Copyright Economist Newspaper Group, Incorporated Jan 18, 1997

THE Swiss bank account and the African dictator go together like sex and
the rock stallion. But not often does the world get to see the numbers--of
the account and in it.

On August 23rd 1995, Philippe Bidawid, of the Geneva branch of Credit
Lyonnais, a giant French bank, wrote to Captain Ebou Jallow, one of a
group of young soldiers who had recently seized power in the tiny West
African state of the Gambia. He said he would travel to the Gambian
capital, Banjul, the following Friday, to bring "account-opening
documentation for the concerned person" and hoped to complete the
formalities the same day.

The "concerned person" was Captain Yahya Jammeh, the new president of the
Gambia. Captain Jammeh was apt to rant furiously in public about the
wicked corruption of the old regime. He locked up several of its members
and seized their property in the name of cleaning up the country.

Six weeks later Captain Jallow fell out with his colleagues and fled. The
regime denounced him and said he had absconded with over $3m, withdrawn
from the Central Bank--"money intended for the pur

chase of basic foodstuffs such as cooking oil, onions and Irish
potatoes"--and had paid it into a bank account abroad.

No one took the allegations seriously until Captain Jallow issued a press
release confirming that he had indeed transferred $3m from the Central
Bank and paid it into an account at Credit Lyonnais in Geneva-- but
averring that he had been instructed to do so by the president. He also
said the president had sent him to Geneva in Sep tember 1995 to withdraw
$100,000 from account number 00.12854.6.002001, code 1960, also at Credit
Lyonnais. That account's owner, he said, was President Jammeh. He said the
president had told him to withdraw the $3m from the other account, refill
the president's account with $100,000 of it, and pay $1m to "business
partners". These gentlemen, said Captain Jallow, supplied him with two
heavy cases and two sealed chemical bottles. He then hired a jet for
$71,000 and flew back to Banjul with what was left of the money, the
suitcases and bottles, all of which he delivered to his boss. The captain
claims that the president told him the equipment was for mak

ing counterfeit dollars.

President Jammeh could have denied everything and then expediently said no
more. Instead, he not only denounced Captain Jallow as a liar, but got the
accounts blocked by the Swiss authorities and proceedings initiated
against the captain under both criminal and civil law.

He had reckoned without Mr Bidawid. The Jallow version was true, said the
banker, when the criminal case came to court last year. Captain Jallow, he
said, had power of attorney on the president's private account, which was
set up with $1.7m in cash. Mr Bidawid added that, when Captain Jallow had
asked him for the $3m in the other account, he telephoned President Jammeh
to make sure he could hand it over. The president, said Mr Bidawid, gave
him approval.

The court ruled in favour of Captain Jallow, though the civil case, under
which his assets in Switzerland are still frozen, continues. Those assets
allegedly include a further $3m in his Credit Lyonnais account and $20m in
two other accounts.

Captain Jallow's story about forged dollars has not been confirmed. But
other odd tales have emerged from the mini-state. Last August seven tonnes
of marijuana packed in wooden crates addressed to the Ministry of
Agriculture, Banjul, were seized in Nouakchott, the capital of Mauritania.
That month two military helicopters due for dispatch to the Gambia were
seized by American agents at Miami airport. The Gambian government
maintains silence on all three cases. President Jammeh recently was
triumphantly confirmed in office by the voters.

-- 
BambaLaye
Radio Free Gambia
www.freegambia.net

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