The well publicised letter signed by the US lawmakers last Friday to halt the issuance of visas to some Gambian government officials and their immediate families based on Gambia government refusal to accept nearly 2000 Gambian deportees was both hypocritical and contemptuous to human race. It is no secret to anyone in this world, especially in America that the Gambian president Yahya Jammeh is one of the worst dictators the world has ever seen, who killed, tortured and jailed Gambians as well as American citizens alike in The Gambia. However, with all the hard and soft powers available to the US, the Obama administration has turned a blind eye to Jammeh’s atrocities.
U.S. strips visas from Gambian govt.; punishment for stopping DHS deportations
The Obama administration seems to only care because Donald Trump’s bigotry is hurting Hillary Clinton’s chances to become Obama’s successor in the White House. So when Alagie Ceesay and Ebou Jobe two US-Gambian citizens have been declared missing some three years ago in The Gambia, most of the high profile Human Rights groups like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have condemned and campaigned for the unconditional release of the men. But the Obama administration has never gone beyond the usual rhetorics of condemnation.
Two Americans Disappear in West African Dictatorship
Before then, two other US-Gambian citizens, Dr Amadou Sanneh and Tamsir Jasseh were falsely charged and jailed for life in the Gambia, however, it has to take Rev. Jesse Jackson to intervened and plead to Gambian authorities to release them, while the US government remained silent. Earlier this year, another US-Gambian woman Fanta Darboe-Jawara together with the entire United Democratic Party (UDP) executive and some members were falsely charged and jailed for three years. This is not to mention the tortures, killings, disappearance and false imprisonment of thousands of Gambians in the Gambia. Yet the Obama administration remained silent.
Meanwhile, some of the two-thousand alleged Gambian deportees in the US are the breadwinners of their families and some are political refugees whom, if returned to Gambia, their human rights are going to be violated. Again, the Obama administration cares less about that.
Now for the US government to shout and lecture the world about democracy, human rights and the rule of law, especially in Africa, is hypocrisy to the highest level. Since they only take action when it suits them. So let nobody rejoice the US government action as it’s only in the interest of the Obama administration and partly in Jammeh’s interest to force the Gambia government to cooperate and deport these alleged Gambians to the mercy of the world worst dictator, Yahya Jammeh.
Gambia Voices 