The much anticipated dialogue between the government of the Gambia and the EU member representatives continued in Banjul yesterday Thursday July 11th, 2013. Readers may recalled that the EU issued a 17 point demand on various issues with stipulated time lines for the Gambia government to follow through. Some key central issues the EU demanded centered around among others; Human Rights and good governance issues, freedom of expression and rule of law, democracy and political reform.
The EU demands at the time were angrily dismissed by President Jammeh and his government including the national assembly as an infringement on the sovereignty of the Gambian state. President Jammeh made derogatory statements towards the EU calling their economic support as “Chicken Change”. Citizens were even mobilized by the government to demonstrate against the 17 points something that the government does not allow opponents to do.
However, many believes that President Jammeh was just reacting with anger when he knew that he had no choice but to negotiate with the EU… So since it became clear to him that the EU was serious their demands President Jammeh cave in and came to the table to negotiate.
The members of the delegation appears to constitute major donors to the Gambia indicating a serious effort to put pressure on Gambia. It is reported that on the 11th of July the EU-Gambia political dialogue had the following representation; On the EU side were: H.E. David Morley – British High Commissioner, local EU Presidency, H.E. Dominique Dellicour – EU Ambassador/Head of Delegation, Agnès Guillaud – Chargée d’Affaires a.i. EU Delegation, H.E. Gerhard Deiss – Ambassador of Austria, H.E. Johan Verkammen – Ambassador of Belgium, Ms. Margaret Jacob 1st Secretary – Embassy of Germany, Ms Anita Martin – Resident Representative of the German Embassy, Mr. Alfredo Gadea – 1st Secretary of the Embassy of the Kingdom of Spain, Mr. Jean Marc Transon – Embassy of France and H.E. Pieter Jan Kleiweg de Zwaan – Ambassador of the Netherlands.
From the Gambian side were: Hon. Susan Wafa-Ogoo – Minister of Foreign Affairs, Hon. Abdou Kolley – Minister of Finance & Economic Affairs, Hon. Ousman Sonko – Minister of Interior, Hon. Nana Grey-Johnson – Minister of Information and Communication Infrastructure, Hon. Amie Joof – Attorney General and Minister of Justice, H.E. Mamour A. Jagne – Ambassador of The Gambia to the EU & BENELUX, Mariam Ndure-Njie – PS. Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Sulajman O. Njie – Deputy PS. Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Muhamed Mboob – Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ousman F. Njie – Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Malang Nyass and Emily Foon Sarr – National Authorizing Officer Support Unit.
The EU reportedly welcomes Gambia’s agreement to resume the dialogue and they were able to discuss a full range of issues of mutual concern. Amongst other things, we addressed at the meeting were:
1) Security challenges in the region;
2) Consequences of the introduction of bio-metric data for Schengen visas;
3) The political and economic situation in both the EU and The Gambia, including governance and human rights issues as laid down in the essential elements of the Cotonou Agreement;
4) EU assistance.
The EU is reportedly optimistic and serious about pursuing these points stated above. There was no immediate report of reaction from the Gambian side on these point.
Many close political observers expressed optimism and concerns about the outcome of the dialogue. Optimism because they believe that if the EU is serious in putting real pressure on the Gambia government as the major donor, then President Jammeh would not have any choice but to heed to the demands. Others are skeptical because there is potential for government to put a false spin of the situation in the Gambia thus softening the impact of the demands by neglecting to meet some of the demands. It is yet to be determined if EU will follow through this time to help bring about real political and governing reform in Gambia including human rights and freedom of the press.