A Daring Attack The Independent (Banjul) EDITORIAL June 17, 2002 Posted to the web June 18, 2002 Banjul The threats by President Kumba Yala of Guinea-Bissau to order a punitive invasion of The Gambia, because President Yahya Jammeh supported a foiled military coup attempt against him last month, marks another watershed in our diplomatic relations with the outside world. How Jammeh's Government handles Kumba Yala's menace and gunboat diplomacy will be a real acid test for the regime. Already, the threats have raised furors in Bissau, with the country's opposition leaders charging that President Kumba Yala was mentally unstable hence the threats. But whether Kumba Yala is sane or not, is out of the question. The real issue is that the president and commander-in-chief of the armed forces of a neighboring country has threatened to invade us and that should not be taken likely by The Gambia Government. To the best of our knowledge, never before has a West African country threatened military adventurism against her neighbour, and the fact that the threats came from no other leader but Kumba Yala, one of President Jammeh's right hand men in the sub-region, makes it even more enigmatic.While President Jammeh's purported love for peace, his 'peace shuttles' in the sub-region, and The Gambia's reputation as peaceful nation can actually belie President Yala's claims, these credentials are not enough to convince everybody. We never really dabble in the internal affairs of other nations, much less in Guinea Bissau where we have no national interest other than the sprouting and maintenance of peace there. Be that as it may, in the event that Kumba Yala meant his words, how is he going to launch the punitive invasion? Does Guinea-Bissau have a navy that can float, sail and bite? Or an air force that can fly, perpetrate, maneuver and sting? How will Kumba Yala's rag-tag troops transverse the 100km Senegalese territory between Guinea-Bissau and The Gambia to invade our nation? Will the Senegalese allow his men to come all the way, using there as a launch pad. We rightly think not because Wade and Jammeh have made some many declarations of mutual trust and confidence to smother any such possibility. This is not the first time though that Jammeh's Gambia is being accused of connivance. Remember that the Casamance imbroglio engendered a lot of distrust from the protagonists in the conflict that The Gambia was tacitly involved in one way or the other to fuel the war - a suspicion, which could be traced as far back as the Diouf administration. While we are not in a position to say that all these accusations from Kumba Yala and the Casamance protagonists were founded, in the same breath we cannot rule anything out. That is why the government needs to explain why Kumba Yala could muster the guts to name no other country but The Gambia and no other president but Jammeh as accomplices in the Bissau debacle. Guinea-Bissau is the poorest country in West Africa is yet to recover from the 1998 rebellion that devastated her. Living conditions in that country are appalling even by Ecowas standards: With a population of just 1.2 million, life expectancy is 43 years for men and 48 for women, while the average annual income is US$180, the lowest in Africa. And so yet again Kumba Yala may also be trying to divert attention from his abysmal failure to tackle his country's socio-economic woes, which has exacerbated since he became the leader of the country that was once described by the international community as a model of success for third world countries.This could be his own escape valve for his advanced paranoia, which could prove to be very costly because Guinea-Bissau needs The Gambia more than The Gambia may need her. We may be small and poor like Kumba Yala's Guinea-Bissau, but a sanction by The Gambia can bite the hell out of Kumba Yala. Just because the elephants are rampaging and the lions roaring elsewhere in the world, even the snail too wants to thrust out its delicate eyes from its shell just to be heard. Or how can we describe this Kumba Yala 'tirade'? _________________________________________________________________ MSN Photos is the easiest way to share and print your photos: http://photos.msn.com/support/worldwide.aspx ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to: [log in to unmask] ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~