Gambian President Yahya Jammeh a Negotiating Arms Dealer- Implicating Traces in Banjul-UN Missing the Steps in

 By Hammadi Maasinah

Queer as it may sound interested parties will be surprised at the end when they realize that President Yahya Jammeh of The Gambia has vested interest in Guinea Bissau. He has ever since been mixing the political parties on the ground in that country while many think he is only a cold negotiator! He is using Bissau for his illicit trade of light arms! Yahya Jammeh’s interest in Bissau and Casamance is nothing other than these two places being lucrative and strategic locations for his extended arm of an arms dealer.  These are not mere accusations meant to score political points against a man like Jammeh! He is an evil doer who knows no limits at this point because he strongly believes that he has risen beyond scrutiny. One or two clues here. Yahya Jammeh targets palm fronts and palm oil as his commodities inside Bissau. Both are commodities found in the bush. Why? Because this is the fastest bait to make people believe in him. He is using the same method he used in Sierra Leone during the blood-diamond trade! He is using the same way Charles Taylor taught him in Liberia. He used Liberia's timber to justify his illicit trade of arms with Taylor. He used the same methods while Baba Jobe,Yankuba Touray and Lang Tombong Tamba helped run the banditry for him. These are not fabrications good friends they are facts that Gambians will discover with a rude shock one day!

 Lets start from the time of former General Ansumana Manneh to now. The same Yahya Jammeh was involved in Bissau ’s case. He even went to the extent of using  a tactic at the UN saying he was the one who formed a group called “The friends of Guinea Bissau”. This was when The Gambia held its seat at the UN security council as a non permanent member(1997-1999). Of course these days coincided with the fierce battles between Manneh and Nino Viera. These were the days when Yahya Jammeh used Bissau ’s economic vulnerability to be inducing the Manneh men or fighters with his blood-dollars from the returns he gained after selling arms in Casamance and Bissau itself. He was using Manneh to sell arms and at the same time sharing the returns with the man. We all remember when the Senegalese authorities did really not trust the GNA contingent of 30 men who were asked to go and help safe guard former Dr Sedat Jobe during his endless trips in and out Bissau. These men went in there at a time when the situation was just too tense between Manneh and his old pal Nino. Here is where the UN is either ignoring facts or they are so complacent to find out the real cause! How could Yahya Jammeh all of a sudden sneak in and mix old comrades like Nino and the late General Ansumana Manneh if one of the two was not selfishly getting money from Yahya  an international bandit? Both Manneh and Nino were benefiting from Banjul’s booty. This is exactly why the former Guinea Bissau President Kumba Yalla at some point got through the sticky layers of Banjul's hypocrisy therefore had a nasty brawl with Yahya Jammeh. Both men had to meet in South Africa during a camera session which was meant to bring peace between him and Yalla. A reminder for Yahya. Yahya do you remember when you shook Yalla's hand in South Africa trying to start a childish quarrel with him? Do you remember when you were asked to sit down then allow the negotiations to proceed? Do you remember when you at the end told Yalla you are a true brother when you were soaked in shame after all those revelations implicating you in Bissau were revealed in South Africa? Do you remember when the daily observer helped you start an open war of words with South Africa over flimsy issues after the South African auditors were in Banjul to reveal more of your theft and robbery? Do you remember when you shameless invited Yalla at Kotu power station calling him your twin brother? Why did you do so? You and I know why and I will wait for your arrest warrant before revealing the rest! Sources revealed that Yalla was indeed suspicious of Jammeh even after they shook hands in South Africa ! Prior to this is when Yalla threatened to invade Banjul and drink tea in Yahya’s bed room. He knew exactly what he was saying. He knew there were men in uniform being trained in Banjul to help ouster him from power. Of course Yahya is not a sophisticated recruiter who can destabilize Bissau however; he was assisted by Willy Joof and other parties only you work on mixing them through other means. He has witch doctors in Casamance and Bissau. These are the routes his messengers of evil like Willy used! Knowing the pressure such witch doctors can pose on the principal actors within Bissau, he has been using them to send messages of fabrications to fighting factions inside Bissau. This is how he was able to convince some gullible aspirants inside Bissau that he could help them remove Yalla. Of course Yahya relates with arms dealers like Bout therefore they know how to cause suspicion amongst fighting factions to get a larger market! He is not  sophisticated, he is simply being used to deliver the goods and then get his share as a shameless uncut dictator. A dictator using those very arms to stay in power as an armed bandit!

Yahya at the end was upset with Yalla because he never liked the fact that Yalla was becoming so close to Dakar. He also did not like seeing Yalla take a u-turn therefore refused to continue allowing the illicit flow of small arms inside Bissau. Later on Yalla was over whelmed by intervening sub regional heads of state therefore succumbed to forces that approached him as peace makers. Afterwards he also missed his steps. He was removed from power! Nino came back but Nino too for some reason was too weak because he needed cash to run some personal things. After living in Portugal for a while he came home but was so hungry to get personal things. It is too sad for us Africans, I am serious! Guinea Bissau has all it takes for a country to be exporting agricultural products and sea food but they are just not working on that. All their leaders do is buy arms and keep on shooting at the innocent citizens for no reason! Nino also after his return simply ignored how Yahya was working with the late General Manneh to get him killed. His wife was the force behind. She needed money and other things. Willy Joof knows these are facts but will never say a word. He was Yahya's emissary in all this mess!

Nino was once again approached by Yahya with his blood-money. While leaders like the present head of state of Sierra Leone were only interested in breathing "fresh air" with neighboring peers cats like Nino were eager to return to the old status. Who does not know how Nino likes dancing kora music? Ask Jaliba Kuyateh! Nino for some reason got carried away once again by Yahya's lies and deceptive tactics.

During his first 90 days he started good by visiting every head of state in that area but Yahya in Banjul was warning him to avoid Wade of Dakar. Yahya in his mind is seeing himself as a competitor of Dakar. He also sees Dakar as a pain in the neck because they sniff and know how he is running his illicit trade of arms from Eastern Europe! Dakar has been suspicious of Yahya since the time of former President Abdou Diouf. It is not about Wade-Yahya. It is about experience versus an insane an insatiable arms dealer.

Why did Yahya want President Wade Killed when Nino was being inaugurated?

 We all remember when Edward Singhatey and his guards opted using the road to Bissau some years back. These were the days Senegal and The Gambia were experiencing acute tensions along the border. Singhatey chose to use the road only to provoke some kind of reaction from the Senegalese border guards. He failed. At the same time Yahya was working with Nino's rival Malang Becai to cause mutiny inside Bissau. This is when the Senegalese '"services de renseignments generaux"-Intelligence mobile brigade unit during their "intelligence mowing" discovered a plot targeting President Wade's life! The latter during the last minute was compelled by circumstances not to attend the Bissau inauguration. Not that Yahya is a powerful person inside Bissau. No he is simply working on expanding an arms trade while being assisted by cunning agents who can kill someone over $100.00!!! He knows how desperate those political sparrows in Bissau could be therefore lures them into dirty tricks by promising them money from Taiwan and Victor Bout's caches! Even though Bout is in jail today Yahya maintains other feeders via Ivory Coast! This is why Lauren Gbagbo is his latest buddy. This is why Gbagbo spent his last vacation in Banjul. Yahya is a go-between for arms dealers and countries like Taiwan. After all it is the same vein that made Senegal retaliate earlier on i.e. during Manneh's days. He was slaughtered by leads signaled through the Senegalese intelligence network. Does Yahya think the Senegalese and the French whose consul was burnt down to ashes by the late General Ansumana Manneh do not know what he has been doing on the ground? They know and many professionals are aware. He has been detected and will be tackled very mercilessly along the way. Let him keep on believing that he is an iron man time is on our side. We will avoid releasing details because some mistakes were made in the past. This time around Yahya Jammeh will know that blood only breeds blood. He threatened Gambia with a sea of blood when Yalla was removed from power because he was told he was going to be next. Yes Yahya there  will be a sea of blood but you will be the winner during that swimming contest! Wait and see.

Yahya Jammeh will be arrested sooner than he thinks it will happen!

Yahya has to understand one thing any day he is issued an arrest warrant for running an illicit trade of arms from Europe(Eastern) in that region, professionals like I Hammadi and others will be approached to arrest him. He will come to realize what I mean by this as time goes in. The clock is ticking. Bissau is far from being stable. The same mutiny will hit Banjul in days to come and ours will be a bloody one! Mark my words because Hammadi has never missed my good friends.

Professionals at the UN may find these revelations too queer to believe in but let them not expect a quick solution in Bissau while trying to use established UN standards of negotiations! This is a country that has been fragmented into pieces for so long. President Yahya Jammeh ever since he came to power has been using Bissau as a local market for his second hand arms from Bulgaria Eastern Europe and Georgia. These are live traces he cannot deny and he will never voluntarily accept a polygraph test on such questions/accusations if push comes to shove.

The recent meeting he convened in Banjul between parties in Bissau was meant to do what people in the USA call:” Pulling a fast one!" He failed and indeed we predicted this failure here a week ago! See how fast his evil intensions have bounced back on his face! We told the Gambian opposition that Jammeh fooled them into his hypocritical methods! Immediately after the Bissau-Banjul meeting who was praised by the state-controlled media in Banjul? It was Yahya Jammeh! Did he even mention the good done by Gambian opposition members during that meeting? Of course he will never do that. After all he himself has been told that he is a fool to think he was a negotiator! What happened? Yahya Jammeh's hiding evil machinations were revealed! He was trying to work with other factions inside Bissau. He has the general he claims to have arrested in The Gambia. He deployed guards to the general's residence. He is wining and dining with the general. Does he think Nino does not know? Does he think Hammadi and team do not know? Intelligence we received revealed that he was trying to dissuade Nino only to cause more havoc inside that man's country! This maybe so remote that, many will believe we are making it up but sooner than later Yahya's wishes will be revealed one after the other.