AMBASSADOR'S MEETING WITH

C O N F I D E N T I A L BANJUL 000068


E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/02/2119
TAGS: PREL PGOV PHUM SNAR GA
SUBJECT: AMBASSADOR'S MEETING WITH
PRESIDENT JAMMEH

REF: Banjul 45

Classified By: Ambassador Barry L. Wells
for reasons 1.4(b) & (d)

Summary
--------------


1. (C) Ambassador had a 2 hour meeting with
President Jammeh on a wide range of issues,
including the current state of bilateral
relations, drug trafficking in the region,
future assistance for The Gambia and the
inquiry by Senator Durbin on the case of
missing journalist Chief Manneh. Jammeh
reconstructed history to claim that the
downturn in relations related to his
decision to invite Hugo Chavez when he
hosted the African Union Summit in 2006,
shared our concern about increasing drug
trafficking, and deflected inquiries
regarding Chief Manneh, while criticizing
the way we do human rights reporting.


2. (U) Ambassador, accompanied by OMS as
notetaker, met with President Jammeh on
February 24, 2009. Sitting in on the
meeting were Secretary General Teneng
Jaiteh; Minister of Finance Musa Bala-Gaye;
Minister of Local Government, Lands and
Religious Affairs Ismaila Sambou; and
Minister of Culture and Tourism Nancy Njie.
While waiting for the President in a VIP
lounge, Ambassador and Finance Minister
discussed the current global financial
crisis; Bala-Gaye admitted some concerns
about lower foreign remittances, but was
not specific.

The Tides of History According to Jammeh
--------------


3. (C) After exchanging pleasantries, the
President began the meeting by
congratulating the Ambassador on President
Obama's election and the USG's new
Administration. The President claimed it
was an historic victory for America. He
went on to say he hoped this meant a better
relationship between the Gambia and the
United States. President Jammeh went on to
say that he had nothing against the U.S.,
but that during previous US Ambassador's
tenure, relations between the USG and The
Gambia were "high tide, low tide".
President Jammeh then said that despite the
policies of the last four years of
President Bush's Administration, he remains
'personal friends' with President Bush
although he did not support Bush's
policies.


4. (C) President Jammeh continued on the
topic of bilateral relations, saying that
the door is open to improve the bilateral
relationship between The Gambia and the
United States. He stressed, however, that
he would not change his policies or beliefs
in order to improve upon that relationship.
He said he would instead 'find other
countries to work with'. He said he
expects 'nothing' from the United States.
He did say to the Ambassador that his wish
is to work together with the U.S. He said
things went very bad when he hosted the AU
summit in 2006. Jammeh mentioned he'd
invited President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela
to speak at the summit. Jammeh mentioned
that Chavez was looking for a forum within
Africa where he could forge a relationship
between South America and the African
Continent. Jammeh felt that The Gambia
would be a good venue because there were
many people of African descent in South
America. The President then went on to say
that the US Ambassador informed him that
Washington claimed it was unacceptable to
invite Chavez to The Gambia and that
Washington would view it as a "hostile act
because Chavez was a sworn enemy to the
U.S." He was told this would result in the
suspension of The Gambia's MCC eligibility.
The President then went on to say that as a
result of hosting Chavez, The Gambia was
suspended from the Millennium Challenge
Corporation two days prior to Chavez'
arrival.

Iran, Venezuela and Visas
--------------


5. (C) The President then went on to talk
about the issue of Iran and Venezuela. The
President said that one country does not
have the right to define who another
country befriends. He said that The
Gambia's relationship with Iran and
Venezuela has nothing to do with the United
States' relationship with Iran or
Venezuela. He said his country was being
punished for befriending countries that are
not friends of the US. Ambassador pointed
out that Iran's behavior in the
international community was irrational and
detrimental to peace. It would certainly
concern us if other countries were
accepting of their views and their
friendship.


6. (U) The President then switched to a
discussion about how Gambian Government
Officials were having difficulty obtaining
U.S. Visas. The President said he'd
advised government officials to have a
'contingency plan' if seeking a U.S. visa
for other than official travel, including
those Officials who were seeking visas for
medical purposes. He was advising them to
go to other countries. Ambassador pointed
out that there was a procedure in place for
GOTG officials to request expedition of
their visas through the Foreign Ministry,
but that it was rarely used. The
Ambassador said that he had discussed this
with both the Foreign Minister and the
Speaker of the National Assembly.

Reaction to Past HRR
--------------


7. (C) Jammeh said that nothing hurt him
more than the Human Rights report of 2007
that accused him of executing people. He
said the best way to punish people was to
keep them alive and referred to people on
death row in The Gambia that he would not
execute. He went on to discuss his Muslim
faith and said that people will be judged
not by man but in the next life.
Ambassador said he respected the
President's faith and reminded him that as
a head of state the here and now were
equally important, and that if these
reports are not true they should be
addressed and refuted with evidence.

Jammeh on Regional Drug Trafficking
--------------


8. (C) Ambassador raised the issue of the
increased drug trafficking in the region.
Jammeh responded with an anecdote about
having been approached by a person who said
he did not want the President to "miss out"
on an opportunity his counterparts in the
region were taking advantage of. The
request was a bald-faced attempt to get him
involved in drug trafficking, by
guaranteeing that traffickers would not be
prosecuted or convicted in The Gambia. The
President went on to say he had 'zero
tolerance' for drugs. He said he made a
'big mistake' once when he was approached
by 'someone' and offered 3 million US
dollars a month if he would allow planes
carrying drugs to land in The Gambia and be
escorted to waiting vessels at the Port for
trans-shipment to the U.S. and Europe. The
President indicated he was so angry with
the individual who approached him with this
offer that he failed to ask the individual
for information on which aircraft and
vessels he was alluding to. The President
said that the drug phenomenon will be very
difficult to eradicate in West Africa as
long as certain heads of state are in
power, as some of them and their families
are involved in drug trafficking. He said
the late President Conte of Guinea Conakry
confided in him that his (Conte's) son was
involved in trafficking and lamented that
the Guinean police would not arrest his son
because of his position. Jammeh added his
belief that the attempted coup in Guinea-
Bissau was actually a drug deal gone bad
when 5 tons of cocaine turned up missing
while it was in police custody.


9. (C) Jammeh said he had directed his NIA
and other law enforcement authorities to
continue to cooperate with the U.S. on the
drug problem. He said the drug unit
particularly needed assistance with
forensics as they have no capability in
this area.

Jammeh without an Audience
--------------


10. (C) In a one on one meeting after the
notetaker and Ministers had left,
Ambassador raised the issue of missing
journalist Chief Manneh. Jammeh then went
on a lengthy monologue about the Manneh
case. He said he was unaware that Manneh
had done or said anything against the
Government of The Gambia or the President.
He said Manneh was a Daily Observer
reporter assigned to State House at the
time of his disappearance. All he knew was
that Manneh was recalled from State House
at some point by his bosses; he did not
know the reason. (Note: Jammeh himself
actually controls The Observer, which is
owned by one of his well-known front men.)
He said that when the government has
problems with journalists, they take them
to court. He then referred to the recent
arrest of Pap Saine, publisher of The Point
newspaper as an example of the legal way
they deal with journalists (reftel).


11. (U) On the matter of the ECOWAS Court
ruling, he reiterated what the SOS for
Foreign Affairs had said in an earlier
meeting with me: that the court had no
jurisdiction as it can only intervene when
all local judicial remedies have been
exhausted which was not the case. He said
the GOTG did not appear at the court
because it was not a true legal proceeding,
in Jammeh's (and therefore The Gambia's)
opinion. Ambassador pointed out that
failure to respond to these issues does not
make them go away, and reminded the
president that he (Ambassador) has spoken
publicly many times about the importance
and role of a free press in a democracy.
Ambassador said this is an issue that the
Government needs to address.


12. (U) The President went on to criticize
the US for relying on the 'lies' printed in
the online Echo and Freedom media. Jammeh
said that the publishers of these on-line
newspapers aren't even considered by the
government to be from the legitimate
opposition, rather, they are dissidents.
They go to the US and marry US citizens and
start writing their Congressmen, he said.
Ambassador pointed out that he should give
the US credit for having better sources of
information that the online media to which
he referred. Ambassador mentioned the
Amnesty International report which, after
making a visit to the Gambia, was highly
critical of a 'climate of fear' as it
related to public freedoms.


13. (U) Ambassador pointed out the
inquiries from Senator Durbin, who has yet
to get a response to his letter to the
Gambian Embassy in Washington, or to the
personal letter to President Jammeh.
Ambassador indicated that Senator Durbin
was planning to contact him directly, which
Jammeh said was "inappropriate".
Ambassador indicated that these issues are
important and indicative of the level of
freedom that exist in a country; The Gambia
needs to be aware that failure to address
these issues could affect our relationship
and the possibility of future assistance.

Comment
--------------


14. (C) The lengthy meeting was generally
positive, with Jammeh being very generous
with his time going over past issues such
as MCC suspension, accusations of human
rights abuses, and what he saw as a
deliberate U.S. policy of offering asylum
to anyone who would criticize him and his
government. He pointed to several unnamed
Gambians implicated in the 2006 coup that
were now living in the US writing all the
bad stories about him and his Government.
Jammeh was positive about the current state
of relations and the support the US has
provided to the military in the way of
training. He seems sincere in saying that
he has instructed his law enforcement
authorities to continue to cooperate with
our counternarcotics efforts. On the issue
of general freedoms and liberty, Jammeh is
indeed paranoid about enemies in and around
his government, but as they say, just
because a person is paranoid, doesn't mean
people aren't out to get him. Jammeh lives
in constant fear that his enemies or
ambitious men with guns will move to oust
him, just as he ousted resident Jawara in

1994. His centralized, authoritarian style
is only slightly masked by the democratic
electoral process, which is badly flawed.
We will continue to use the access we have
worked so hard to restore to raise the
tough issues that others here will not or
cannot. However, our leverage is limited.
Iranian, Taiwanese and Cuban assistance far
outweighs anything we are doing here, and
the money is certainly talking.
Nonetheless, Jammeh remains pro-Western at
heart, and values our friendship and what
we say. He would like to have a strong
relationship with us, as he sees others
with similar human rights records on the
continent have. This remains the only
leverage we have to address our primary
democracy and human rights concerns.

BACHMAN