THE GAMBIA: UPDATE ON TENSIONS WITH SENEGAL,

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 BANJUL 000283 SIPDIS SIPDIS DAKAR PLS PASS ODC, DAO, AND RAO E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/04/2017 TAGS: PREL PGOV PINS PREF SG GA SUBJECT: THE GAMBIA: UPDATE ON TENSIONS WITH SENEGAL, CASAMANCE REFUGEES REF: A. DAKAR 1144 ¶B. BANJUL 258 ¶C. BANJUL 257 AND PREVIOUS (ALL NOTAL) Classified By: AMBASSADOR JOSEPH STAFFORD, REASON 1.4 (B AND D) SUMMARY -------------- ¶1. (C) An online "journal" reported May 28 the arrest of Senegal-based Gambian "rebels" entering The Gambia as part of preparations, with GOS complicity, for a renewed coup attempt. A knowledgeable source was not able to confirm the report, but said GOS had angrily denied a recent local media report of GOS collusion with Gambian dissidents. Meanwhile, we note reports of an influx of refugees due to violence in the Casamance. END SUMMARY REPORTED "REBELS" FROM SENEGAL -------------- ¶2. (C) We read with interest ref a report of Embassy Dakar's discussion of Senegalese/Gambian ties with GOS official and note his acknowledgment of bilateral tensions. Those tensions were highlighted by a May 28 piece in the U.S.-based, anti-GOTG online "journal," Freedom Newspaper. It claimed that GOTG authorities had recently arrested three Gambian border officials -- two with the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) and one with customs -- for dereliction of duty in permitting entry into The Gambia of "dissident rebels" from Senegal. According to the "journal," authorities also picked up the rebels and asserted that they had been sent here by Senegal-based dissident leaders, among them the presumed mastermind of the abortive coup plot in March 2006, then-CHOD Col Ndure Cham. ¶3. (C) NIA officials were quoted as saying the infiltration of the rebels was part of preparations by Cham and others, in collusion with the GOS, for a renewed coup attempt. Reportedly, the GOTG responded to the infiltration by clandestinely dispatching NIA agents to Senegal to monitor dissident activities there. The "journal," describing President Yahya Jammeh as "very angry" with Senegalese President Wade over the alleged GOS complicity with dissidents, said Jammeh planned to submit a protest to the United Nations over "Dakar's move to welcome dissident rebels." SOURCE'S ASSESSMENT -------------- ¶4. (C) In conversation with Ambassador, a knowledgeable source said that he could not confirm the accuracy of the "journal" report, but found it plausible. He agreed that, notwithstanding Jammeh's recent gesture in pardoning convicted Senegalese customs officials (ref b), Senegalese/Gambian tensions remained high. Our source observed that Dakar was upset that the officials had been detained and prosecuted to begin with, given the clearly trumped-up charges. He stated that the GOS had been further irritated by a May 17 piece in a local pro-GOTG daily alleging a clandestine meeting in Dakar of Gambian dissidents with GOS Interior Ministry officials as part of anti-GOTG plotting (ref c). According to our source, the GOS angrily denied to the GOTG that there had been any such meeting. (NOTE: Per ref b, a reported Gambian dissident in the meeting, former head of the presidential security force, Kalifa Bajinka, phoned a FSN employee and also denied the story. END NOTE) COMMENT -------------- ¶5. (C) Following Jammeh's pardoning of the convicted Senegalese customs officers, rumors of an imminent GOS move to close the border with The Gambia in response to the GOTG's provocations in past months -- e.g., detention of officers, meddling in the Casamance -- have subsided. As previously reported, though, further moves by Jammeh are needed -- e.g. more helpful posture on the Casamance dossier, reining in his suspicions of GOS complicity in efforts to destabilize his government -- to ensure further reduction of tensions. END COMMENT BANJUL 00000283 002 OF 002 CASAMANCE VIOLENCE NEAR GAMBIAN BORDER -------------- ¶6. (SBU) Against the backdrop of heightened Senegalese/Gambian strains, we note reports in recent weeks of an upsurge in violence in the Casamance and an attendant influx of refugees in The Gambia. We note that Voice of America reported May 31 that 1,000 or more refugees had fled to The Gambia as a result of the latest clashes among rival rebel groups in the Casmance. The VOA report is consistent with that by a local UN security official monitoring the Casamance situation; he told us that the total number of Casamance refugees here had increased of late from about 5,000 to 6,000. Our contacts, including, inter alia, local UNHCR officials and NGO reps working with refugees, report that the latest incidents of violence in the Casamance have not spread to Gambian territory and that refugee crossings into The Gambia have proceeded without incident. . STAFFORD