<< 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html ----------------------------------------------------------------------------