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So we are definitely thinking that all the efforts you have all helped with are responsible for the sudden changes. My mom just told me the the US embassy also called her this morning asking if Milko has a US passport, so she then explained his link to the US.
She also wrote in more detail what happened this morning:
She mentions she thinks the pressure we’ve all been putting on various sources is working and she is so happy to know the consul is involved. A dear Gambian friend of theirs has also said she would stand bail for Milko when it comes to that point, which is such a generous offer!
Milko has been in great spirits, he’s been joking with the NIA people how difficult it is to shave a week old beard, My mom is encouraged by his strenght (and so am I) She says these people are not getting the better of him, and when Beppie told him of all the attention and support he’s been getting from abroad brought him tears to his eyes and he is so grateful and thanks everybody for everything they’ve done. He also told Beppie that this does not make him want to leave the country. They have spent years and years building a great life for themselves and the people around them there, and they are happy there and he will not let them take that away.
They are all feeling a little better now that things are finally happening and they know where Milko is and that he is doing good
If Milko is indeed taken to the police he will most likely have to write a statement, then at 4pm things will close and people will go home so he will probably be brought back to the jail so then tomorrow will be the day to get everything in order all day and see what happens.
Beppie also sais that she can not say how much the support and help means to her and without all our actions things wouldn’t be where they are right now. They are incredibly grateful.
She has also been able to contact the lawyer, who has some informants in the police station so he will hopefully be able to find out more.
I received a beautiful, beautiful email from my brother and Milko’s brother Arjan. Milko came by the house just a few moments ago! He has not been mistreated or abused or anything like that. They also took him again and he is currently en route to the head quarters of the secret service. After that he almost certainly will be taken to the police station where he will most likely be charged with something. This is what Beppie assumes based on the ‘off the records’ information that the man accompanying Milko was able to give her. This man also said he would call Beppie as soon as he knows more. Beppie was able to give Milko food, clean clothes and food. Both Beppie and Milko still don’t know what the charge is, or will be, the people Milko has been speaking with during his stay at the hidden location, his guards, and other people also didn’t understand why he was being held.
Beppie is now contacting a lawyer so that he can be bailed out as soon as possible, which apparently can only be paid by a Gambian.
Beppie also said Milko looked good, and of course she was quite shaken by the whole meeting.
I have got to believe that all the inquiries they started to get from all directions possible are what caused this sudden re-appearing of Milko and what seems of a following chain of events that is more in line with what was supposed to have happened in the first place. I have no idea if we finally got people from amnesty and the UN to place some inquiries, but even if that didn’t happen (yet) I am sure the volumes of phone calls and emails we and many others placed to the presidents office and consulates have helped!
To everybody who’s gone out of their way to help we thank you from the bottom of out hearts. We’re not done yet, but this is a great step in the right direction!
My dear friend Leeann has composed the following form letter and list of contacts americans can send and contact to make for an inquiring body as large as possible from this side of the ocean.
We would appreciate any information the consulate could obtain on the
status of Mr. Milko Berben.
We would appreciate the consulate communicating to the government of The
Gambia the number of American citizens that are concerned with Mr.
Berben’s well-being.
Many of Milko’s Berben’s friends and acquaintances across the US are
quite concerned by this case.
Here is who you can email:
Email the US Consulate in Gambia explaining the situation
ConsularBanjul@state.gov
Email your representatives.
http://www.house.gov/writerep/
Email your senators:
http://www.senate.gov/pagelayout/general/one_item_and_teasers/
contacting.htm
Email Amnesty International:
http://web.amnesty.org/contacts/contact_us/eng-gmb
Here is who you can call or fax:
Gambian Chief of mission:/ Ambassador Dodou Bammy JAGNE
chancery:/ Suite 905, 1156 15th Street NW, Washington, DC 20005
telephone:/ [1] (202) 785-1379
FAX:/ [1] (202) 785-1430
Diplomatic representation from the US:
chief of mission:/ Ambassador Joseph D. STAFFORD, III
embassy:/ Kairaba Avenue, Fajara, Banjul
mailing address:/ P. M. B. No. 19, Banjul
telephone:/ [220] 439-2856, 437-6169, 437-6170
FAX:/ [220] 439-2475
If you have any contacts that work for the UN, The World Bank, or any
human rights organizations, please
send this email along to them.
If you hear anything or make any head way, please contact Kiona at
kiona@luckyaccessories.com.
My mom described more in detail how this all went down when it did and how thing occured and we have a tiny bit of more info that is more of an conclusion again from what agents are researching, not anything concrete my mom’s been told, as they are STILL not telling her anything.
This seems to be specifically about the generators that are by wells around the village of the president. These are generators that are not even part of the contract between Milko and the president, but despite this he is occasionally asked to check on them and do some repairs on them, which he does.
The NIA continually keeps calling my mom to ask her questions about the bookkeeping regarding their work related to this and every time everything turns out to be perfectly correct (my mom does the book keeping for the business and she is somewhat of a book keeping perfectionist) and after that was done today they told her they were coming over to take pictures of the generators that are at Milko’s shop waiting for new parts, and to be approved to be repaired.
The boss of Kanilai farms had asked them to look at what was wrong with the generators by the water pumps in his field. Milko visited all the generators and took pictures of them.Then Milko received the request to get two of the generators transported with a truck and delivered to his shop, which they also took pictures of the moment they arrived. To find out what’s wrong with them the generators had to be brought to Milko’s shop so he could open them up to look at what kind of repairs they needed and what parts need replaced. Typically, when they find out what parts generators need they get prices from the manufacturer, and use this info to make a proposal to get approved so they can do the actual work. As most of the proposals they sent the past year, they got no response, and so the generators kept sitting around.
Milko began to worry because a large generator like that with no new parts will break, and if this happens the NIA would be on his doorstep. They asked a friend to explain their story to somebody close to the president, and so two men from the Statehouse came over whom they showed all the documents and proposals. They seemed to think it was all an absurd story. They told Milko they would immediately tell the president about it and give Milko an appointment to speak directly with the president about it. Two days after this Milko was picked up at 2 am to ‘answer some questions’. At first Milkos was excited that everything was finally getting investigated, and Beppie was able to visit him and they were able to just stand outside and talk. They both had no idea what was going on, but wanted to offer any help they could on the issue. When Milko met with the boss of the NIA on wednesday he told Milko he thought it was odd they were making a profit on parts, but that couldn’t have possibly been the reason that they were holding him without any reason for a week already at that point.
On Thursday Beppie came to visit him again with some clean clothes and food, but she was then told that Milko was no longer there, and until this moment she still does not know of his whereabouts.
My mom showed one of the men who came to take pictures today all of the pictures they took of the generators and their transport, along with details of the initial complaint about the broken generators.
Before the men left my mom asked what was going to happen now and they told her the generators will be picked up in Wednesday. When she asked what is going to happen with Milko they told her the same thing they had been telling her for 10 days; “He will be back soon”
My mom has found this link and encourages everybody to fill complete and submit the form. We’re thinking the more attention this generates the harder people may work for it:
http://web.amnesty.org/contacts/contact_us/eng-gmb
After I completed it I looked around that site a bit to see if I could find any information regarding what’s happening with Milko, and I came across this little tidbit of info;
“The “disappeared” are people who have been taken into custody by agents of the state, yet whose whereabouts and fate are concealed, and whose custody is denied.” So I thought; well it sounds like Milko is at this point what amnesty considers a “disappeared”. So I clicked on to find out more about it, and lo and behold- look what I find in addition:
” “Disappearances” cause agony for the victims and their relatives. The victims are cut off from the world and placed outside the protection of the law; often they are tortured; many are never seen again. Their relatives are kept in ignorance, unable to find out whether the victims are alive or dead.
The United Nations has condemned “disappearances” as a grave violation of human rights and has said that their systematic practice is of the nature of a crime against humanity.”
Sounds like these people are breaking UN rules allover the place and now I suddenly realize why one of their first questions to Milko was one inquiring is he is close to anyone that works for the UN. Then I wonder if Gambia is even a UN state, so I head over to the UN site to find a list or UN states, and yup, Gambia is one of them. Sounds like they’ve got some explaining to do- if only we can get some UN officials to check in on the matter.
My mom has come across some unofficial information that the reason they “hid” Milko is because he is part of some large investigation (but who knows about what) and he is to have no contact with anyone outside of the investigation. Whether this is true or not we don’t know, but we do know that this seems so SO wrong, but conveniently it’s a national holiday in Gambia Thursday and Friday and so any office or official that my mom is trying to reach regarding what’s going on is CLOSED! How terribly convenient.
This is crazy, weird and a serious violation of human rights:
My stepdad’s name is Milko Berben, him and my mom Beppie Smits have been living in The Gambia since 1997
On Thursday the 18th of January at 2am Milko was picked up by the army commander of the Statehouse and to answer some questions he was brought to the NIA (National Intelligence Agency) He has yet to be accused of something, and he does not know what is going on.
Since 2004 Milko has worked for the Gambian president on his generators, which is arranged with contract and budgets ahead of time. The first contract year everything went great, and they worked with an agent, between Milko and the president. After that first year she no longer wanted to be the agent and suggested to the president to work directly with Milko. It was decided on that they do work with an agent after all. A contract was signed and budget was approved. With the generators there hasn’t been a problem.
There is a lot of work that has to happen to some generators, such as new parts, so since April of 2006 they have sent account statements to the Statehouse. They have not received any responses to them, and additionally late payments started to accumulate. Milko started seeing serious consequences from a necessary repair that he consequently couldn’t make, that HAD to be made on the generators that have been running for over 18000 hours (which is when they need new parts) so he met about it with two employees who work at the Statehouse. 2 days later he was picked up.
He was being treated fairly in the NIA, and Beppie has been able to visit him a few times. She has had to bring all the bookkeeping records connected this work, which she has, and which has been complete. Wednesday Milko met with the boss off the NIA who thought it was strange that they were making a profit on selling the generator parts (?!)
Milko told my mom that one of the questions they asked him was if he had any family members that worked for the UN, apperantly they are scared of the UN. All of this has to do with the president so the people that are asking questions on behalf of Milko and my mom are scared to do so. My mom has been asking questions for a week and she isn’t getting any answers because people aren’t telling her anything. Since yesterday Milko is no longer in the NIA building, but they also don’t know where he is right now. He is also not with the police.
My mom is lost and only has strings of possibly true and possibly untrue information coming her way occasional from unofficial sources, so she doesn’t know what to believe, think or do.
This is ludicrous
We finally FINALLY decided to move my office/studio from the cramped 10×10 room into our roomy garage!
First things first, we had a LOT of cleaning up to do as over the years our garage had turned into the ‘junk drawer’ of the house.
After donating TONS of goods to goodwill, and moving everything we couldn’t leave in the garage into either the shed or our attic, we were happy to see glimpses of our floor and walls.
This past weekend we moved all my stuff into the garage and Greg’s office into my former. It’s so SO nice to have our bedroom be a bedroom again and our front bedroom (now Greg’s office) a space where we can actually walk and breathe. I am also so glad for Greg to finally have his office in a nice sunny room instead of cramped in our dark bedroom. I am of course also extatic about the plethora or room I now have in my studio, though It’s going to take a while to get it to feel ‘right’.
Well I woke up this morning with a very sore Achilles tendon..ouch..why you ask….well the reason is that I have decided to make a comeback. Yes I am back playing in the Cary basketball league with my friends …it is part of a 5 step plan to get back in decent shape. I am getting there having gone from 222 last Thanksgiving to about 210 now…..need to get to 195 but I am patient. Now I am going to gym 3 to 4 times a week and trying to eat decent…(I love food way too much to say I am going to start eating great). but I will try to eat decent… We can talk about the 5 step plan later….The game was 8 PM Last night on a cold rainy night in North Carolina….when I arrived at the gym I realized to my horror that we only had 5 and I was going to have to play the whole game….Ok sit down take the knee brace out of the bag….check…put hoop shoes on…check…find enough air in your lungs to play the whole game….ahhhh no….but by the end of night I was done having run up and down the court over and over, setting picks, taking shots, and even hitting some. Then to a local pub to wash down a couple brews with the guys to talk about the whole thing. I am sore today but damm it felt good to be back at it….I am a sore happy guy today….
Regards……GKW
Nolan has been on and off with potty training for what seems like forever. Never terribly consistent, which was probably why nothing actually happened for a long long time. Until my friend sent me a potty chart which she used for her little boy that really helped. I put it to work and bingo! Honestly it actually whipped me more in shape for the potty training ordeal, making me put him on the toilet on a regular schedule, instead of just forgetting. But it also gave Nolan something exciting to do every time he did well, or just for trying. He finally peed on the toilet the second day of starting with the chart! After that, due to the holidays things got a little sporadic and so did the results on the toilet. We took a bit of a hiatus for a few weeks and then tried again. Then, Thursday he finally actually pooped on the toilet! That was the next big hurtle and for a long time it didn’t look like anything that was going to happen any time soon. But thanks to a bit of persistance and knowing he’d get a ‘mater‘ out of it, it finally happened!
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