Date:       Thu, 28 Sep 2000 
    
From:       ebou colly <[log in to unmask]>    
Subject:  Re: GAMBIA WITHDRAWS FROM CASAMANCE PEACE PROCESS 

Hi Mr. Taylor, I cannot but respond on this one as a one-time member of 
Jammeh's inner circle of military consultants To say that Yaya harbors sympathy for 
the MFDC rebels and gives them all kinds of support in the face of his 
pseudo- mediation efforts is the absolute fact as far as my experience taught me. 
Anyway before getting into the very specifics, I would like to make some real 
reflections on an incident that should best show what I am trying to say. 

If you can recall, in 1994, immediately after the AFPRC seized power, Yaya 
started an unnecessary negative campaign against former President Joof's 
government, accusing the Senegalese of being responsible for the first mass graves in 
The Gambia, when in 1981 they illegally intervened militarily to restore the 
PPP government "after Kukoi Samba Sanyang successfully overthrew the unwanted 
Jawara Regime". I wonder whether you could remember that period of Yaya's 
negative political campaign against Senegal. The whole thing was so embarrassing 
to the Joof government that by early 1996, former President Joof delegated one 
of his most trusted aides General Wane to quietly work out a means of getting 
Kukoi from exile back to the Gambia. Yaya accepted and immediately stopped the 
verbal attack on Senegal. For a while, the Senegalese General shuttled back 
and forth from Senegal to the Gambia until Kukoi was smuggled into Senegal with 
some of his battle-hardened mercenaries. They were seventeen in number all 
mobilized from the battlefields of Liberia All were Gambians except one Essa 
Baldeh who originally came from Kolda Senegal. Mark you the negotiations were so 
kept in secret by Yaya that even Edward Singhateh who was the Defense Minister 
at the time was completely kept out of the picture. However, in July 1996, 
the Senegalese Defense Minister Khan together with General Wane made an urgent 
visit to The Gambia to report a major setback in the negotiation. Yaya was on a 
political tour of the provinces. But it was so urgent that the two messengers 
after landing at Yundum Airport in their special plane traveled all the way 
to the provinces to deliver the special message they had for Yaya from Joof. 
The message was comprehensive and clear. But to cut a long story short, the 
Senegalese delegations simply came to explain to Yaya their discovery of kukoi"s 
intent to use forceful means to overthrow The Gambia government. Kukoi and 
eight of his combatants were arrested at Tambakunda, eastern Senegal where they 
were making attempts to acquire arms to launch the attack. The special 
Senegalese team therefore met him to also get his opinion on what to do with Kukoi. But 
since Yaya could not explain that to anybody, Gambians, Senegalese or anyone 
after talking so well about the rebel leader for so long, he simply 
surrendered everything to the Senegalese government to cover it up. The Senegalese 
government on the other hand could not allow the Senegalese public to know anything 
about their clandestine involvement with Kukoi and Yaya who were both 
repulsive in their books. 

As a result everything was handled so badly that the Senegalese missed the 
presence of the remnants of Kukoi's fighters in Senegal (Sokone Village) when 
they allowed the rebel leader to leave their country in the same manner that he 
entered it-silently. Jammeh also was so foolish in the way he received or 
treated the information delivered by the Senegalese Minister that he even hid the 
attack blueprint designed by Kukoi and his men targeting Farafenni barracks as 
their first objective of assault. On the 26th of November, four months after 
Yaya was warned of the attack by the Senegalese but kept the information from 
the military authorities including the Defense Department, the eight remaining 
mercenaries not jailed by the Senegalese, attacked Farafenni Barracks under 
the leadership of one Abdoulie Sonko. Six soldiers were killed and several 
wounded thanks to the idiot's foolishness and incompetence. Anyhow for a while 
after the attack, Yaya put up a serious pretence of not knowing anything about 
the attackers or where they came from, insisting that the whole matter was 
masterminded by Abdou Joof's government to commit the same kind of genocide they 
were doing against the people of Cassamance. He had tried everything in his 
usual stupid ways to make us believe that the Senegalese were just maniac when it 
came to taking innocent lives. We had argued with him based on the logic of 
the operation, showing him that if Senegal was to organized anything like such 
attacks in The Gambia it would not have been so unprofessional and badly done 
and would have certainly been a success. 

The National Ignorant Agency NIA was on his side that Senegal was behind the 
attack. Even when the Senegalese government captured the attackers-John 
Dampha, Sulayman Sarr and Essa Baldeh- and handed them over within 48hours after 
they fled to Senegal, Yaya still insisted that Abdou Joof was behind the assault 
against his government. But when Edward started contemplating a retaliation by 
having the GNA attack a part of Senegal, the coward finally relented 
producing for the first time the attack-plan that the Senegalese gave him months ago. 
With that special information, we made it clear to him that a great deal of 
what led to the death of our innocent soldiers should be blamed on why that 
document was hidden from the military authorities. But with all that clear 
evidence, he was still blaming Senegal. And for that reason, he vetoed the press 
release that was written on the case thanking Senegal for their cooperation. He in 
fact seized that opportunity to condemn Senegal's barbaric tendencies in 
Cassamance, swearing that when next time he spoke to Nkrumah Sanneh the fanatical 
Cassamance rebel based in France then, he would give him a program of 
retaliation for the MFDC to carry out in Senegal. Whether he was only bluffing or not 
Jammeh had always maintained that he is in direct contact with the armed wing 
of the MFDC the only organization he found worthwhile in the struggle for 
independence of Senegal. Take it from me Yaya's support for the Cassamance Rebels 
bent on fighting for their own state is deeply rooted in his unfair mind. 

The ordinary person may not know but for some of us who were around him 
during his natural or "artificial" moods, we knew he was only playing the fool with 
poor Abdou Joof. Having made that reflection, I want to now give you some 
specific evidences that I talked about in the past. On several occasions 
Cassamance rebels wounded in action have been quietly treated at the RVH on Yaya's 
knowledge and blessing. Yaya with all his pretence in championing the Cassamance 
peace process, he has never been heard saying anything about his solution plan 
on the issue. This conflict is one with two uncompromising antagonists in the 
ultimate solution they each desire. The Senegalese government would not in 
anyway let go of Cassamance for independence, while Jammeh's friend Nkrumah 
Sanneh with his fighters calls for nothing less than total independence. That is 
why Yaya had never been heard in public saying where he stands on the issue. 
Yaya could be on any side depending on whether he was speaking to Abdou Joof or 
Nkrumah Sanneh. The peaceful negotiators who used to converge in The Gambia 
were the Seedy Badgie group. Yaya hates this group with serious bitterness 
calling them puppets of Abdou Joof in his private moments. That was why the peace 
process could not achieve anything with Yaya handling it in the Gambia. Every 
time a meeting was held in the Gambia an armed attack by the MFDC would follow 
a day after the meeting was ended. MFDC rebels have been captured with Gambian 
ID cards thanks to Yaya's tricks. The Atlantic Hotel in Banjul is virtually 
an MFDC administrative headquarters. They give press conference there and plan 
whatever they want there. Abdou Joof may have chosen to accept Yaya's 
elementary manipulative tendencies but Wadda might not. After all Joof's downfall has 
a lot to do with his naïve relationship with Yaya. Just look at it this way: 
since Wadda kept Yaya away from the Cassamance issue, the rebel's military 
activities have been virtually contained. So Wadda should be glad that Yaya's 
meddling hand in the Cassamance business has been cut at last .It was a filthy 
hand after all. 

Ebou Colly 

    

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