A while back I posted what appeared to me to be the profound inadequacies of
Yahya Jammeh's efforts at reaching a peaceful resolution of the unrest in
Cassamance. The only thing the President attempted to bring to the
negotiating table was goodwill. He lacked credibility, clout and the
diplomatic savvy that must necessarily compliment his stated desire for
peace. Consequently the President's efforts were continuously stymied by
procedural wrangles and unkept promises of ceasefires. The talks went
nowhere.The President nonetheless wasted no time parlaying his newfound role
as a peace facilitator into diplomatic capital wherever he could. He and and
his surrogates are quick to use any forum to portray a man the New York times
called a petty dictator as the ultimate apostle of peace. The posturing was
endless. Recognizing the inherent lack of progress, the then President-elect
Wade quickly announced that he was going to shift the focus of the
negotiations from the Banjul Process to Guinea Bissau where he knew the real
prospects for a lasting peace laid. This weekend he made good on that by
flying over to Bissau for extensive talks and then transiting to Banjul for
an hour to essentially tell Yahya Jammeh that the diplomatic ball game has
changed as promised. He said he was 'taking the talks from Gambia and moving
it to Bissau......'. President Wade is a practical man who wants to quickly
end his nations' painful and expensive war of attrition within it's own
borders. As a result he has very little patience for the amateurish
diplomatic efforts of a mediator who seems to be much more interested in
turning his role into tool for posturing than resolving the conflict.
    In the end Presidents Wade and Kumba Yalla would cut a deal that would
not only resolve the problem but would improve overall relations that has
grown sour primarily because of this scrooge of a conflict. Working together
the two nations can quickly improve the environment along their common border
by first flushing out the criminal element that drives most of the violence
thus enhancing the already good possibility for a lasting political solution.
With peace and tranquility, the people of Cassamance would quickly realize
the benefits of using the devolved powers that President Wade has promised
that would enable them to remain within a unified Senegal while also being
able to run their affairs.
     Apart from the satisfaction that comes from seeing a neighbor end a
fratricidal war of attrition, we Gambians can more easily show the world who
Yahya Jammeh really is , which is a murderous tyrant masquerading as a peace
maker. At last his penchant to tell anyone within earshot including
continental migratory birds flying over Kanalai of his tireless efforts at
peacemaking would be finally curbed.

Karamba

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L
Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html

----------------------------------------------------------------------------