Folks, these APRC characters are really something.  For some reason they
think they are smart and can just come and say a bold face lie and retreat
without being challenged.  Yes, the Senegalese press got it all right, Yaya
is like water in a container and I might add a chameleon, too.  Is he
meddling in the Cassamance struggle, absolutely.  Has he ever told them that
they cannot seperate themselves from Senegal, never.  As I write, some of
the who is who of the MFDC are lodged at the Atlantic Hotel.  They think
everyone is stupid, but the joke is on them.  While we're on the subject of
Cassamance, why and how did Kukoi (the Gambian Fugitive) come to visit
Gambia recently?  Word has it that the deal was brokered by Yaya's mother -
Jola to Jola, chei!  This is the same Kukoi that Yaya acccused of plotting a
coup and summarily assasinating and bunch of folks in the process.  Now he
was a state guest.  Also, did he leave through Senegal?  If so, why did Wade
let him through?  I hope this is not one of those backroom deals that our
socalled leaders are notorious for.  Wade not better make the same mistake
as Joof and let the two criminals to exchange ideas.  Ousman Badjie can lie
all he wants, he has a weasel for a boss.  Please read on.


Senegalese Press Provoke Gov't Reaction


The Independent (Banjul)

May 12, 2003
Posted to the web May 13, 2003

Pk Jarju
Banjul

The Gambian government through the Secretary of State for the Interior has
vehemently charged at the Senegalese print media, which blamed none other
than President Jammeh for the alleged decision to expel 527 Senegalese from
the country, barely over a week after the visit of Prime Minister Idrissa
Seck.

Ousman Badjie went in spirited defense of President Jammeh, saying the
allegations as reported by the Senegalese press and reproduced by The
Independent and The Point newspapers last were baseless and lacking in
correct details. He described them as a well-orchestrated move by
unscrupulous elements to strain the excellent bilateral relations between
Senegal and The Gambia.


Badjie told local journalists Friday shortly after The Independent published
an article quoting the Senegalese press as "demonizing" Jammeh, that the
government has been profoundly disappointed and unpleasantly surprised over
articles by the Senegalese press, which harangued President Jammeh, likening
him to water, which assumes the colour of the container carrying it. He said
the claims against the government "do not contain any iota of truth in
them".

According to Badjie immediately after gleaning the news from the Senegalese
papers over the alleged deportation of 527 refugees and the demolition of
their houses, his office acted swiftly by deploying an investigating team
led by a senior immigration officer Seedy Touray who is also in charge of
refugee matters to the reported border villages of Kanilai, Boulunte,
Mandina, Kankadi and Alacounda. He added that at the end of their
investigations it was discovered that nothing as reported by the Senegalese
press has actually occurred. He said the only thing found out by the
investigators was that only 72 Cassamance refugees had returned home on
their own volition without being conditioned to do so by the authorities.

SOS Badjie noted the return of the refugees has never been registered by the
Immigration Department and the UNHCR. He also said they were also never
accorded refugee status in The Gambia.

According to Badjie, the 72 Cassamancians whom he described as "seasonal
people" are among a steady tide of Africans who came into the Gambia in
search of greener pastures and have voluntarily returned home in advance for
the rainy season. He said the returnees had faced neither threats of
expulsion or harassment from the local authorities nor were they screened by
the security officers at the border. He said they were not examined by a
team of medical personnel as they arrived in the country.

He noted that there has also never been any instance when immigration or
security officers at the border were informed of the atrocities in
Cassamance warranting them to come to the country.

Badjie added that in compliance with the UN convention of 1951 which states
that refugees should not be living less than 50 kilometres from borders,
government has since 2001 moved the Arankul Kunda and Siffoe refugee camps
to Bambali in the Lower River Division for Cassamancee refugees and Kundam
in Upper River Division for other nationals.

Badjie further added that the Senegalese papers had attempted to distort the
terms of the peace deal between President Wade and Diamacoune in Bissau.
"How on earth could one imagine that the Jammeh regime allegedly deported
these Cassamancians because of that meeting" he asked.

This said Badjie shows that there was a well calculated move by some
unscrupulous individuals to tarnish the good image of the Gambian leadership
despite it gallant and tireless efforts towards finding a peaceful end to
more than twenty years of separatist war in Casamance which has claimed
thousands of lives and made thousands more homeless.

Praising Jammeh's leadership, Badjie boasted that the Gambian leader was the
first foreign president bold and conscious enough to tell the MFDC
leadership to their face that their idea of an independent Casamance carved
out from mainland Senegal was preposterous. He said President Jammeh had
always demonstrated how keen his leadership feels about finding peaceful
ways of resolving the crisis before the Cassamance region could be helped to
take the path to development.

He added that Jammeh's interest in helping to solve the imbroglio is
predicated on his pan Africanist intentions.

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