Breaking News
Yahya Jammeh Braces for UN Summit in New York
By Ebrima G. Sankareh, Editor-In-Chief
Unimpeachable and highly placed sources within the President’s office, say The Gambia’s errant leader, Yahya Jammeh, is poised to attend the sixty-fourth session of the United Nations in New York. Reveals Kissy Kissy Mansa, “not only is he coming to New York, but Jammeh is coming big time with numerous plans, accompanied by a high-powered delegation of diplomats, business tycoons as well as political sycophants in the run up to the much-talked about 2011 presidential elections.
Jammeh, who is expected here on Tuesday September 22, 2009, last visited the United States in 2005 and has for the past four years been engaged in numerous controversial politics and programs that have often annoyed both his countrymen and the international community and it remains to be seen what he has to defend his dented diplomatic disposition. His most recent bizarre move was the jailing of six Gambian journalists for a month only to grant them a bogus presidential amnesty barely two weeks ago. The six journalists had appropriately responded and or published a terse rejoinder to his bellicose statement about the tragic death of doyen Gambian journalist, Deyda Hydara in December 2004.
Even before that dust settles, the utterly despicable dictator proceeded to sack both his Foreign Minister and Permanent Secretary, a sequel to the sacking of his US Ambassador, Neneh Macdouall Gaye and the high profile wholesale sacking of the Chief Justice, the Speaker of the Parliament, the Finance Minister and the most loquacious Agriculture minister, Yankuba Touray.
Last February, hell broke loose when the Gambian leader swore to rid the country of witches and went on the rampage forcing innocent villagers, mostly perceived political enemies to take potions. Those who refused to comply were tortured and detained in secret locations around the countryside while those who complied were subjected to the most grueling humiliations ever. While some lived to tell the harrowing tales, others died following the traumatic experiences and embarrassments those proud folks were subjected to by Malian voodoo men in red regalia. Numerous others trekked the porous southern border and sought political refuge in neighbouring Senegal.
Significantly, it must not be forgotten that to date, numerous Gambians have disappeared and the last time they were seen, they were in bad company- arrested by the mush-fared National Intelligence Agency-the most predacious NIA. Kanyiba Kanyi, a local staff of the Christian Children’s Fund also believed to be an opposition element was lured to a meeting by President Jammeh’s elements and seized. To date, no one knows Kanyi’s whereabouts. Likewise, NIA agents arrested journalist Chief Ebrima Manneh, a reporter for Jammeh’s own newspaper, The Gambia Daily Observer, since July 2006 and to date, the regime continues to feed us with cock and bull stories through its most genocidal liar, Attorney General, Marie Saine-Firdaus.
Finally, among Jammeh’s numerous activities, is his regime’s complicitous involvement in drug trafficking from Latin American countries enroute to Western Europe and America. Beneath the façade of his religious sermons, the ubiquitous kaftans, the palpable paradox of the rosaries and the sword is the stark reality of his aiding and abetting of drug barons from Guinea Conakery and Bissau especially, before the deaths of the dictators, Lansana Conté and Nino Vieira respectively. The announcement just this week, of the presence of US drug enforcement agents in Banjul is a significant development in arresting this menace. Instead of giving US tax payers’ money to Jammeh’s incompetent and rapacious rapist of an Interior Minister, Ousman Sonko, the US agents should be engaged in more prosaic programs to fight the menace and all those accomplices. Yahya Jammeh is NOT, cannot and can never be a reliable partner in fighting drug barons and any effort in this direction is a futile exercise.
For now though, we at The Echo hope that Gambians in the United States will give the dictator the welcome that all dictators deserve, NO MORE, NO LESS.