November 10, 2000
Banjul
Captain Valentine Strasser a former military head of state in Sierra Leone
was returned to The Gambia on Tuesday, barely four days after he was deported
from this country to the United Kingdom where he had been residing since his
removal from power in 1995.
Captain Strasser was made head of the National Provisional Ruling Council
(NPRC) when the Sierra Leone army overthrew the government of President
Joseph Saidu Momoh in April 1992.
However in 1995 he was also deposed in a palace coup and replaced by
Brigadier Maada Bio who saw to the transition from military to civilian rule
in 1996.
Since then, Strasser had fled to Guinea where he lived for a while before
surreptitiously reaching the United Kingdom where he became a student in a
college in Warwick. He arrived in The Gambia on October 27, apparently
without the knowledge of the Gambian authorities. Strasser had told his
compatriots living her that he had come to The Gambia to escape Sierra
Leoneans in the UK who wanted to kill him. However four days after his
arrival in The Gambia, he was arrested and deported by the Gambian
authorities. The British authorities however refused him entry to the UK and
early this week they flew him back to The Gambia.
When contacted a senior official at the British High Commissioner in Banjul
confirmed Strasser's refused entry to Britain because he said he (Strasser)
did not get the proper document to enter that country. He added that they
were taking him back to Freetown

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