Culled from the Independent As dollar-for-diplomat status deal is struck External funds for Jammeh's election campaign 100 tractors, 5000 Tee shirts, $1million promised An American referring to himself as The Gambia's Ambassador-At-Large and Trade Attaché was quoted in a letter to Buba Baldeh and Baba Jobe as saying that his company was on the verge of releasing one million US dollars for President Jammeh's election campaign, 5000 campaign Tee-shirts and shipping hundred new tractors to the country. A September 4 2001 letter from Mr. Enslin bearing the letterhead and official stamp of The Republic of The Gambia and addressed to Mr. Baldeh also indicated that "several millions of US dollars would be made available to the APRC within weeks". "We will expedite the process and get the funds into the account as soon as possible. The funds are being transferred from our bank in Europe to the Greatmore account in Texas and then to New Jersey into Gotham's account and from there to your account in New York" Enslin's letter explained. Mr. Enslin also made a request to the Gambian Ambassador in Washington "to start looking for a new location for the embassy as we would like to purchase the building next month". He assured Mr. Baldeh that "money is not a problem". However he was also worried over an apparent delay to send them their identification cards and contracts from the State Department as employees of the Gambian Embassy in New Jersey. He told Mr. Baldeh that he consulted with John P. Bojang the Gambian Ambassador to the US who told him (Enslin) that no instruction was forthcoming from The Gambia to process their contracts as Trade Attaches. "It is becoming very difficult for us to plan our trip to The Gambia because no one will give us answers to our questions relating to our contracts and our identification cards from the State Department" Enslin noted to Mr. Baldeh. Meanwhile an earlier letter from the American to one Mansong Jagne dated August 27 2001 and bearing The Gambia's official letterhead detailed his company's readiness to buy and ship one hundred new tractors to The Gambia two weeks later (September 10). The letter referred to a meeting Enslin's deputy Big Joe Siderowicz was supposed to have held with the John Deere Tractor Company on August 28 to that effect. "We will begin the process of releasing the funds this afternoon after we confirm the office of protocol has instructions to expedite our credentials" it said. However it also requested Mr. Jagne to confirm the members of his group's appointment as Ambassadors and Trade Attaches and whether they have full Gambian diplomatic immunity and status. Another confidential letter Enslin addressed to Baba Jobe on August 6 referred to instruction "Gotham of Gambia Ltd" issued to its bank to transfer five million dollars to the Central Bank of The Gambia for use to set up an Agricultural and Housing Bank here. It also quoted Mr. Enslin as thanking Baba Jobe "for your role in helping us with our appointments and we intend to deliver whatever we have promised for The Gambia". "Also please notify us of your needs with respect to the required funding of the presidential campaign in October" the letter pointed out, making it clear that as soon as President Jammeh's photograph and full colour coat of arms were provided "Gotham Gambia Ltd" would order five thousand Tee shirts for the October 18 election campaign. Mr. Enslin's communiqué also complained about the effort of an undisclosed number of people to thwart them from helping The Gambia. It could be recalled that The Independent carried a story in March quoting sources as saying that Mr. Enslin was "roaming" the sub-region as an ambassador for The Gambia. Sources had indicated that Mr. Enslin who was referred to as the Chief executive officer of Gotham Financial Group Ltd had promised that his organization would be making a monthly deposit of 2 million dollars to The Gambia in addition to depositing monthly 2 million dollars to finance The Gambia's diplomatic activities at the United Nations. Source said Mr. Enslin was hoping to be reciprocated with a diplomatic license to operate around West Africa. They claimed he was also offering the same dollar-for-diplomatic status deal to Guinea Conakry. Although a Foreign Affairs official had earlier confirmed that Mr. Enslin lobbied the government for diplomatic status without success the official had also said The Gambia never received any money from him and his company in exchange for a diplomatic status of any kind. _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 and remember to write your full name and e-mail address. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------