Monday, October 7, 2013

The Gambia: 'Enemies' Britain, US lying against government’



The tiny West African nation of 1.7 million has over the years grabbed international headlines over the state of human rights in the country; however, the President Yahya Jammeh-led government said (The) Gambia's human rights record since 1994 is “better than that of the United Kingdom and the United States put together”
(AP Photo/Andrew Burton,Pool)
The Gambia has accused Britain and the United States of America, USA, of mounting a “shameless campaign of lying” against the Government and people of The Gambia”. 
 
On Friday, it accuses the “enemies of The Gambia” of sponsoring Gambians and non-Gambians to set up organizations with media facilities outside of the country to mount  what it called a “shameless campaign” of lying against it.

The statement came four days after the West African country decided to pull out of the‘neo-colonial’ Commonwealth of Nations. A statement broadcast on State TV, GRTS, in midweek stated the withdrawal was with immediate effect. 

"(The) Government has withdrawn its membership of the British Commonwealth and decided that The Gambia will never be a member of any neo-colonial institution and will never be a party to any institution that represents an extension of colonialism,” the statement read.

On October 5, an English version of the latest statement was aired on State TV and translated into local languages – in which The Gambia said the “smear campaign (is) orchestrated by some western powers (UK and US) using selfish and unpatriotic individuals, Gambians and non-Gambians”. 

“These people and institutions specialize in lying and providing false attestations for would-be asylum seekers using the main opposition party (UDP) as a platform for such nefarious activities thereby casting a very bad and negative image of both the Government and noble people of The Gambia,” Momodou Sabally, Secretary General and Head of the Civil Services, said.

Sabally, who is also the Presidential Affairs Minister, said Britain and the US are backing "so-called Gambians” to set up organisations and media facilities to spread nothing but lies against The Gambia by making false, outrageous and unfounded statements about the state of human rights.

The Government described the United Democratic Party, UDP, as a “Mandingo tribal party” which it said serves as a platform for providing fake attestations for members of their party to migrate abroad to seek asylum. 

The tiny West African nation of 1.7 million has over the years grabbed international headlines over the state of human rights in the country; however, the President Yahya Jammeh-led government said (The) Gambia's human rights record since 1994 is “better than that of the United Kingdom and the United States put together”. 

It further criticised the UK Government which it said has been “masterminding this (smear) campaign against The Gambia and despite the fact that we are independent they still continue to treat us as their colonial subjects”.

"Certainly the British Empire was founded by extraordinary brutality and the massive looting and shedding of the blood of Africans, Asians and others,” Saturday’s statement read. “Its’ only legacy is exploitation," it added.

The Gambia lambasts the USA as a country “lifted from backwardness, poverty and violence to superpower status as well as the largest economy in the world by the sweat, blood and tears of millions of African slaves”.

“America cannot morally claim to be the bastion of human rights, freedom and democracy as her bloody track record shows from their independence to date,” it stressed.

Meanwhile, the UK has said it “very much regret Gambia’s decision to leave the Commonwealth”. The UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office said it has not been officially contacted by The Gambia about the decision to leave.

President Jammeh’s recent trip to the United Nations General Assembly in New York was greeted by protests by Gambian dissidents near a hotel where he stayed. 

In his Sept., 27 address, he criticised Western powers and identified “excessive greed”, “obsession with world domination”, and “homosexuality” as the three biggest threats to human existence.


Written by Modou S. Joof
 
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