As Gambians lose fear, President Jammeh's isolation grows

FILE PHOTO Gambia's President Yahya Jammeh attends the plenary session of the Africa-South America Summit on Margarita Island September 27, 2009. REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins/File Photo

BANJUL (Reuters) - Lawyers, trade unions, teachers and journalists have joined a growing chorus of demands for Gambian President Yahya Jammeh to accept his defeat in a Dec. 1 election, as people lose their fear of the man who has ruled them for the past 22 years.

As lawyers prepared to attend a meeting of the Gambian Bar Association on Monday, the intelligence service rang them with threats and monitored the ritzy Coco Ocean Hotel where they gathered, said the association's Secretary General Aziz Bensouda.