Pap  Saine’s False Publication Trial!!!        

……As Lawyer Drammeh Urges Court To Transfer Saine’s Case To The High Court

By Staff Writer Modou Barry, Banjul

The false publication case involving the Point Newspaper Publisher Pap Saine should be transferred to the High court, which has jurisdiction over the high profile case, Saine’s lawyer Modou Drammeh implored the presiding magistrate yesterday. Addressing a packed courtroom in Kanifing, lawyer Drammeh cited various legal authorities to support his arguments. Lawyer Drammeh reminded the court about the famous late President Mobutu’s gold case, which two Congolese journalists reported that was hidden in The Gambia. The said story continued lawyer Drammeh, landed the Congolese journalists in court with the state. The Congolese journalists in an article alleged that a significant amount of gold belonging to President Mobutu was deposited in The Gambia soil, under the leadership of President Jammeh, prior to Mobutu’s  demise.

Press Release:  Gambia Press Union (US/K)

By Mathew K Jallow

We the members of The Gambian Press in the United States, consisting of Senegambia News, Freedom Newspaper, The Allgambian, and The Gambia Echo, having carefully examined the issues and challenges facing our membership and media practitioners in The Gambia, have resolved to reconstitute the Gambian Press in the US into an organ that speaks to the needs of our members. We have, therefore, come together to form and recreated the Gambian press in the U.S. into The Gambia Press Union (US/K). This name is temporary until a new name is agreed upon.

Having come to this conclusion, we further declare that no Press Union other than the above mentioned is authorized to represent much less speak on behalf of the Gambia Press in the United States.

The only Press Union that will represent and speak for and on behalf of The Gambian press in the United States, shall henceforth be The Gambian Press Union (US/K). An expanded version of this Press Release will be circulated to The Gambia Press Union (Gambia) and journalism associations and organizations around the world. This notification will take effect Monday 30th. March, at 12 midnight. By this release organizations other than the one mentioned, are advised to desist from pretending to represent a media that exists only in their heads.