Now, who will follow trends and pronounce Deyda dead ? Being dead is the situation, where you are silenced, burried and your legacy forgotten for ever. Not the case for Deyda. He probably didn't know the fruits that his noble stance was going to yield him today. Gambians are galvanized, and more eager to pursue some of the weeds that Deyda's herbicides didn't kill. Even though Deyda is gone, it is very amazing, to realise how such episodes can awake a sleeping society. Today, Gambians play with the pen and paper, like a herdsman with his calves...and that's where we are today.
If the killers of Deyda are true to their beliefs, they should come out and tell us why they killed him. Their continuous hiding, and silence on the matter tells the whole world the degree, and magnitude of their cowardice. The cowards will die a thousands times before their death, and Deyda died, but ONCE. (2pac).
Today, Gambians need to learn, and learn well. I don't tell you to learn your Aa, Bb,Cc...to Zz or 0, 1,3...9. I tell you to learn and know yourself, your fellow Gambians, and share emphaty with tragic situations like the ones for Deyda.
Now look at the move taken by Reporters Without Borders. As their name denotes, they don't have a border. That's the kind of world we need. They are not the least selfish fellows, and they are building history, and piling up their eden palaces, and they are equal in strength to the Late Malcolms, the Bikos, the Lurthers, Huis etc.. if not more, but never less.
I commend these fellows for their courage, and total committment in ensuring dictators are tracked in the rat holes that they enter to hide, and exposing them on all their evil nibs, and trashing them to the garbage.
They probably will arrest some of them before they return to their individual countries.
AND DEYDA REST IN PERFECT PEACE NOW !...AMEEN.
Below are the beautiful words of Galleh(entire GPU), and i was expecting a more aggressive press release, but i know Galleh have a pattern, and he always follows that.
NEWS
STATEMENT OF SOLIDARITY FROM GPU-USA
PRESS RELEASE
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December 16, 2005
We the members of the Gambia Press Union, U.S. Branch wish to formally express our condolences to the family and friends of Deyda Hydara, the management and staff of The Point newspaper, our parent body the Gambia Press Union, and all well-meaning and law-abiding citizens of our country. We thank the GPU for inviting us to send a representative and regret the fact that we are not able to do so this year. We assure you, however, that we are with you in spirit and we are behind whatever resolutions and statements made at this historic conference.
To those who brutally murdered Deyda we say, shame on you. We say shame on you because you have failed miserably in your evil design to silence the voice of truth. Your criminal act has in fact boomeranged in your faces because rather than silence Deyda, you have in fact turned his voice into a universal voice of truth and a universal voice of condemnation of the evil and injustice that infest our society and of which you murderers are condemned to be eternally a part of.
Having said that, we rejoice in the fact that Deyda Hydara is more dangerous today to his enemies - the enemies of truth and justice in our country - than he was while alive. We rejoice in the fact that Deyda is today taller than he could ever have been during his lifetime, that he towers like a giant over the heads of his brutal murderers and that he continues to strike at the root of the evil that took his life. We rejoice in the fact that one year after his death, and indeed for the foreseeable future, Deyda shall continue to be the nemesis of those who would see him dead. He will refuse to be silenced and we - his family, his brothers and sisters in the struggle against injustice - will refuse to have him silenced.
Deyda is proving more dangerous to his criminal killers because he has turned the full force of the international searchlight on our country. By his death he has brought our country under a sea of light and driven away all the shadows and the darkness, and removed all the covers behind which hypocrites and demonic killers can hide their evil acts. There is no longer no place to run and no place to hide for the killers of innocent and peace-loving citizens like Deyda Hydara. He fought and died for the truth and that truth will no longer be lost to the community of nations, to societies near and far. Deyda is a thorn in the flesh of his killers, and he is a thorn that is beyond reach, that cannot be removed and that can only sink deeper into the tortured consciences of his murderers.
Some of us who had the privilege to get to know Deyda Hydara at a very personal level can attest to his uncompromising professional honesty and integrity. We can attest to the fact that Deyda Hydara was generous to a fault when he saw the need for such generosity. Some of us, as rookie reporters and inexperienced assistant editors, have benefitted immensely from Deyda's kindness, both financially and professionally. But we know that it is in the nature of evil to be afraid of good. Darkness flees from Light. Falsehood seeks a hiding place at the approach of Truth. It was because he was an embodiment of uncompromising truth that the evil forces in this country tried to silence him. Thankfully, they have woefully failed.
We know that under the present circumstances, Deyda's murderers will never be arrested or brought to justice in our courts of law. One year ago when he was killed, we knew it. As soon as we heard that he has been killed, we said: "No one will be arrested for this murder." It is a sad fact of life that our security agencies become impotent, deaf, dumb and blind when it comes to investigating crimes such as the murder of Deyda Hydara. When it comes to securing the persons and interests of the powers that be, our security agencies are the most efficient in the world. But when it comes to the securing the persons and interests of those who disagree with the powers that be, our security agencies suddenly become spineless. We know why this is so and we caution them to beware the day of judgement, for that day is inevitable.
Finally, we wish to congratulate our parent body for organizing this conference, and our sister organization in the UK, for its generous contribution to this conference. We assure you all that we Gambian journalists and friends of The Gambia in the United States and other parts of the Diaspora stand solidly behind Deyda Hydara, and behind the Gambia Press Union. We thank all the independent media houses and entreat them to continue doing their good job under what we know are very difficult circumstances. We thank all justice-loving and human rights organizations that have contributed to the success of this conference and that have done all within their means to keep the fire of truth and justice for burning for Deyda. We wish to particularly thank Reporters Without Borders for their continued support of Gambian journalism and stand solidly with them in their condemnation of those who denied them an opportunity to attend this momentous occasion. We recognize everyone's efforts at making sure that those who killed Deyda Hydara are brought to justice one day. God bless Deyda Hydara. God bless The Point newspaper. God bless the Gambia Press Union. God bless The Gambia. Down with injustice and all forms of evil, now and forever.
We thank you very much for your kind attention.
Signed:
Baba Galleh Jallow, CEO, The Independent newspaper
Coordinator, GPU-USA
Washington, DC
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Posted - 16 Dec 2005 : 07:23:37
