Gambians celebrate new president's arrival after veteran ruler flees
Barrow, a former real estate agent, won a Dec. 1 election but Jammeh refused to step down, forcing his opponent to be inaugurated at the Gambian Embassy in neighbouring Senegal.
Clad in a long
white African tunic, Barrow smiled as he stepped out of a small plane and
walked down a red carpet to greet hundreds of diplomats and officials lined up
to greet him. Immediately afterwards, fighter jets from the West African ECOWAS
regional force passed overhead.
"A new
page in Gambian history is being turned," said Mohamed Ibn Chambas, U.N.
Special Representative for West Africa and the Sahel, who helped negotiate
Jammeh's exit, shortly before accompanying Barrow to Banjul.
Barrow's
surprise ballot box victory and the determination of Western and African
countries to uphold it is being celebrated as a moment of democratic hope for
Africa.
Yet, diplomats
say tiny Gambia was an easy target and that regional armies are unlikely to
venture into bigger countries to oust authoritarian rulers with more powerful
allies than Jammeh.
Regional
leaders helped thrash out a deal last Saturday for Jammeh to fly to exile in
Equatorial Guinea as thousands of ECOWAS troops closed in after 22 years of
increasingly repressive rule in Gambia, marked by alleged torture and killings
of opponents.
Jammeh's
political demise is a relief to many people in the small, sliver-like West
African country and the U.N.'s Chambas promised assistance in investigating
human rights abuses.
Swiss police
detained longtime former Gambian interior minister Ousman Sonko near the Swiss
capital of Berne on Thursday after a complaint filed against him by
non-governmental organisation Trial International.
In the weeks following Jammeh's decision to
reject the election outcome in early December, Barrow was seen as vulnerable
and was protected by unarmed volunteers until he relocated to Dakar.
During his
absence, he was unable to return home for his son's funeral after a dog attack.
He has asked
the 7,000-strong West African military contingent to remain in Gambia for
another six months, Chambas said on Thursday. An ECOWAS official said they were
studying the proposal.
Gambia, a tiny
riverine nation surrounded by Western ally Senegal on three sides, has a
bloated army for its size but so far there have been no signs of resistance to
ECOWAS forces.
However, lingering
questions remain as to the loyalty of the Republican Guard, thought to number
about 400, who in the past protected Jammeh from coup attempts.
The
whereabouts of members of alleged assassination squads known in Gambia as the
"Junglers" were not known.
Reuters
Comments
Post a Comment