Gambia-L: The e-mail below was sent to me by a source in the Gambia since Friday, but I am seeing it for the first time. Again, I am sending it unedited. Ebrima _________________________________________________________________ >To: [log in to unmask] >Subject: The State of the Gambia's Reserves: Sir Dawda's claims vs Jammeh's >claims >Date: Fri, 04 Aug 2000 > >Ebrima, >The Independent which carried the exclusive interview granted to the paper >by Sir Dawda sold out within an hour after hitting the streets this >morning. As expected of the former Head of State, the old man is fully >conversant with the deplorable condition of the economy, the weakened >social fabric of the state and crumbling infrastructure. He also mentioned >the rapid deletion of the foreign reserves of the Gambia which was >carefully and painstakingly built over the years when the late Sherriff >Sisay was Minister of Finance. Now, Ebrima, the revelation by Sir Dawda >that the reserves of the Gambia has been scandered by Jammeh and his team >of bandits needs further investigation. According to the Secretary of State >for Finance's budget and pronouncements in the National Assembly, the level >of reserves still represents about 5-6 months import cover which is the >same level as the late Sherrif Sisay left it. Either Sir Dawda is wrong on >the current state of our reserves or Jammeh, NFamara Jatta and Momodou >Clark Bajo have been cooking the books since 1994. A complete audit by the >IMF and the donor community is therefore necessary to ascertain the state >of the nations reserves. In the event that The Gambia has been engaged in >creative accounting to fool the donor community, particularly the IMF and >the Gambian people, then the culprits would have to answer not only to the >IMF but to the Gambian people. The two conflicting claims, that is Sir >Dawda's and the Jammeh regime, must be fully investigated. Ebrima, use your >contacts in Washington to bring this extremely important issue to the >notice of the IMF. >I am applealing to ALL the political parties, UDP, PDOIS, NRP and APRC to >bring this extremely important national issue before the National Assembly >for debate in search of the truth. Some one is not telling the IMF and the >Gambian people the truth about the true state of the Gambia's reserves. If >Dr. Katim S Touray reads this, please get on the ball, together with Saul >Saidykhan and the rest to get to the bottom of this one. I will comment on >the other aspects of Sir Dawda's interview later. I find the reserve issue >to be urgent and requires our immediate attention. Have a nice weekend. > ________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html You may also send subscription requests to [log in to unmask] if you have problems accessing the web interface ----------------------------------------------------------------------------