<< The following article may be found at:
 http://www.africaonline.com.gh/independent/200615/topnews1.htm
 
 RAWLINGS STANDS ACCUSED
 
 The lives of men who take up arms and make their way into history will
 always be dogged by controversy.
 
 That is what the story of former Chilean military strongman, General
 Augusto Pinochet Ugarte has shown and that is what is most likely to be
 the fate of Ghana’s former military ruler, now the
 constitutionally-elected head of state, Flt. Lt. Jerry John Rawlings.
 From London, the first Prime Minister of The Gambia, Sir Dauda Jawara,
 who was overthrown in 1994 by current Gambia leader, Yahaya Janmmeh is
 accusing Libyan leaderMuammar Gaddafi of masterminding his overthrow.
 
 Sir Jawara does not stop there, but goes on to accuse President
 Rawlings, whom he cynically refers to as”our friend in Ghana” for also
 playing a “sinister role following the coup in the Gambia”.  Speaking to
 AFRICA NOW, a premier African magazine edited by the veteran Nigerian
 Journalist Peter Enahoro, which is back to the newstands after years in
 the limbo, the man who led The Gambia to independence and ruled for over
 two decade, blames Mr. Gaddafi for his overthrow.
 
 He accuses Gaddafi and Libya as being responsible for destabilizing
 activities in several countries in the sub-region.
 
 According to him Ghana was used as transit quarters for flying
 dissidents from The Gambia for training in Libya.
 
 On the role of Ghana and President Rawlings in his overhrow and the
 stabilisation of the Janmeh regime, Sir Jawara who lives in exile in the
 UK had this to say:
 
 “Our friend in Ghana - Rawlings - he too played a sinister role
 following the coup in The Gambia. As chairman of ECOWAS he went to
 celebrate with the coup-makers in The Gambia. Immediately after the coup
 when Gaddafi hijacked the coup Rawlings was one of the instruments of
 Gaddafi in actually entrenching the boys into position.
 
 They soon visited Rawlings in Ghana. He didn’t receive them in Accra. He
 met them in Akosombo because there he could talk with them without
 having the media around. So the boys came back. They selected some
 Gambians and sent them to Ghana to give them two or three weeks of
 training.   His Minister of Local Government at the time and Kojo
 Tsikata trained them. The security agency we used to call the National
 Security Service changed its name to the National Intelligence Agency to
 conform to the Ghanaian’s. They sent lawyers, they changed our
 constitution, made it a copy of the Ghanaian set up and so on. They
 drafted all the decrees. It is to my knowledge that Rawlings was acting
 in collusion with Gaddafi.”
 
 Sir Jawara says in the interview that Gaddafi supported Charles Taylor
 in his war of insurrection in Liberia and Foday Sankoh, the leader of
 the Revolutionary United Front of Sierra Leone which is blamed for the
 primitive and criminal activities against the people of Sierra Leone.
 
 Asked to comment on the above allegations, a highly placed government
 official who pleaded anonymity, dismissed the allegations of Sir Jawara
 as unfounded and even “nonsensical”. “It is true that President Rawlings
 paid a visit to The Gambia and even hosted Lieutenant Jammeh. It is also
 true that Ghana offered some assistance to The Gambia including helping
 them to set up a Citizens Vetting Committe headed by Bright Akwetey, but
 such bilateral assistance does not amount to Ghana having helped to
 legitimize the coup in The Gambia”, he said.
 
 Another source at the Minitry of Local Government said whilst the then
 Minister, Kwamena Ahwoi ran a similar Citizens Vetting Committee in the
 80s he had no hand in training any cadres of the Gambian coup. Attempts
 to reach Captain Tsikata however proved futile.  In the exclusive
 interview, the first that Sir Jawara has granted in the years since his
 overthrow and exile in London, the former Gambian leader talks about a
 wide range of issues including his conversion to Islam, his legacy to
 The Gambia, his record on human rights, position on the death penalty
 and the future of democracy in West Africa.
 
 
 
 
 

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