It is apparent that it was only a matter of time before Gambia was implicated in this long running conflict. Gambians have long argued that some cassamace people were being given ID cards for political expedience, the ruling APRC have always denied such a thing has occured, but according to reports from Senegal rebels are using Gambian ID to disguise and slip in and out of the border. This is dangerous because it is giving the impression that Gambia is providing cover to the armed dissidents, if this perception gets a firm hold in Senegal it is bound to create a new dimesion in the already strained reklatioship between the two neighbours. Knowing the price of conflicts in Africa Gambia as a small nation cannot afford to embroil itself in such an ongoing saga. It would be advisable for us to remain neutral, that is the only tenebale position we can afford. We should be seen to be practically engage in denying the fighters any haven or sanctuary. I hope the authorities in banjul will work very swiftly to avert any major contradiction with Senegal, the practical steps that needs to be taken are to ensure that none Gambian citizens esdpecially from the cassamance are refused acccess to any form of Gambian ID. Since the borders are very porous we should work in tandem with Senegal to ensure there is no sanctuary. In as much as we may not be judgemental about the justification of the struggle we should reserve the right to protect our bi-lateral relations with Senegal. We must realised that it is easy to implicate Gambia because the ethnic composition of Cassamance, which incidentally coincides to that of Jamme's. _________________________________________________________________ Join the world’s largest e-mail service with MSN Hotmail. http://www.hotmail.com ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 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] ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~