The Gambian government on Friday accused Washington and former colonial power Britain of leading a “shameless campaign of lying” against it.
In a statement read on GRTS by the Secretary General and Head of the Civil Service who is also Minister of Presidential Affairs, Momodou Sabally, the government lashed out at its “enemies” whom, it said, had concocted lies about its human rights record.
The statement said Britain and the United States had backed “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.”
‘‘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,’’ it stated.
According to the government statement, such campaign is mounted both at home and abroad, providing fake attestations for members of their party to migrate abroad to seek asylum, with total disregard to the damage they cause to the prestige and good image of the people of The Gambia.
The statement said that Gambia’s human rights record was “much better” than that of Britain and the United States put together.
“‘The British government has been masterminding this 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. Its only legacy is exploitation.”
The statement also slammed the United States 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.”
Meanwhile, at the time of going to press, it was learned that the party leader and Secretary General of the United Democratic Party, Ousainou Darboe, returned home over the week-end from the United States of America.
However, our efforts to reach him for comments proved futile.
For the benefit of our readers and for the record, we reproduce below the full text of the Government statement:
The Gambia Government’s Position on the Relentless Smear Campaign against The Gambia
The Government of the Gambia has been following events with utter dismay since 1994: the smear campaign orchestrated by some western powers using selfish and unpatriotic individuals (Gambians and non-Gambians). The enemies of The Gambia have been sponsoring Gambians and non-Gambians to set up organizations with media facilities outside of The Gambia to mount a shameless campaign of lying against the Government and people of The Gambia. 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.
Such campaign is mounted both at home and abroad providing fake attestations for members of their party to migrate abroad to seek asylum, with total disregard to the damage they cause to the prestige and good image of the people of The Gambia. Our only crime is that we have since 1995 said that Gambia’s Petroleum and mineral resources will not be given to any company or country at the detriment of our people and therefore we will not accept the five percent royalty being offered for extracting these national resources. It is from then on that two western countries created and funded the UDP in Atlanta during the Atlanta Olympics with the believe that the Mandingoes form the majority of The Gambian population and therefore a mandingo tribal party: the UDP was going to win the 1996 elections thereby running the country by the whims and caprices of those Western powers.
As Allah the Almighty will never support evil and treachery, this tribal group disguised as a political party not only failed to win the election in 1996 but continues to do so till today and will never rule this country. No sane person will believe that this unpatriotic Mandingo group known as the UDP will gain power to help western powers loot the petroleum and mineral resources of The Gambia. Fabricating lies by involving in treachery and sinister machination against the people of The Gambia will neither work nor succeed as 99% of the Gambian populace are decent Allah-worshipping Muslims who are always praying for this country and its leadership
The Gambia Government stands for three things:
1. The worship of Allah and our total submission to HIS WILL
2. To ensure that The Gambia will never be recolonised in whatever form or manifestation.
3. The Gambia will never be enslaved again.
Gambians will realize that in both the UK & US facilities have been created for so called Gambians to set up organizations and media facilities to spread nothing but lies against The Gambia by making false, outrageous, and unfounded statements about the state of human rights in The Gambia. Gambia’s human rights record since 1994 are much better than what obtains in UK & US. The peace and security of this country will never be compromised especially as it concerns the treacherous and unpatriotic Gambians living in the UK, US and other parts of the West. This Government will never succumb to blackmail and will maintain our stance in the fight against neocolonialism, racism and exploitation despite the massive but shameless smear campaign.
Our relationship with the West deteriorated when we refused to accept royalties of 5% for our petroleum resources and less than 3% for our mineral resources. To our utter dismay, we were informed that all Gambia’s petroleum resources were reserved exclusively for the United States of America. This claim was confirmed a few years ago when the Charge or Deputy Head of Mission of the US Embassy in The Gambia, during an interview with the Daily Observer newspaper announced that The Gambia’s petroleum is exclusively reserved for the USA. The question is which Gambian authority agreed to reserve our petroleum resources for exclusive exploitation by the United States? Certainly not this government and this will never happen.
We are not anti western but anti-colonialist, anti-neo-colonialist, anti-satanic, anti-racists and our subservience is only to The Almighty Allah alone and our responsibility is to The Gambian people. As Muslims we will not only practice our religion but defend it from the North Pole to the South Pole without fear. We are aware that in such a position we are on a collision course with the morally decadent and spiritually bankrupt anti Islamic powers that be, but we shall never change our course. In Allah we believe and Allah alone we fear and serve.
As a Government we stand to defend not only the rights, dignity and interest of The Gambian people but the entire African race as blacks have suffered humiliation far too long at the hands of the West and this will not be permitted to continue anymore.
Despite our good will, which of course does not include surrender of our natural wealth to anybody, we have this despicable and immoral campaign of smear against the Government and people of The Gambia. What is amazing and should be of concern to all civilized and morally upright people of the world, is how these evil empires can go down so low as to be hoodwinked into believing these false claims against The Gambia Government by these riff-raff asylum seekers.
The British Government has been masterminding this 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. Its only legacy is exploitation. Even as we speak blacks are being killed in the UK at the hands of so called neo Nazis, skin heads and racist BNP. The British Government, instead of addressing this state sponsored terrorism on British soil; concentrates on promoting false and outrageous statements about the human rights situation in The Gambia even though our human rights record is better than that of the UK and USA put together. The Government of Britain is not in a position to talk about democracy in any part of the world because the wealth it gathered is tainted with the blood of Africans, Asians and Indigenous peoples of the Americas over many centuries.
It is bizarre that in Britain – the self proclaimed champions of democracy- only blacks die at the hands of the police routinely. And recently, when the police shot dead a black man who did nothing wrong, this sparked days of rioting across England. The British government brought armoured cars to the streets describing the rioters as gangsters and quelled the rioting with brute force characteristic of Britain. The government shut down all social media that reported the true picture and eventually took 9-year-old children to court at 4 am for protesting against atrocities committed by the racist British Government against minorities. Britain does not have the moral authority to preach human rights to The Gambia and their campaign for the acceptance of homosexuality will never be tolerated in The Gambia.
UK and US who freely preach freedom of the press and information sharing openly, are still laying siege to a foreign embassy in London in violation of international law. Julian Assange’s only crime is exercising the freedom of the Press and democracy they have always been preaching to others. In the same West a presidential plane was forced to land and subjected to search for 10 hours because they thought Snowden was on that plane. His only crime for which he is wanted dead or alive is exposing and informing humanity about programmes that violate their privacy, freedom of speech and association. These same Western powers preach; Press Freedom and Democracy daily though they routinely invade and rob resources rich countries of the third world. These are Western countries where being black is tantamount to a death sentence which can be carried out by any white person in the street!
We cannot accept the principles of any power that maintains one set of standards for themselves and another for the rest of mankind. The only standards we accept without question, are those set in the Holy Quran and the Holy Bible. Naturally, since these Western powers are challenging the laws of Allah, we will never accept their satanic values despite their hostile, racist, and despicable campaign of smear against The Gambia Government, and, by extension the noble Allah-fearing people of The Gambia.
In conclusion we have evidence to back our claims in the form of attestations and correspondences by those unpatriotic and ungodly vermins to the powers that be. We have copies of all false attestations. All Gambians should know that 98% of the people given these false attestations are not even known to The Gambia Government. The false attestations made in attempts to gain asylum, include but are not limited to the following:
In The Gambia UDP Treasurer Amadou Sanneh prepared a false attestation for one Malang Fatty claiming he was arrested and tortured; a claim Mr. Sanneh knew to be false.
So-called UDP youth wing leader Momodou L. Nyassi alias Shingle Nyassi prepared false attestations for one Saihou Mballow resident at 1818 Clay Avenue, the Bronx, NY, in the US who after gaining asylum based on false testimony made several false and malicious attestations. Mr Mballow is an Executive member of the UDP in the US. He is also President of the so called Gambian Movement for Democracy and Development in the US. He has made false attestations for people including Lamin Sanyang (former staff of The Gambian Embassy in the US), and Sainey Marena. He also prepared attestations for Kebba Kinteh, Hagi Bohoum, Alhagie Baba Dukuray, Mr. Assan Martin, Bubacarr Mballow, Abdoulie Bokum, Aboubacarr SIllah, Mr. Ebrima Baldeh and others whose details will be provided as investigations continue.
They even give false attestations to people we believe are non-Gambians. It is ridiculous that the people that the UDP and their agents around the world are preparing false attestations for by claiming that they are being arrested, tortured and persecuted, are all scarcely known to most Gambians. It beats common sense that the leadership of the UDP are living and operating freely in The Gambia; and, at the same time their junior and unknown riff-raffs of their party UDP, are claiming harassment. This is nothing but a callous, treacherous and wicked attempt to smear the image of the country for narrow political and personal interests.
To the shock and dismay of patriotic and God-fearing Gambians, these false claims and attestations have enjoyed the support of high-profile officials of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Senator Richard J. Durbin, aka Dick Durbin, Senator Russ Feingold, Senator Robert P Casey, Senator Joe Lieberman, Senator Benjamin L. Cardin, and Senator Patty Murray.
To prove that Allah will never support evil, out of thousands of Gambians in the USA, only 9 people came out as demonstrators despite their vigorous campaign online for Gambians to come out and demonstrate. God-fearing patriotic Gambians rejected this evil call and went about their normal business.
The United States of 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 is a country that was 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. Though slavery has ended technically today, the armed robbery of petroleum rich and mineral endowed countries continues unabated under various pretexts. The most fashionable pretext being promotion of democracy and human rights and so-called “war on terror”! What a blatant deception!
From Vietnam, Latin America and Korea to the Middle East and Africa, from the Pacific to the Atlantic and Indian Oceans, the story of the self-appointed international policeman remains the same. Everywhere they went, they left nothing but a trail of death and destruction. From the last decade to date, Iraq stands out as a typical example for this 21st century. A country that condemns The Gambia Government for putting criminals before the law, continues to sponsor this false and disgraceful malicious smear campaign against the Government of The Gambia since 1994; invaded Iraq to get rid of a dictator (pretext), and ended up destroying hundreds of thousands of Iraqi lives, committing outrageous war crimes, massive slaughter of Iraqi women and children; and appalling human rights abuses - Abu GHRAIB and Guantanamo prisons stand testimony to this; – left Iraqis reeling under a dangerously divided country with deep seated sectarian violence that is causing death and destruction on a daily basis.
A country where the minority black population constitutes 99% of all death row inmates; where even mentally deranged people are tried and condemned to death and eventually executed, cannot stand even on the devils platform and condemn any country, more so The Gambia. They cite without any proof and iota of truth, arbitrary arrests, detention without trial, and extra judicial executions in The Gambia. What about the people in Guantanamo Bay? What about the other people that were kidnapped and held in secret locations around the globe in their campaign of terror called “war on terror”. Why are these people not being tried if at all they have committed any terror related offences!
Let the USA tell The Gambia and the whole world the definition of “extra judicial execution” and then explain who tried, where and when; and sentenced to death by Drone Attack, the hundreds of people being killed by US drone attacks in the Middle and Far East and Africa.
Finally, all the thousands of Muslims that were rounded up in the US in the aftermath of 9/11 and have never been put before a court of law for 12 years; not even their parents or attorneys can have access to them, don’t they have the same human rights as non-Muslim white Americans. Blacks being shot and killed by white police officers with impunity, are they not human beings in the USA? A country that has legalized white racists death squads for the sole purpose of lynching and terrorizing blacks, Jews, Muslims and other non white minorities under the protection of a numbered amendment in the US Constitution has no moral legs to stand on and criticize any other country, more so The Gambia.
The Ku Klux Klan, the Arian Nation, the White Supremacists, Neo-Nazi and others, are nothing but white death squads that should have been banned and prosecuted for their crimes against minorities in any truly democratic and human rights protecting country. Racist vigilante groups kill blacks with impunity. Instead of protecting their poor minorities as a responsible and democratic government, they are persecuting them through rightwing white paramilitary groups.
A country which was salvaged from abject poverty to become the richest nation on earth through black sweat, blood and tears, unfortunately is the country where you find the poorest black neighbourhoods in the Western Hemisphere. Blacks live in a constant state of fear, harassment and racial abuse and such is on the increase in the United States of America; As opposed to the Republic of The Gambia where since 1994, no one has ever been harassed, lynched or arrested by virtue of colour, race, religion or origin. Even white European settlers in The Gambia have never been discriminated or subjected to any humiliation either by the public or by the security forces in The Gambia. The only people that are not welcome obviously are the paedophiles, homosexuals, drug dealers and racists. “If you live in a glass house; don’t throw stones”. Anti Islamism, racism and cultural and religious intolerance are on the rise in the West. Perhaps, they should come to The Gambia to learn what a truly tolerant, civilized, democratic and Allah worshipping country in the 21st century is all about.
The Government of The Gambia will continue to uphold and implement all judgments of the courts in the country based on the constitution and other laws of The Gambia. There has been some noise about the execution of 9 convicted murderers but, the world should know that the executions were suspended only due to appeals made by Gambian people and, not due to international pressure as falsely portrayed by the BBC and other international Western media. No neo-colonial powers will dictate what happens in our country. The Gambia is the best example of peaceful coexistence of all religions and races. We do not treat people based on colour, religion or origin as all are equal before the law. We will never tolerate homosexuality. Our laws are not subject to the approval of anybody except the Gambian people.
The Gambia remains and will continue to be a sovereign state that respects the rights of her people and the sovereignty of other nation states. We are not against any country, religion or party. But we will never compromise our independence dignity and freedom. We live for and serve the only one True God; ALLAH and it is only the command of Allah that we will obey. We remain independent and vow to never bow down to the dictates of any foreign power or Neo Colonists interests. The schemes and machinations of the enemies of The Gambia will never bear fruit as we continue to rise with pride and dignity, a people determined to live independent and dignified lives forever.
