By Kebba Ansu Manneh
Abdou Diouf, the former president of Senegal, has been accused of playing a crucial role towards the success of the 1994 coup d’état that brought Yahya Jammeh to power in The Gambia. That historic event ended the thirty-year rule of the first president of The Gambia, Sir Dawda Kairaba Jawara.
Speaking at the country’s Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission, former Gendarmery officer, Tijan Touray recalls how former Senegalese president blocked Sir Dawda from accessing any form of communication but also placing him under what could be considered a house arrest.
Diouf who ruled Senegal from 1981-2000 was one time a close ally of former president Jawara. Diouf helped Jawara quashed a rebellion in The Gambia led by Kukoi Samba Sanyang in July 1981 uprising. “Sir Dawda never wanted to leave his people in the hands of these bandits. He was forced to go to Senegal and when we reach Senegal, Sir Dawda was denied all forms of communication by Abdou Joof who even didn’t want to see him either to talk to him,“ Touray revealed at the Truth Commission on Wednesday, 23 January 2019.
Touray, a former bodyguard to Sir Dawda, disclosed that the former president never sought political asylum in Senegal, revealing that Senegalese radio stations where announcing Diouf’s offer of asylum to Jawara whilst they were onboard a US Marines military vessel.
“He (Diouf) deny Jawara all the chance to communicate to the world even food was a problem. It was Saihou Sabally’s in-laws who use to give us food,“ the former bodyguard to Jawara explained the role played by Diouf to making the July 22 1994 military coup in The Gambia successful.
Touray also alleged at the commission that Diouf engaged Bakary Darboe, Jawara’s finance minister in his efforts to pushing Jawara out of presidency. He also added that Bakary Darboe abandoned them to become the Minister of Finance of the military junta. The junta’s two years rule and twenty-years civilian rule under Jammeh were characterized by human rights violations and numerous forms of abuse.
Former Senegalese president Diouf who quashed the 1981 coup in The Gambia created the Senegambian Confederation with his counterpart of The Gambia former president Jawara. The pact was largely a defense pact from Jawara’s piont of view while Diouf wanted more of a political union. Relationship between Jawara and Diouf deteriorated in September 1989 leading to the dissolution of the seven-year-old Senegambia Confederation. The dissolution of the confederation was unilaterally and unceremoniously ended by Diouf after series of futile talks on custom tariffs between the two countries.