Dr Henry Carrol, The Gambia’s Solicitor General and legal secretary, has described rebellion as illegal, arguing that any one who get involved in it should be brought to justice.

Dr Carrol made this remark on Tuesday, in an interview with this reporter, at the sideline of a two-day sub-regional legal workshop for National Authorities of States Parties in Central and West Africa, held at the Senegambia Beach Hotel in Kololi.

“As far as I am concerned,” he said, “rebellion is illegal and that rebels should not be tolerated.  Every government should have zero tolerance for them,” he said. According to Dr Carrol, rebels called themselves freedom fighters, but they are in fact opportunists. The university law lecturer argues that the correct way to deal with issues is to form political parties and challenge existing governments in a civilised and democratic way.  

“Law and order should prevail in society. If there is a problem in the world, we must negotiate for peace.  If diplomacy fails, then the last resort is to go to war. Even the UN Charter says that force must always be used as the last resort for the maintenance of peace,” he said.

Commenting on the current crisis in DR Congo, Dr Carrol said: “the problem in Africa is greed.”  “People are too greedy.  There is a saying that there is enough in the world for everyone’s need,” but not enough for every one’s greed’ he posited.

He cited Foday Sankoh, former rebel leader of Sierra Leone, as an example of rebels that dragged Africa backward. Foday Sankoh, he said, dragged Sierra Leone 50 years backward, describing his action as a bad initiative that should totally be discouraged in every country.

“The creation and possession of chemical weapons and weapons of mass destruction indeed poses a very formidable threat to world peace and stability,” he observed, and he added, “atomic bombs are very dangerous and now we are moving from atomic to nuclear bombs.