Yus, thanks for the dossier verily it is very informative, I never knew that
Baba Jobe was so deeply involved. There appears to be a lot of blurred and
shaddy issues to deal with and am now convinced that the UN must have
something tangible against him to warrant a ban.

I hope the assembly members will raise the issue so that it would be
clarified if he can or cannot travel.

>From: Y C Jow <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: The Gambia and related-issues mailing list
><[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Re: QUESTION?
>Date: Sun, 24 Feb 2002 16:17:07 EST
>
>Malik:
>I don't know how Mr. Jobe's ban affect his status as a NAM, however this
>should act as reference in putting the seriousness of the matter at hand in
>perspective.  This is culled from the UN report which led to the travel
>bans
>being imposed on some of these folk, who were engaged in business with
>despicable foreign nationals who profited off the blood and misery of
>Africans to enrich themselves though arms and diamond trafficking.
>
>
>The Gambia New Millennium air incident. In January 2000, the President of
>the
>Central African Republic traveled to the Agenda 2000 summit of African
>heads
>of State in Libreville, Gabon. When the presidential delegation arrived in
>Libreville, they were congratulated for a beautiful aircraft standing at
>the
>airport. The plane, an Ilyushin-62, carried the registration number
>TL-ACL.283. It also carried the flag of the Central African Republic and
>"CentrafricanAirlines" was written in bold letters on the plane. The
>authorities in Gabon thought it was a new acquisition of the Central
>African
>Republic's President. The President, however, had never heard of such a
>plane, and upon inspection it seemed another official delegation from
>Gambia
>had arrived in this particular aircraft. Because of the embarrassing
>situation, an investigation was carried out by the Ministry of Transport
>and
>the Prosecutor of the Central African Republic, in cooperation with ASECNA,
>the African air navigation and safety organization. The investigation
>discovered two documents that had allowed the plane to operate, a
>"Temporary"
>Certificate of Registration and an Airworthiness Certificate.These
>documents
>were forged and had been issued and signed by Armand Fulbert Doungovo, the
>Director of Civil Aviation of the Central African Republic. On 24 January
>2000, the investigating authorities ordered the immediate arrest of Mr.
>Doungovo, Mr. Bout and the local manager of Centrafrican Airlines, Mr.
>Bouroukine. The Director General of Civil Aviation was ordered to conduct
>amore thorough investigation, and on 14 February 2000 a Ministerial Decree
>put an end to all the activities of the company Centrafrican Airlines in
>the
>Central African
>------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>--
>
>
>  The Panel verified that the offices of Centrafrican in Bangui were indeed
>closed and are now used by the company Sudan Airways. It remains unclear
>why
>the other shareholder of Centrafrican, the Belgian pilot Ronal De Smet, who
>has been along-time partner of Victor Bout, was not indicted in this case.
>The Director General of Civil Aviation had earlier tried to obtain
>information from Director Doungovo on his relationship with Centrafrican
>Airlines. A letter sent to Doungovo dated 22 June 1999, shows the Director
>General's suspicion was raised when he discovered that the Director was
>travelling abroad to negotiate traffic rights as a representative of the
>company, Centrafrican Airlines. The incident in Gabon,however, had
>accelerated things.
>
>Massive fraud
>This investigation showed that Mr. Doungovo and Victor Bout had fabricated
>airworthiness certificates, air operator permits and certificates of
>registration for a great number of aircraft. Most of these had earlier been
>deregistered in the Kingdom of Swaziland, where Victor Bout and his
>partners
>had set up a similar scheme.Before that, Mr. Bout's planes had been
>registered in Liberia.. The Gambia New Millennium plane had been bought by
>a
>Gambian a few weeks before the Gabon incident. A copy of the sales
>agreement
>shows that the seller was Victor Bout, General Manager of Centrafrican
>Airlines. The buyer was Gambia New Millennium Air, represented by Mr. Baba
>Jobe. The bank details show that the final beneficiary of the transaction
>was
>the holder of an account at the Standard Chartered Bank, Sharjah branch.
>This
>account with number 01-5624312-01is of the Transavia Travel Agency, another
>company of Victor Bout. The Panel was able to interview Mr. Baba Jobe in
>Banjul, Gambia, in September 2001. Meanwhile, the aircraft has changed
>registration and is now legally registered in Gambia. Mr. Jobe, who is a
>civil servant and close adviser of the Gambian President, denied knowing
>Victor Bout. He said he had never heard of that man and had dealt with a
>Mr.
>Hajazi, a Lebanese citizen who acted as a representative of Libya. The
>plane
>was considered a gift to the Gambian President and not to Baba Jobe, nor
>had
>the Gambian authorities been aware that the aircraft had been involved in a
>case of fraud in the Central African Republic. Some suspicion exists on the
>activities of Mr. Baba Jobe, first of all because the Paneldoes have a copy
>of the sales agreement showing both his and Bout's signatures. Also, among
>Mr. Jobe's acquaintances are Ibrahim Bah, one of the RUF rebels whois very
>active in the diamond business. Mr. Jobe acknowledged knowing Bah from the
>time he had been a student in Libya, where many of the RUF were trained
>before the wars in Liberia and later in Sierra Leone. Mr. Jobe stated that
>it
>had been years since he had spoken or seen Ibrahim Bah.
>
>The Civil Aviation Authorities in the Central African Republic found many
>more incidents in connection with the fraudulently registered aircraft of
>Centrafrican Airlines. In one case, the company had issued a false flight
>plan. After inspection, it was also found that all the documents
>authorizing
>the plane to operate were again false. Also, two helicopters belonging to
>the
>company had made emergency landings due to technical problems. Those
>helicopters, too, were operating on false documentation. These helicopters
>were, in 2001, operating in the rebel areas in the Democratic Republic of
>the
>Congo. A flight log obtained from the Ugandan Civil Aviation Authority
>shows
>a landing in Uganda, in November, of a Let-410 aircraft, with the Liberian
>registration EL-MLC. The operator was also Centrafrican Airlines.The Panel
>on
>Sierra Leone obtained the complete Liberian aircraft registry in November
>2000. The helicopter is not among the aircraft on the lis t, again
>indicating
>a fraudulent use of a registration number.Victor Bout escapes from justice.
>When the authorities in Bangui issued a warrant for the arrest of the
>Director of Civil Aviation, for the Russian manager of Centrafrican in
>Bangui
>and for Victor Bout, Bout was still in the country, but he managed to
>escape.
>On 16 June 2000,Doungovo, the director of Civil Aviation was convicted with
>a
>year of imprisonment for fraud and forgery. Victor Bout was also charged
>and
>convicted in absentia with two years in prison. The Court in Bangui also
>issued an international arrest warrant for him. But subsequently, on 28
>June
>2000, Bout was acquitted of the charges. The Panel did not get any
>information on the circumstances of this acquittal.
>
>The Central African Republic's Civil Aviation Authority noted that despite
>the dissolution of the company Centrafrican Airlines in February 2000, the
>fraudulently registered aircraft were seen at many airports across Africa
>and
>elsewhere.
>
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