The announcement said the exercises will take place in the vicinity of the Bakau Barracks, the same scene that on November 11th 1994, dozens of military personnel were slaughtered by members of the Provisional (Military) Council under the pretext that there was coup d'etat in the making. Those responsible for the slaughter of men like Dot Faal and others are still moving freely among us.
The strange announcement advised the public not to panic as guns will be fired. In their awkward way of reassuring the general public, they revealed that they will be shooting blanks, forgetting the same out-of-control army informed Gambians, the next morning, that all they were doing on was quelling a coup d'etat at the same Bakau Barracks.
Military exercises the world over are not held in densely populated urban areas like Bakau but in isolated and properly secured areas. These military exercises are therefore a sinister move to continue to instill fear in the general population.
It is also possible that these exercises are being used as screens to engage in extra-judicial executions of soldiers accused of involving in the 30 December events that saw the State House attacked led by diaspora Gambians resident in the United States, United Kingdom and Germany.
We will be monitoring the situation.
