By Abdoukarim Sanneh, London, UK
Yahya Jammeh's pursuit of wealth and power has a geo-political implication for the peace and stability of the whole of West Africa. Under the brutal dictatorial rule of Jammeh and his APRC Government, the Gambia has fuelled conflict in the Senegalese region of Casamance, Guinea Bissau, Liberia and Sierra Leone. In 2002, when the former President of Guinea Bissau, Kumba Yalla, threatened to invade the Gambia, many did not make a contextual analysis of the rationality of such a statement, but it was Yahya Jammeh's growing involvement in the Guinea Bissau cocaine trade, by colluding with senior officials in that country's armed forces, which was seen as a threat to the process of the democratization of Guinea Bissau. It was for this reason that Kumba Yalla threatened to invade the Gambia and, even after being removed from power by the military junta, Mr. Yalla continued to be a vocal critic of the army's collaboration with South American drugs barons for using Guinea Bissau as a hub for trafficking cocaine into Europe.
The West African cocaine trade has a long chain of networking in the trafficking of illicit substances, as well as financial transfers. The link goes from the drugs barons, to the security/government officials, then to middlemen and, finally, to carriers. The South American drugs syndicates use Bissau and its remote inaccessible islands as a hub for transiting cocaine to Europe by infiltrating the country's security forces. A high placed senior manager working in a commercial bank in the Gambia lamented to me about the loose banking regulations and the involvement of our leader through a front cover business venture, the premier function of some new banks in capital flight. Financial transactions are used to launder drugs money to various parts of the world. According to my source, in the hard economic conditions, the monthly wages of the majority of the Gambian working class are only just putting food on the table, so that people have no surplus to save. This defies the logic of registering dozens of commercial banks.
According to statistics from the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime, based on an analysis of seizures in Europe, 27% (40 tons) of the cocaine consumed annually in Europe is transiting West Africa, and is worth US $1.8 billion at wholesale level. Out of the large individual seizures from each West African country, 2, 200kg is found to have come from the Gambia. Yahya Jammeh's greed for wealth for his children and grandchildren is what is influencing him to use his grip of absolute power for self-enrichment, using all means necessary. Our so-called leader has a close resemblance to General Manuel Noriega, the former leader of Panama. His rule was also a recorded history of drug trafficking, money laundering, murder, and human rights abuses.
The recent seizure in the Gambia of two tonnes of cocaine with estimated street value at $ 1 billion bound to Europe is a clear testimony of the trend and pattern of criminalisation of the state. President Yahya Jammeh's link with cocaine trafficking in West Africa gradually came into light when the Former Inspector General of Police Ensa Badjie, Lt Colonel Mam Matarr Secka, Major Kuluteh Manneh and others currently charged with 32 counts among which was smearing the president's image. Also in the ongoing treason trial of General Lang Tombong Tamba, Ngorr Secka, the Former Gambia Ambassador to Guinea Bissau and others, at The High Court in Banjul, one witness by the name of Rai Jabbi Gassama, also testified earlier about the involvement Former Gambian Ambassador to Guinea Bissau Secka for giving him quality of cocaine to sell in the underground drug market.
In 2001 when Baba Jobe, Former APRC Majority leader of Parliament and Director of the Gambia's New Millennium Air Company, was listed among individuals who had contravened the United Nation's Security Council Resolution 1348 for involvement in blood diamonds and arms trafficking in both the Liberian and Sierra Leone conflict, this vindicated Jammeh's Mafioso links. The trend and pattern of Yahya Jammeh's criminalization of our nation-state is only negligible to our myopic, pseudo-intellectuals and politicians. Yahya Jammeh used Baba Jobe as a front cover business venture to support the regime of Charles Taylor, who is currently facing the International War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague, in an effort to destabilize Sierra Leone and gain illicit access to diamonds. This makes a much wider link of our so-called leader's past and present involvement in the arms and drug trafficking networks of West Africa.
Who is Baba Jobe and where did he acquire such wealth to purchase a Millennium Air Company, which becomes President Yahya Jammeh's official travel airline? Why should the Millennium Airline be registered as a limited liability company of the State House of The Gambia at No.1 Marina Parade, Banjul?
For background information, Baba Jobe was a poor young Libyan trained agricultural graduate and, in 1991, he was arrested by the PPP Government, along with Buba Senghore (APRC Former Deputy Major of Kanifing Municipal Council), Salifu Puye (Former Deputy Commissioner LRD), Momodou Pika Jallow (Green Boys and NIA Operative) and others for MOJAG activities. They were charged with subversion, and the court proceedings were widely covered by the FOROYAA newspaper. After some court appearances the charges were dropped, after which the ban on MOJAG was lifted. Even though he was trained in Arabic, with the help of Alhagie Yahya Ceesay, the Former Minister of Local Government and Lands, Baba Jobe, was appointed by the Department of Agricultural Service in 1992 as a Senior Agricultural Assistant within the Gambia Government civil service integrated pay scale of grade 6 in the Soil and Water Management Unit in Yundum. On the first day of the coup, on the 22nd of July 1994, Baba Jobe, Buba Senghore and Salifu Puye, who were known for their clandestine and anti-PPP activities by the soldiers, were arrested with some PPP politicians. Their release on the second day of the coup by pledging loyalty began their full embracement of Yahya Jammeh's imperfect offerings and, thus, they were transformed into the new petty bourgeoisie of the post PPP era.
The 22nd July 1994 coup was followed by a travel ban imposed by her Majesty's Government of the United Kingdom, and the withdrawal of the United States Department of International Development, along with foreign aid from many Western Government s. Yahya Jammeh banked on Baba Jobe's political immaturity and inexperience when, through his Libyan connection, he became Colonel Ghaddifi's new found friend. The July 22nd youth movement became his brainchild, and the voluntary mobilization of idle youth across the length and breadth of the Gambia became the new order. The green book authored by Ghaddafi became the official doctrine/ideology of the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council, and aid began to flow from Libya to Banjul. Baba Jobe and cohorts were immediately transformed from rags to riches, and this is the continuum of the rise and fall of one of Jammeh's one-time powerful strategists of the torture and political bullying which has become a record of the history of our beloved country.
In October 1994, idle youths from all over the country gathered in Armitage High School for weeks to indoctrinate them with the 22nd July Movement, and the hard core elements, who are now the "green boys" were sent to Mataba Terrorist Training Camp in Libya, where Charles Taylor and the RUF Rebel leader, Foday Sankoh, were schooled in Guerrilla warfare. Ousman Manjang of GAMSEN was the first target of the green boys when he refused the premises of GAMSEN to be used for the 22nd July meeting. Manjang's house was burnt down, and the authorities didn't give a damn about investigating the matter. The next target of the green boys' arson attack was BBC Banjul Reporter, Ebrima Sillah, of Radio 1 FM and the Independent Newspaper.
Yahya Jammeh and his cohorts began to embrace the concept of Ghaddifi's green revolution for replication to their so-called revolution pathway. Diplomatic relations were established between Banjul and Tripoli, and funds began to flow. The Gambia joined the league of Libya 's recognised nations, like Charles Taylor's Liberia, and Gambia's two year term as a non permanent member of the Security Council in the mid 1990S was reduced to barking for lifting sanctions on Libya and recognizing Taiwan as a member of th e United Nations.
The Gambian people are dying under Jammeh's leadership with the connivance of cohorts whose name only come forward any time matters come into public to seal the dirty dealing of the main man, the monster behind the trade. With their share of the criminal empire that sustains the policy of the divisive politics of tribalism, the new culture of material Gambia, people feel pride in Yahya Jammeh's continual humiliation. He uses the drug money to sustain his propaganda, dishing out money to so-called loyal followers. He had venture into all types of business thinking can fool most of us who have learned to read and think for ourselves.
Yahya Jammeh's annual salary is less than a million dalasis but today, one wonders where he got all of the money he is so generously throwing around. Few months ago, each under 17 Football players was given a share of 1 million dalasis out of a generous sum of 29 million dalasis, which was a fraction of his personal fortune. Where is the money coming from? Is it Allah's World Bank? Is it from the wider theorem of Mobutu's gold? Before July 1994, Yahya Jammeh and many of his cohorts and hangers on were lining up for bank overdrafts to make ends meet.
Since seizing power, Yahya Jammeh has used our state for Mafioso type robbery, all done in secret. Whenever the matter comes to the surface, spinning, obfuscation, half-truths and downright lies have become a huge part of the character of the administration. From the scandal of Babanding Foutanka Susoho with a Gambian diplomat, the Mauritanian drugs container, the Nigerian Crude oil saga, Taiwan's loan of Gambia's missing millions, Baba Jobe and the blood diamonds, are hidden just below the surface of the scum of secrecy and obfuscation. Anytime Yahya Jammeh trend and pattern criminalising the state come into lime lights minor cohorts become sacrificial lambs. The main beneficiary of this lucrative intricate operative remains hidden behind officialdom. In the recent incident two tonnes seize, the people paraded on Gambia Radio and Television don't look like drug barons but handy men, packer and movers. The fundamental question how come the construction of such a bunker and the deposition of billion dollars worth of cocaine escape the attention of the instituted state police of President Yahya Jammeh? The ton of cocaine was discovered in a massive purpose- built bunker in an area where source said the Gambian state was actively prospecting for crude oil.
In todays, Gambian according to sources, there is growing number of mysterious flights of private jets in and out of the Gambia. Some months ago have question about who owned the private jet that crashed in Yundum (Banjul) International Airport? Why was no independent investigation conducted regarding the rules of aviation safety and security to determine the cause of the accident? What was the mission of the private jet in the Gambia at that time? A wall of secrecy and confidentiality surrounds Yahya Jammeh's criminalization of our state. With such a huge propensity for deception and secrecy surrounding the link of the owner to our so-called president's Mafioso activities, the accident or crash of the private jet has become an entirely forgotten incident. Authoritative information gathered from sources in Banjul confirmed that the jet belonged to Massry Ian Hassib, a business partner of Mouhktata Sayed of Gainesville, Florida. Both have alleged connections to South America narcotic barons, such as Charbel Maria and Jean Doumite Maria of Brazil and Arturo Massud and Hassib Salmen Torres of Mexico.
Yahya Jammeh's thoroughly undemocratic instinct is to keep dissembling and obfuscating, taking all possible steps to cover his tracks and patterns of the criminalization of our nation in his pursuit of wealth and power all, of which intensifies a corrosive mistrust of his administration since seizing power in July 1994. Earlier episodes include Ebou Jallow and Gambia's missing millions, Baba Jobe's Millennium Air Company and blood diamonds, Babanding Foutanka Sussoho's money laundering and the Gambian diplomatic passport saga, the Gambia Government's lifting of Nigeria's crude oil, and the Abacha connection, Mauritanian Drugs saga etc. All of these cases described are indeed scandals of corruption and instances of outrageous injustice to the people of the Gambia, perpetrated in the name of the state and then denied by an apparently unaccountable regime using all of its power to suppress our citizen's right to information.
Since seizing power, Jammeh has instituted a policy of tribal hegemony in our country's security forces. Jammeh's ethnic minority tribe heads all Gambia's National Army, Police, Prison, Immigration and National Drug Squad. Under Jammeh's leadership, the army created a position for General-Lang Tombong Tamba who is today standing trial of a coup that never happened. A Police Force, under Junior Secondary School Leaver, Essa Badjie, also today standing trial of smearing the name of the President in cocaine trafficking. Executive Director of National Drug Enforcement Agency under Bun Sanneh also now standing trial under 30 charges among which are corruption, conspiracy etc.
The British Serious and Organised Crime Unit did a good intelligent work with efficacy and professionalism to uncover the cocaine trafficking but what remains is the monster behind the deal. With Ensa Badjie, General Lang Tombong Tamba, Bun Sanneh and the recent arrested last week of Edrissa Jobe commonly known as (Alhagie Morr Jobe). These people are all contained in the walls of Mile Two Central Prison been framed for various bogus charges just to shift attention of the trend and pattern of Yahya Jammeh's criminalisation of our state because of the rule of absolute power. There are sacrificial lambs like that of Baba Jobe. He was charged for economic crimes in the Gambia to shift attention not to be vindicated the dictator in the blood diamond and arms trade when Yahya Jammeh's private carrier Aircraft was linked by the UN in arms and blood diamond that fuelled the war in Liberia and Sierra Leone.
The drug seize of such a large quantity is a sad day for Gambia as a nation. What is even more sad as a nation is the shooting of an old man, Dodou Mbayfar Islamic Student of Pirang, Kombo East. Dodou Mbarfar went to his garden to harvest his cashew seeds between Pirang and Bonto currently zeal by security forces and was shot to death in the same area said to found the drug. Dodou's body is yet to be released to the family for burial. It is sad and disgusting how ordinary lives can be wasted in Yahya Jammeh's clandestine personal pursue to gains for wealth
In conclusion, my message to our so-called president is that you cannot uneducated those of us who have learned to read. You may have driven us from our homeland, but you cannot oppress us because we are not afraid, and will continue to document the trend of your criminality in your pursuit for power and wealth. Everything we are documenting will be your legacy in history and will be used as material evidence in your trial for both economic and human rights crimes.
Racism in Cuba 
According to Moore, "There is an unstated threat. Blacks in Cuba know that whenever you raise race in Cuba, you go to jail," says Carlos Moore (pictured above).
By Marlie Hall Rosa Parks refused to stand. Martin Luther King Jr. had a dream. Barack Obama won the presidential election. America' s plight for racial equality has had its struggles, its heroes and its progress. But on the nearby island of Cuba, some say modern-day racism against blacks is blatant, and fighting it isn't as simple as public protest.
According to Afro-Cuban activists, racism against blacks in Cuba is systemic and institutional. They say, to this day, blacks are excluded from tourism related jobs, relegated to poor housing, have poor access to health care, are excluded from managerial positions and are more likely to be imprisoned.
Carlos Moore is an Afro-Cuban activist who has spent his life writing about racial injustice in Cuba and says race is the country's most pressing issue. In 2008, he sent a scathing letter to Cuban leader Raul Castro demanding racial reform. In it, he states: "You are a descendant of Europeans born in Spain; I am a descendant of Africans born in the Caribbean. We are both Cubans. However, being Cuban confers no specific privilege on either of us as human beings".
It was a luxury of civil protest he could only afford to write while exiled in Brazil. According to Moore, "There is an unstated threat. Blacks in Cuba know that whenever you raise race in Cuba, you go to jail. Therefore, the struggle in Cuba is different. There cannot be a civil rights movement. You will have instantly 10,000 black people dead". He says a new generation of Cubans are looking at politics in another way.
That new generation is going the way of the world wide web. Henry Gomez, a White Cuban living in Florida, noticed that some of the most outspoken voices against racism in Cuba are bloggers. So he founded Bloggers United for Cuban Liberty (BUCL).
"We basically organize events, distribute press releases and try to obtain coverage to counter the official propaganda coming from the Cuban Government" states Gomez, a writer for Babalu, a website that he says is the most widely read English language blog about Cuba.
Cuba was a former Spanish colony and the destination of hundreds of African slaves. According to Gomez, the Cuban Revolution of 1959 did little to liberate blacks. Since then, he says, former Dictator Fidel Castro has been successful in portraying Cuba as a post-racial egalitarian utopia. For example, Gomez says "Cuba began to develop the tourist sector of the economy in the mid-90's and blacks were kept out of many positions that interfaced directly with foreign visitors. Also, blacks are extremely underrepresented in the higher echelons of the Cuban government bureaucracy."
Countless blogs by Cuban writers seek to disprove so-called propaganda authored by the Cuban government. The U.S. State Department estimates Afro-Cubans make up 62 percent of the Cuban population. However, the Cuban census registers that 65 percent of the population is White.
Gomez says the Cuban government pays lip service to the issue of race. "It's frankly the government that is the biggest perpetrator of racism in Cuba. As for Afro-Cuban opposition leaders, many of them are in jail such as Dr. Darsi Ferrer and Dr. Oscar Elias Biscet. Both are Afro-Cuban medical doctors who are rotting in Cuban prisons for their political beliefs." Recently, an Afro-Cuban political prisoner, Orlando Zapata Tamayo, died in prison after a lengthy hunger strike. "Remember, this is a totalitarian dictatorship that has essentially remained unchanged for 51 years," added Gomez.
Last November, sixty African-American scholars and professionals condemned the Cuban regime's apparent crackdown on the country's budding civil-rights movement. They issued a statement called "Acting on Our Conscience" which also called for the immediate release of imprisoned Afro-Cuban civil rights leaders. Traditionally, many African-Americans leaders sided with the Castro regime and condemned the United States, which in the past, sought to topple the Cuban government. The public rebuke of Castro's racial policies signed by prominent African-Americans like Cornell West, Ruby Dee and Mario Van Peebles just to name a few, may indicate a changing of the tide. However, pro-government Cubans rejected allegations of racism and repression on the island, calling the charges "delusional" and part of "an anti-Cuban campaign." They went on to point out that Cuba outlawed discrimination in 1959 and promotes Afro-Cuban culture through museums, music, dance and other institutions.
But the lack of acknowledgment by Cuba's government does little to contain the movement of racial equality that is gaining momentum among Cuban human rights activists who are using their computers as their main weapon in the fight against racism. With each blog entry or letter, they expose what they call one the most blatantly racist places in the world.
But at the same time they remain hopeful that some of the racial progress seen in America can take root in Cuba as well. "I have no doubt that when Cuba joins the world democracies that it will have many Afro-Cuban leaders and presidents," says Gomez, who is leading the new voice of Cuban Activists online. While Moore, who has spent the last forty years in exile and published dozens of books and articles about race relations in Cuba believes it threatens the Castro regime, as more blacks in the country feel empowered by an Obama presidency in America. He says, "Something is happening in Cuba, making them more paranoid than usual on the race subject."
(Source: http://www.thegrio.com) |
