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Dembish
Gambia
284 Posts |
 Posted - 24 Apr 2006 : 20:11:49
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CONTINEOUS EVAPORATION OF SENEGAMBIAN RELATIONS
By Mbaye B. Sarr & Mohammed L. Sillah
Apr 24, 2006, 17:05
Some of the alleged coup plotters in detention have mentioned Senegalese security officials allegedly involved in the planning of March 21st alleged coup attempt. Former Director of Immigrations in the person of Tamsir Jasseh, now in captivity, told interrogators that he once acted as go-between for the leader of the alleged planned coup Col. Ndure Cham and the Senegalese High Commissioner to The Gambia. Also, Lt. Yahya N. Darbo in his publicized testimony told interrogators that he had been told by Col. Cham that Senegalese troops were ready to intervene and that arrangements had been made for a corridor for the troops to intervene in the coup process. Up to now though, the Senegalese authorities have refused to comment on the allegations; publicly.
The alleged coup plot came at a time when all the ingredients for an explosion in the relations between the two countries seem to be in place. Barely six weeks ago fighting erupted along Senegal’s border between members of a hard-line faction of the MFDC separatist rebel movement and the Guinea Bissau army supported by another faction of the rebels. At about the same time a delegation of an association of prominent Casamance personalities based in the Senegalese capital came to meet with President Jammeh at State House. Though both sides tried to shroud the visit with diplomatic draperies, all observers agreed it must have something to do with the fighting across the border and Senegalese suspicion of Gambian authorities’ suspected complicity. Also, the Gambian authorities have decided to raise the tariff for the ferries across the Gambia River. Tariffs for the ferries heavily used by Senegalese truckers were to be raised by 60% but the decision has been put on hold so far. A similar increment last year led to a protracted border closure and severe souring of relations between the two states.
Even before the coup attempt, a source close to the top echelon of the ruling APRC party mentioned growing suspicions within the party that the Senegalese authorities are giving financial and material support to the UDP/NRP coalition. Though there has been no evidence to support this suspicion, NRP leader Hamat Bah is known to be close to PDS leaders in Senegal and even Jammeh last year castigated Bah for his relations with Senegal. One other APRC official told the Gambia Journal that it was likely that the Senegalese authorities want to “sabotage” The Gambia’s hosting of the forthcoming AU Summit in June.
There is now no doubt that relation between the two neighboring states is at its lowest ebb ever. A whole community of Gambian political exiles now lives in Senegal and it is known that the Gambia’s intelligence body, the NIA, have had agents active in Dakar, the Senegalese capital. Former Gambian Vice president Saikou Sabally has been living in Dakar for the past eleven years and Mr. Kukoi Samba Sanyang, leader of a coup attempt over twenty years ago has been frequently visiting Senegal. Mr. Sanyang had a series of secrete meetings with the Gambian President three years ago but it seemed those negotiations got bogged down and failed when Charles Taylor had to leave Monrovia in the in a deal brokered by the AU for him to proceed to Nigeria for political Asylum. Mr. Sanyang wanted Jammeh’s help to evacuate his men who had been fighting on Taylor’s side for over seven years. Jammeh wanted some of them to form into a loyal armed group existing parallel to the Gambia Armed Forces but answerable only to him. As the negotiations dragged on and the Liberian rebels rapidly moved towards Monrovia, Jammeh won the negotiations by having the men evacuated completely on his own terms, in fact without Sanyang’s consent. Feeling betrayed and sidelined Mr. Kuikoi Sanyang has since been ranting and plotting against the Jammeh regime. The former Capt. Sana Sabally who had been President Jammeh’s deputy in the junta that ousted the democratically elected Jawara regime of the First Republic is also in Senegal. In February 1995, barely six months after their coming to power, the two men fell out with each other and Sabally was rounded up detained and later imprisoned on charges of trying to overthrow the junta. Mr. Sabally spent almost nine years in jail and was released only about 18 months ago after which he left for Senegal. Mr. Sabally last year complained of NIA surveillance on him in the Senegalese capital.
In the same vein, the spokesperson of the MFDC rebels Mr. Alexandra Djibba has been living in the Gambia for year under the protection of the Gambian government.
It is also an open secret that MFDC fighters operate timber and charcoal businesses in the Gambia to raise funds for their movement. Mr. Seedy Badjie, one of the leaders of the hard line faction had also died under mysterious conditions in the Gambia while being a secret guest of the Gambia government and was housed in an official bungalow in Fajara near the American Ambassador’s resident. Last year the MFDC rebels shot and hurt two Senegalese Custom officials and seek refuge in the Gambia. The Senegalese authority asked for their return which was rebuffed by the Jammeh regime. Equally so, some of the MFDC rebels captured in the recent fighting t the Guinea Bissau boarder with Senegal revealed that their source of ammunition is from the Jammeh regime. As recent as last week, the Leader of the hard-line faction of the rebel MFDC movement that is fighting to Separate the province of Casamance from Senegal, Salifu Sadio followed by scores of his men have reported to have fled across the province to the border with The Gambia. They had been caught up in intense fighting with Guinea Bissau troops over the past six weeks. Late in February over a hundred of his men attacked a Guinea Bissau army garrison in the border town of San Domingo. The fighting had been among the fiercest between the rebels and the Bissau Government since 1998. BBC’s Senegalese correspondent Tijan Sey reported on Saturday, April 22nd, that Mr. Sadio and scores of his men were able to brake free from a village where they had been surrounded for over a month. Senior rebel member Zachariah Goudiabi had said last month that were not the “type to be slaughtered like chickens but ones that will fight like lions. When Guinea Bissau’s President Vieira visited Mauritania last week he said his troops will wipe out all Senegalese rebels in our country.” Mr. Vieira is seen by many to be fighting a proxy war for the Senegalese government. If the reports of Salifu Sadio’s flight to the Gambian border are true, observers here believe, then Gambia-Senegal relations, already on all0time low level, are bound to suffer further shocks. Senegalese authorities strongly believe that President Jammeh is in cahoots with his rebel kinsmen.
The situation between the two countries now resembles a powder-keg waiting to ignite. Let us hope that when it does, it will not severe the historical ties between the two sisterly countries and their peoples.
Source: The Gambia Journal
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There is no egg without a chicken, and no chicken without egg. |
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taalibeh
Gambia
336 Posts |
Posted - 24 Apr 2006 : 21:10:03
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| Jammeh is not clean one bit. I hope Senegal and Guinea will collude to snatch him from kanilai. It is just in the border and could be feasible for them. |
Taalibeh |
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