 |
|
| Author |
 Topic  |
|
|
Momodou
Denmark
11632 Posts |
 Posted - 17 Dec 2010 : 17:35:24
|
Senegal-Gambia Ties Thawing Again
By Saikou Jammeh
Friday, December 17, 2010
 Divided by colonial borders, but bound by common tradition and culture, the sisterly neighboring republics of Senegal and The Gambia are at their long-standing dispute again.
“Since 1994, we [Gambians] have always been working for the socio-economic development of our two people. This is witnessed by contracts my government awarded to Senegalese contractors, waiving [alien] tax on Senegalese residents in the Gambia,” said Dr Njogu Bah, The Gambia’s Secretary General and head of civil service on Wednesday.
“Unfortunately, this has never been reciprocated by our Senegalese counterparts from [former president] Abdou Joof to [current president] Abdoulie Wade. This is worst under Wade who bears nothing but hostility towards The Gambia.”
This latest row came in the wake of a controversial arms shipment intercepted in Nigeria from Iran allegedly bound for The Gambia.
While The Gambia remains mute over the issue, Senegal, who is highly concerned about the unrest in its Gambia-bordered Southern region of Casamance, has been relentlessly pursuing the matter amid allegations that The Gambia is sponsoring the independence seeking Casamance rebels.
“The Gambia does not need such weapons,” Wade who has taken-up the matter with Iran, Nigeria and United Nations, was quoted as saying.
And a Senegalese website has published a document it said it acquired from Nigeria linking The Gambia to the arms shipment.
“Those arms intercepted in Nigeria were not bound for The Gambia,” Dr Njogu Bah denied. “President Wade jumped to his conclusion because he was blinded by his hatred towards The Gambia by reporting The Gambia to the United Nations.
“The position of The Gambia on Cassamance has been for a peaceful solution, but not war. This did not please [former president] Joof and we were accused of supporting the rebels.”
The Gambia accused Wade of sponsoring a faction of the rebels who are inflicting atrocities on unarmed civilians of Casamance perceived to be sympathizing with independence seeking rebels.
“It is an open secret that Abdoulie Wade is giving sanctuary to Gambian dissidents, including rebel leader Kukoi Sanyang and 2006 abortive coup mastermind Col. Ndure Cham,” Dr Bah added.
The fracas came as both leaders recently pledged to resolve their decades-long differences and are frantically moving to mend their thawed relations, as witnessed by a series of bilateral engagements in recent times.
Source: Dailynews
|
A clear conscience fears no accusation - proverb from Sierra Leone |
|
|
Momodou
Denmark
11632 Posts |
Posted - 17 Dec 2010 : 17:38:46
|
Gambia Gov’t issues statement on Senegal
Friday, December 17, 2010
 The Gambia Government Wednesday issued a statement on Senegalese President Abdoulie Wade and his government for not reciprocating the goodwill, sincerity and brotherhood Gambians offer to their Senegalese brothers.
The statement, which outlined government’s position on Senegal, was read on GRTS by Dr Njogu Bah, Secretary-General and Head of the Civil Service. It highlighted, among other things, issues relating to the crisis in Casamance, the two rebel factions (Jakai and MFDC) in Casamance, Wade’s hostility towards The Gambia and Gambian dissidents being given sanctuary in Senegal by the Wade government.
Below we reproduce the full text of the statement:
Our position since 1994 has been and will always be to work harmoniously with the government and people of Senegal for the rapid socio-economic development of our two peoples, who are one people.
To this end, both Gambians and Senegalese stand as living witnesses to our numerous multi-million dollar projects contracted to Senegalese companies up to date. In addition to the above, the government went a step further to treat Senegalese citizens in The Gambia just like Gambians by waiving certain taxes that foreigners in The Gambia have to pay.
Unfortunately, our goodwill, sincerity and brotherhood towards our Senegalese brothers have never been reciprocated by the government of Senegal from that of President Abdou Diouf to that of Abdoulie Wade.
Things are worse under Abdoulie Wade, who harbours nothing good towards The Gambia and her people. His clear manifestation of hostility towards The Gambia was made very clear by President Wade himself during an interview on a French TV station LCI in his official trip to France as President when he was asked what his mission to France was and what he expects the French government to do for him and this was his response. “I am here to request the government of France under Jacques Chirac to give me sophisticated arms to modernize the Senegalese armed forces in preparation for The Gambia, Guinea Bissau and Mauritania.”
Since then, Wade has managed to destabilise Guinea Bissau and Mauritania but failed to achieve his hostile objectives against The Gambia despite his continued efforts to do so as evidenced by the testimonies of the 21st March coup plotters, whose leader Colonel Ndure Cham and his accomplice are given sanctuary until now by President Wade and his government.
It is an open secret that under Abdoulie Wade, Senegal has become the safest haven for Gambian dissidents and criminals fleeing justice. It is also the conference centre for all anti-Gambian elements.
Gambians and Senegalese would remember that in 2005, President Wade in his desperate and frantic attempts to make the Gambian economy suffer in order to bring hardship to the Gambians including Senegalese, who in their thousands call The Gambia home, closed the border.
He did not stop at that but mounted a smear campaign globally against The Gambia. When this failed to materialise, he instigated Senegalese to attack the Gambian players and their supporters in Dakar that led to serious injuries and damage of their buses and coaches that took them to Dakar. Before the ill-fated Gambia-Senegal match, President Abdoulie Wade, on Senegalese radio and television, told the Senegalese national team that it was not a game of football but a war on The Gambia.
President Abdoulie Wade goes around the world claiming to be a Pan-Africanist apparently in total disregard to the stark realities of his anti-African, anti-Gambian stance.
With regard to Casamance, our position has always been and will continue to be the search for a peaceful solution and not violence. This did not please former President Diouf and his government, who preferred a military solution and wanted The Gambia under the APRC government to join them. When we refused to join them because we do not subscribe to violence to solve any problem, we were accused of supporting the MFDC because the President of The Gambia is a Jola.
We did not succumb to blackmail and therefore continue to refuse to join them and pursue mediation as the only viable solution beneficial to both sides. These accusations ranging from supplying arms as well as training MFDC rebels were intensified under the current Senegalese government under the leadership of President Abdoulie Wade despite our goodwill towards the Senegalese people evidence of which is the hundreds of thousands of Senegalese people, who live, work and earn a living in The Gambia without harassment.
Senegalese are found eking out a living in all our economic sectors ranging from petty trade, major trade, the construction industry, fisheries and tourism just to name a few. What do the Gambians get from Abdoulie Wade’s government? More hostility and a sinister obsession to see The Gambia destroyed with little consideration for the welfare of the hundreds of thousands of Senegalese citizens who call The Gambia home.
Worse still, even Senegalese visiting The Gambia cannot be given gifts like sugar and clothing because even though they are gifts, they would be seized by the Senegalese customs. Even though there are a lot of Senegalese made goods in The Gambia, President Abdoulie Wade’s government will not allow even a needle from The Gambia to be traded in Senegal.
Despite all of President Abdoulie Wade’s sweet talks during his recent visits to The Gambia, he is still very hostile to The Gambia as evidenced by his recent moves and that is his letter to the United Nations accusing The Gambia of buying long range rockets and other sophisticated weapons from the Islamic Republic of Iran apparently basing his arguments on the arms discovered in the Federal Republic of Nigeria despite the documentary evidence to the contrary, as the bailiff clearly stated who the consignee is for the arms shipment in Nigeria.
If those arms were for The Gambia, let it be clear that there is no power on earth that would have prevented The Gambia from negotiating with the Federal Republic of Nigeria for their release to The Gambia.
The real truth - and Allah is our witness - is that those arms were addressed to Nigeria and that is why the containers were discharged in the port of Lagos.
Unfortunately, Abdoulie Wade decided to disregard this fact and jumped to his illogical and outrageous conclusions apparently blinded by his hatred of The Gambia. The Republic of The Gambia is a sovereign state with the same rights that all independent states have to arm themselves according to their needs and The Gambia cannot and will not be dictated to by any state not to arm or what types of arms we should purchase irrespective of what is going on in a neighboring country, especially Casamance. Alas, President Abdoulie Wade thinks that he can use the arms shipment from Iran in Nigeria to go round the world through envoys to mount a campaign against The Gambia.
With regard to the crisis in Casamance, which has occasioned outrageous atrocities with the complicity of two Western powers, it will be interesting for the Gambians, the international community but more so the Senegalese people to know the naked truth that from 1994 to date, we have made it very clear that neither the Senegalese troops, nor the MFDC would use the Gambian soil as a base to wage war. Evidence of this position is the successful arrests and prosecution of any Casamance rebel found in the Gambian territory and their conviction by the competent Gambian courts.
Interestingly enough, President Abdoulie Wade has been sending special envoys appealing for the release of the so-called MFDC rebels convicted and sentenced to various prison terms for entering the Gambia armed as well as arms incursion into Gambian territory. Why? Because in the Casamance, there are two factions the people needs to know.
One is MFDC fighting for independence and another called the Jakai group trained, armed and paid by the Senegalese government. We have evidence of that and you would find in this document list of individual rebels being paid by the Senegalese government from 2003, their names and the amount they have been receiving from the government of President Abdoulie Wade. From 2003 to 2006, they have been receiving payments, salaries from the Senegalese government and we have many more of these.
This group also calls itself MFDC Jakai is the group that is carrying out outrageous atrocities against unarmed Casamance civilians suspected of sympathizing with the independence seeking MFDC. As far back as 2003, one member of the Jakai group who was very notorious in Casamance for his outrageous brutality against civilians by the name Borry Kambel, whose preferred methods included castrating his male victims, forcing them to dig their own graves before murdering them, was arrested in The Gambia and handed over to Abdoulie Wade’s government to be tried for his outrageous crimes.
He was released without trial by President Abdoulie Wade and sent back to Casamance a free man. Why? Because he was found to be a member of the Senegalese government sponsored rebel group. That is why we decided to try them if any rebel enters into the Gambian territory armed or uses Gambian territory as a base for operations in the Casamance.
One of the original commanders of this Jakai rebel group, Suwaibou Jatta, commonly known as “Kamongoya”, was arrested and detained in The Gambia together with his aides in 2004. Surprisingly, President Abdoulie Wade sent several envoys appealing for their release under the pretext that only their release would facilitate negotiations with the MFDC. We subsequently released them only for President Wade to put a price of several millions CFA Franc on Salifu Sarjo’s head. Suwaibou Jatta returned to Casamance to regain command of the Jakai group. We then realised how defective President Abdoulie Wade is.
When those so-called MFDC rebels commanded by Mai Jammeh who were using Gambian territories as a base were arrested and charged, it was the same President Wade who was frantically sending envoys to us to appeal for their release but we refused. They were convicted and sentenced to jail terms. Until recently, Abdoulie Wade has been appealing to us either by phone or through special envoys to release them but we refused and we will continue to refuse.
The Casamance crisis has unfortunately become a money-making enterprise for some bigwigs high up the Senegalese government. Casamance has become a big plantation for marijuana, where certain rebel factions, especially Jakai, openly cultivate, processed and export cannabis with impunity. Evidence of this; just last September in intensifying our war on drugs, we discovered a sophisticated drugs factory in a village in Foni shadowing the Casamance-Gambia border but both the factory and the warehouse were on the Senegalese side of the border. We decided to inform President Wade in writing and a proposed a joint raid on the village. That the Senegalese troops to raid the factory and the warehouse on the Senegalese side of the village while the National Drugs Enforcement Agency (NDEA) backed by the Gambia Armed Forces would raid the Gambian side.
A date was arranged and both the Gambian Chief of Defence Staff and his Senegalese counterpart worked out plans. Four days before the raid, President Wade called President Jammeh on the phone asking for the raid to be put off until his return from a foreign trip as he President Wade wanted to coordinate the raid on the Senegalese side himself.
A new date was set. Guess what? On the day, the NDEA backed by the Gambian armed forces raided the Gambian side of the village only to discover that the Senegalese armed forces were nowhere to be seen. A truck load of Cannabis was seized on the Gambian side of the same village whilst the factory and the warehouse on the Senegalese side remained untouched.
Source: The Point |
A clear conscience fears no accusation - proverb from Sierra Leone |
 |
|
|
Momodou
Denmark
11632 Posts |
Posted - 17 Dec 2010 : 17:50:01
|
Gambia Gov't: Wade is hostile
Friday, December 17, 2010
The Gambia government has issued a statement on its position on Senegal, indicating President Abdoulaye Wade’s hostility towards The Gambia since he took power in the year 2000 to date. In a 10-page statement read on it's behalf by Dr. Njogou L. Bah, secretary general and head of the Civil Service, The Gambia government highlighted issues relating to Cassamance, the Iran arms shipment, the 2005 border closure, among many others that occurred between The Gambia and Senegal.
Below is the full text of the statement:
GAMBIA GOVERNMENT'S POSITION ON SENEGAL
Our position since 1994 has been and will always be to work harmoniously with the Government and people of Senegal for the rapid socio-economic development of our two peoples who are one people divided by the unfortunate colonialism; a big disaster that befell the African continent and other parts of the World like Asia. To this end, both Gambians and Senegalese stand as living witnesses to our numerous Multi Million Dollar projects contracted to Senegalese companies up to date. In addition to the above, the Government went a step further to treat Senegalese Citizens in The Gambia just like Gambians, by waiving certain taxes that foreigners in The Gambia have to pay.
Unfortunately, our goodwill, sincerity and brotherhood towards our Senegalese Brothers and Sisters have never been reciprocated by the Government of Senegal from that of Abdou Diouf to Abdoulaye Wade. Things are worse under President Abdoulaye Wade who habours nothing good towards The Gambia and her people. His clear manifestation of hostility towards The Gambia was made very clear by Abdoulaye Wade himself during an interview on a French Television station LCI in his first official trip to France as President when he was asked what his mission to France was and what he expects the French Government to do for him and this was his response:
Quote "I am here to request the Government of France under Jacques Chirac to give me sophisticated arms to modernize the Senegalese Armed Forces in preparation for The Gambia, Guinea Bissau and Mauritania". Since then Abdoulaye Wade has managed to destabilize Guinea Bissau and Mauritania but failed to achieve any of his hostile objectives against The Gambia despite his continuous efforts to do so as evidenced by the testimonies of the March 21st coup plotters whose leader Col. Ndure Cham and his accomplices are given sanctuary up till now by President Abdoulaye Wade and his Government.
It is an open secret that under Abdoulaye Wade, Senegal has become the safest haven for Gambian dissidents and criminals fleeing justice. It is also the Conference Centre for all anti-Gambian elements.
Gambians and Senegalese would remember when in 2005, Abdoulaye Wade in his desperate and frantic attempts to make The Gambia economy suffer in order to bring hardship to the Gambians including Senegalese who in their thousands call Gambia home, closed the border. He did not stop at that, but mounted a smear campaign globally against The Gambia. When all these failed to materialize, he instigated Senegalese to attack The Gambian players and their supporters in Dakar that led to serious injuries and damages of their buses and coaches that took them to Dakar. Before the ill-fated Gambia-Senegal match, Abdoulaye Wade on Senegalese radio and television told the Senegalese National Team that it was not a game of football but a war on The Gambia. Abdoulaye Wade goes around the world claiming to be a Pan Africanist apparently in total disregard to the stark realities of his Anti-African and Anti-Gambian stance.
With regards to the Cassamance, our position has always been and will continue to be the search for a peaceful solution and not violence. This did not please former President Diouf and his Government who preferred a Military solution and wanted The Gambia under this APRC Government to join them. When we refused to join them because we do not subscribe to violence to solve any problem, we were accused of supporting the MFDC because the President of The Gambia is a Jola. We did not succumb to blackmail and therefore continue to refuse to join them and pursue mediation as the only viable solution beneficial to both sides.
These accusations ranging from supplying arms as well as training MFDC rebels were intensified under the current Senegalese Government under the leadership of President Abdoulaye Wade despite our goodwill towards the Senegalese people evidence of which is the hundreds of thousands of Senegalese people who live, work and earn a living in The Gambia without harassment.
Senegalese are found eking out a living in all our economic sectors ranging from petty trade, major trade, the construction industry, fisheries and tourism just to name a few. What do the Gambians get from Abdoulaye Wade's Government, more hostility and a sinister obsession to see The Gambia destroyed with little consideration for the welfare of the hundreds of thousands of Senegalese citizens who call The Gambia home.
Worse still even Senegalese visiting The Gambia cannot be given gifts like sugar and clothing because even though they are gifts, they would be seized by the Senegalese customs. Even though there are a lot of Senegalese made goods in The Gambia, President Abdoulaye Wade's government will not allow even a needle from The Gambia to be traded in Senegal.
Despite all of Abdoulaye Wade's sweet talks during his recent visits to The Gambia he is still very hostile to The Gambia as evidenced by his recent moves e.g. His letter to the UN Accusing The Gambia of buying long range rockets and other sophisticated weapons from the Islamic Republic of Iran apparently basing his arguments on the Arms discovered in the Federal Republic of Nigeria – despite documentary evidence to the contrary as the bill of lading clearly stated who the consignee is for the arms shipment in Nigeria. If those arms were for The Gambia; let it be clear that there is no power on earth that would have prevented The Gambia from negotiating with the Federal Republic of Nigeria for their release to The Gambia. The real truth and ALLAH is our witness is that those Arms were addressed to Nigeria and that is why the containers were discharged in the APAPA Port of Lagos. Unfortunately, Abdoulaye Wade decided to disregard this fact and jumped to his illogical and outrageous conclusion apparently blinded by his hatred of The Gambia.
The Republic of The Gambia is a sovereign state with the same rights that all independent states have to arm themselves according to their needs and The Gambia cannot and will not be dictated by any state not to Arm or what type of Arms we should purchase irrespective of what is going on in a neighbouring country especially Cassamance. Alas, President Abdoulaye Wade thinks that he can use the arms shipment from Iran in Nigeria to go round the world through envoys to mount a campaign against The Gambia. With regards to the crisis in Cassamance which has occasioned outrageous atrocities with the complicity of two Western Powers, it will be interesting for The Gambians, the international Community but more so the Senegalese people to know the naked truth:-
That from 1994 to date, we have made it very clear that neither the Senegalese troops nor MFDC would use Gambian soil as a base to wage war. Evidence of this position is the successful arrest and prosecution of any Cassamance rebel found in The Gambian territory and their conviction by the competent Gambian Courts. Interestingly enough, President Abdoulaye Wade has been sending special envoys appealing for the release of the so called MFDC Rebels convicted and sentenced to various prison terms for entering The Gambia armed as well as armed incursions into Gambian territory. Why, because in the Cassamance, there are two factions: one MFDC, fighting for independence and another called the Jakayi Group, trained armed and paid by the Senegalese Government. This group also calls itself MFDC Jakayi – This is the group that is carrying out outrageous atrocities against unarmed Cassamance Civilians suspected of sympathizing with the independence-seeking MFDC.
As far back as 2003, one Member of this group i.e. Jakayi group who was very notorious in Cassamance for his outrageous brutality against civilians, by the name Borry Kambeela; whose preferred method included castrating his male victims, forcing them to dig their own graves before murdering them was arrested in The Gambia and handed over to Abdoulaye Wade's Government to be tried for his outrageous crimes. He was released without trial by President Abdoulaye Wade and sent back to Cassamance, a free man! Why because he was found to be a member of the Senegalese Government sponsored rebel group.
That is why we decided to try them if any rebel entered Gambian territory armed or uses Gambian territory as a base for operations in the Cassamance. One of the Original Commanders of this Jakayi Group, Swaibou Jatta, Aka, Kammongoye was arrested and detained in The Gambia together with his aides in 2004. Surprisingly President Abdoulaye Wade sent several envoys appealing for their release under the pretext that only their release would facilitate negotiations with the MFDC. We subsequently released them only for Abdoulaye Wade to put a prize of several millon CFA franc on Salify Sarjo's head. Swaibou Jatta alias Kamongoye returned to Cassamance to regain command of the Jakayi Group. We then realized how deceptive President Abodulaye Wade is. When those so-called MFDC rebels, commanded by Magnye Jammeh who were using Gambian Territories as a base were arrested and charged, it was the same President Wade who was frantically sending envoys to us to appeal for their release but we refused. They were convicted and sentenced to jail terms. Until recently, Abdoulaye Wade has been appealing to us either by phone or through special envoys to release them but we refused. The Cassamance crisis has unfortunately become a moneymaking enterprise for some big wigs higher up the Senegalese Government. Cassamance has become a big plantation for Marijuana where certain rebel factions especially Jakayi openly cultivate, process and export cannabis with impunity.
Evidence of it, just last September, in intensifying our war on drugs, we discovered a sophisticated Drugs Factory in a Village in Foni straddling the Cassamance-Gambia border but both the Factory and the warehouse were on the Senegalese side of the border. We decided to inform President Wade in writing and proposed a joint raid on the village i.e. Senegalese troops to raid the Factory and the warehouse on the Senegalese side of the village whilst the NDEA, backed by the Gambia Armed Forces would raid The Gambian side. A date was arranged and both The Gambian CDS and his Senegalese counterpart worked out the plans. Four days before the raid, President Wade called President Jammeh on the phone asking for the raid to be put off until his return from a foreign trip as he President Wade wanted to coordinate the raid on the Senegalese side himself. A new date was set! Guess what, on D'Day, the NDEA backed by The Gambia Armed Forces raided The Gambian side of the village only to discover that the Senegalese Armed Forces were nowhere to be seen. A truckload of cannabis was seized on The Gambian side of the same village whilst the factory and the warehouse on the Senegalese side remained untouched!
That Jakayi rebel group is on the payroll of President Wade is an open secret and we have documents to prove it. Now who is sponsoring the rebels in Cassamance when some of them receive salaries regularly from President Wade's Government? We have never assisted the MFDC in any way but that all Gambian dissidents from Kukoi Samba Sanyang to former Col. Ndure Cham are being given safe sanctuary by President Wade and his Government is an open secret. In fact, Kukoi Samba Sanyang is traveling with a Senegalese Passport a Photograph of which is in our possession together with a letter he wrote to President Wade!
Finally, is it not interestingly shocking that President Wade, despite his claim of being a Pan Africanist, has never allowed any Senegalese official to attend any cultural festival in The Gambia from the Roots Festival to the Kanilai International Festival from his assumption of power to date despite his Government being officially invited each time! The Senegalese Government has never invited even one Gambian Musician or cultural group to participate in any official event from 2000 to date despite the fact that Senegalese Musicians are being patronized in The Gambia several times each year including official Gambia Government events and other public institutions.
In addition, a Gambian company has never been awarded a contract by any Senegalese government from 1994 to date despite the fact that Senegalese Companies are being awarded MEGA Contracts in The Gambia up to today! Even Gambian traders cannot send goods across Senegal to countries like Mali etc. Pan Africanism is an ideal that can only be proven by concrete actions and not mere lip service.
Despite all these, the government and people of The Gambia continue to welcome in our midst our Senegalese brothers and sisters from all works of life and we will, as true Pan Africanists, continue to welcome our brothers and sisters from Africa in general and Senegal in particular. We are kit and kin with the Senegalese people as destined by Allah and President Wade and his Government’s hostility towards The Gambia cannot change that. Nowadays, even the officially approved Senegalese Website (Seneweb) is being used by Gambia dissidents to attack the Gambia Government!
One thing is certain; The Almighty Allah will one day pass His judgment between The Gambia and President Wade and his Government for all to see. This Inshallah shall never fail. It is just a matter of time as the Almighty Allah is a just Supreme Authority who rewards people for their deeds and punishes those found wanting.
In Allah we trust and we shall never regret it.
Source: Daily Observer |
A clear conscience fears no accusation - proverb from Sierra Leone |
|
|
|
Momodou
Denmark
11632 Posts |
Posted - 17 Dec 2010 : 19:42:06
|
Foroyaa Editorial : THE GAMBIA GOVERNMENT, KUKOI SAMBA SANYANG AND SENEGAL FOROYAA’S OBSERVATIONS HAVE COME TO LIGHT
Foroyaa took up the issue of the 13 containers, labeled as building materials from Iran seized by Nigeria which were in fact rocket launchers, grenades and other explosives and called on the Gambia Government to visit Nigeria to conduct its investigation and issue a statement on the allegations that were rife that the arms were destined for the Gambia. There was no statement issued. However, what eventually followed was the severing of relations between The Gambia and Iran.
We visited the foreign Ministry again to find out whether the rupture of relations between the two countries was linked to the arms found in Nigeria. We could not get any official at the foreign Ministry to comment.
On the 15th December 2010, reports reached the Foroyaa office indicating that during the 12 o’clock news broadcast by Wal fajri Television based in Senegal, it was stated that the Foreign affairs Minister of Senegal had gone to Iran and Nigeria to investigate the facts behind the arms that were seized at the ports in Nigeria and have got information indicating that they were destined for the Gambia. The report is said to indicate that the findings of the Senegalese Foreign Affairs Minister has been forwarded to ECOWAS and the United Nations.
Interestingly enough, on the same day, after the 8 pm news, the Secretary General of the Gambia Public service issued a statement, on behalf of the Gambia Government indicating that the arms were not destined to the Gambia, that a proper investigation would have revealed that the consignee was in Nigeria. He accused President Wade’s Government of misinforming the United Nations. They attributed this to long standing policy of hosting Gambian dissidents like Kukoi Samba Sanyang and Ndure Cham aimed at destabilizing the Government of the Gambia. They claim that Kukoi has a Senegalese passport.
The battle of the airwaves has caught the Gambian population unawares. Foroyaa reporters who were sent around to sound the opinions of people claim that people are generally speechless. The Senegalese citizens in the Gambia are said to be expressing doubt as to what is going on after what appears to have been the development of closer ties between the two governments. Where do we go from here? Is the question.
In our view, Nigeria needs to demonstrate leadership on the issue of the arms. It should investigate the matter thoroughly and inform its findings to the people in West Africa. ECOWAS is a Community of states and there should be accountability and transparency in all the dealings of its members.
Secondly, the problem of Casamance is a sore in the relation between Gambia, Senegal and Guinea Bissau. If this sore is not healed Sub-regional peace and harmony will be a mere dream. The recent clashes between the combatants in Casamance which led to the scattering of weapons in vegetable gardens and farms in Foni, The Gambia, are enough early warning signals that Countries in the Sub region, ECOWAS and AU should take into consideration. The Casamance crisis requires urgent attention if sub regional peace and stability is to be guaranteed.
Thirdly, both the Government of the Gambia and Senegal are members of ECOWAS and the African Union. Hence whenever there is conflict between the two governments the people of the two countries should not be affected. The first stage of managing tensions between governments is to give maximum protection to the citizens of the different states resident in each other’s territory.
Lastly, the conflict between the two governments confirms the diplomatic theory that there are no permanent friends in international politics. There are the permanent interests of governments. There is harmony when interests are the same and confrontation when they are different. African governments could only co-exist in peace if they all have the interest of the continent and their sovereign people at heart.
Source: Foroyaa |
A clear conscience fears no accusation - proverb from Sierra Leone |
|
|
|
Watchman
Gambia
174 Posts |
|
|
Kitabul Arerr
Gambia
645 Posts |
Posted - 18 Dec 2010 : 02:04:29
|
Quote on quote:
“Worse still even Senegalese visiting The Gambia cannot be given gifts like sugar and clothing because even though they are gifts, they would be seized by the Senegalese customs. Even though there are a lot of Senegalese made goods in The Gambia, President Abdoulaye Wade's government will not allow even a needle from The Gambia to be traded in Senegal.”
But who do the Gambian farmers turn to, for their groundnuts produce, when the going gets tough?
They usually turn to Senegal for the highly needed cash. I'm a bit confused with the above excerpt...................................................................................................................................lol?!?! |
The New Gambia - Stronger Together! |
|
|
|
Karamba
United Kingdom
3820 Posts |
Posted - 18 Dec 2010 : 03:26:04
|
Kitabul Arerr,
Take it from this moment. All that Yaya wants is to set Gambia on fire. It is that same fire to consume him and let Gambia free for good. This greedy creature has his mouth open to swallow even the wild sea.
Greed, Greed, Greed,
Selfish, wicked, mean! |
Karamba |
|
|
|
Kitabul Arerr
Gambia
645 Posts |
Posted - 18 Dec 2010 : 03:50:48
|
Inglourious Basterds of the bad kind.......................................................................................lol!
|
The New Gambia - Stronger Together! |
|
|
| |
Topic |
|
|
|
| Bantaba in Cyberspace |
© 2005-2024 Nijii |
|
|
|
Topic Locked
