A pernicious project whose agenda has been in full swing for several days with the arrival of the new political power, would like to caricature senior defence officials, to paint them as pariahs who would have weakened Senegal. These repeated attacks are aimed in particular at the High Commander of the National Gendarmerie and Director of Military Justice, General Moussa Fall, and Seydou Bocar Yague, Director General of the National Police. Some would like to point accusing fingers unjustifiably at these servants of the Republic who, through their courage and rigour, have prevented our country from sinking in its darkest hours. Now that the general amnesty has come and gone, many of the things that almost brought Senegal to ruin will never become public knowledge. But that doesn’t mean we should sit back and let an excited and emboldened mob try to smear the good soldier that is General Moussa Fall.

The former Minister of the Interior, Antoine Félix Diome, is also paying the price for illegitimate attacks on a man who, in a crisis, was able to stand up and take the right decisions, however unpopular or harsh they may have been.

Read the column – A Wave of Despair and Merchants of Death

This illegitimate and cowardly trial cannot succeed. Whether we like it or not, this country has held together because people like General Moussa Fall and the men and women of our security forces behind him have stood guard to prevent the worst from happening. In the face of destructive adversity, this officer, in his commanding position, was able to stand in the way and act as an exceptional leader for men and women of value who had sworn their loyalty to the Republic. These are not people who have betrayed their oath or whose lips are so loose that they would sink any ship.

Upon taking his post as High Commander of the National Gendarmerie in June 2021, General Moussa Fall announced that the Gendarmerie would step up to deal with urban and rural violence, protect the republican model, secure the hinterland and combat cattle rustling. Three years on, the gendarmerie is now covering the entire country, with a stronger presence in the east, centre and south of the country. Troops everywhere have resources that are equal to the security challenge, with improved logistical capabilities and enhanced conditions for all human capital. The morale of the troops has been undermined by a number of misguided agendas, either by spreading disinformation about the command or by using the relays of a biased foreign press to caricature some of the Gendarmerie’s specific missions… The number of highly biased investigations into the work of the National Gendarmerie in the interior of the country and in various law enforcement operations, rightly shows the efforts made to smear Senegal. This whole disinformation campaign needs to be deconstructed in order to ensure the credibility of the message from our defence and security forces.

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Using General Fall as a punching bag may have been a sport, but like any lie that is exposed, it must be left to the perpetrators to constantly refute every action they take. On his installation as High Commander of the National Gendarmerie, General Moussa Fall proclaimed that his ambition « is to build a professional gendarmerie, anchored in the values at the heart of republican institutions, with proud and motivated personnel whose moral capacities are equal to the challenges that await them ». He can say out loud that he has achieved this mission with flying colours, given what the National Gendarmerie has become in such a short space of time and in one of the most hostile contexts our country has ever known. For an officer who, as commander of the Territorial Gendarmerie, issued an internal memo in 2018 denouncing the racketeering and slush funds operated by certain brigades, seeing the image of rectitude and uprightness protected by the lads in blue is a fine badge of honour. He will have instilled the soul of the good soldier, committed to the foundations of the Republic, in several officers and auxiliaries. All to the great benefit of Senegal.

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In an interview with Le Figaro on the presentation of his book « Between Wars », General François Lecointre had something to say to all defence officers about the demands of their mission to defend their homeland and the state of mind that must guide a master-at-arms in everything. « We are not fighting to restore or impose democracy. I believe that we can only kill for France, for the defence and promotion of the interests of our Nation », maintains the man who was Chief of Staff of the Armies in France from 2017 to 2021 and who currently officiates as Grand Chancellor of his country’s Legion of Honour. Officers cannot be reproached for doing everything in their power to protect their nation and defend their state. We cannot echo the noise of a pack that thinks it is possible to intimidate a State, to turn its desecration into a political strategy and to shamefully sing a tale of victimisation, all the while being in total illegality.

Those who joined the chorus of hyenas to heckle the troops or were the first agents of the desecration of the institutions of the Republic will, in the long run, find it very difficult to command respect. And those who embody the institutions of defence and justice have already suffered the most vile attacks from those currently in power. With the benefit of hindsight, many people realise how ridiculous their approach was, how dangerous it was for the preservation of a republican ideal and how irreversible it was.

Read the column – Senegal, Time to Choose

Some words are worse than bullets that detonate, and a thorough cleansing of social networks of all traces of irreverent, anti-republican and extremist rhetoric will do little to change that. The new government may well be embarrassed to open the doors of Washington Square to General Jean-Baptiste Tine, whom French lawyer Juan Branco is targeting in his ‘complaint’ against Senegal to the International Criminal Court (ICC).  Our new political authorities must also be choking to see the respect and deference shown by our defence and security forces to those in whom the majority of the people have placed their trust. It has never been a question of men. It’s all about respect for the State and the rules of the Republic!

When people who have accused the National Gendarmerie of being in the pay of a political « clan » or have insulted police officers without restraint for populist purposes see, by the magic of the fate of the Republic, the professionals of these two bodies at their service with a high sense of duty and responsibility, there is much to be regretted. After years of invective, all the loquacious opponents of General Moussa Fall and the Director General of the National Police, Seydou Bocar Yague, are well and truly in their element by facing up to the reality of things, outside the fantasies of excited opponents. For this reason alone, we can laugh under our breath and say to ourselves that the seriousness of responsibilities demands a return to reason.

It is a tradition in the United States Air Force to entrust their most sophisticated and dangerous aircraft, the B2 bombers, only to the most seasoned pilots and, above all, the most irreproachable in their lives. The argument goes so far as to say that for the eighty active B2 bomber pilots on American soil, for the sake of confidentiality, their families must also be beyond reproach in the eyes of the State Department and the Department of Defence so that their sons can serve their Nation by piloting these beasts of war. The pilots of these aircraft command respect because of the rigour of the selection process and the discipline they impose on themselves. For all the time General Moussa Fall has spent in the Gendarmerie Nationale and in the service of Senegal and its weapons, he can proudly claim to be a « squeaky clean » officer, like a stealth bomber pilot, masterfully leading a major part of the country’s defence.

We live in a land where people find it very difficult to accept what is greater than themselves or the best in others, but silencing the bravery of a modern-day hero will not prevent his work and determination from serving us all. If Senegal is still standing and its Republic continues to live on, it is because men like General Moussa Fall have stood guard. The Republic, after the tumult and terror, will know how to recognise its sons.

By Serigne Saliou DIAGNE / saliou.diagne@lequotidien.sn

  • Translation by Ndey T. SOSSEH