Gambia News : Gambia president denies bad governance

Gambian President Yahya Jammeh shot down accusations of bad governance during his independence day speech in the country that is regularly criticised for human rights violations.

Addressing the nation on Thursday on the country's 45th anniversary of independence from Britain, Jammeh said his government had brought development to the smallest state on the African mainland.

"After 45 years of independence today, we have more than 600 graduates here in the Gambia," Jammeh said, vaunting the number of domestically trained doctors in the nation of 1.5 million.

"Today we are accused of bad governance. Let nobody fool you. We are seeing the difference between the Gambia 400 years under British rule and Gambia 30 years after independence and 15 years after the July 22nd Revolution."

The celebrations in the capital were attended by Senegal President Abdoulaye Wade and Guinea's interim president General Sekouba Konate.

They come just days after the country expelled UN children's agency envoy Min-Whee Kang, giving her just 24 hours to leave the country.

Government has given no official explanation for the expulsion.

In February 2007 the local head of the UN Development Programme (UNDP) was forced to leave after voicing doubt over President Jammeh's claim to be able to cure AIDS, using a combination of mystical powers and herbs.

Jammeh has been in power since a bloodless coup in 1994 and observers say there has been a crackdown on the media, as well as increasing repression, torture and unlawful arrests of critics under his reign.

"When you have a country where there is an atmosphere of fear, among journalists or politicians, there is nothing to celebrate in that situation," Amnesty International's Gambia campaigner Ayodele Ameen told AFP.

He was speaking from Geneva last week where Gambia came under scrutiny during a periodic UN review at which Amnesty raised concerns about unlawful arrests and detentions in secret prisons, as well as attacks on press freedom.