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Gambia News: The Gambia Killings; We Can't Attack Jammeh - Kwamena Bartels

THE MINISTER of Interior, Hon. Kwamena Bartels and MP of Ablekuma North has urged Ghanaians to remain calm as the government is using diplomacy to approach the genocide that happened in The Gambia in which 44 Ghanaian immigrants lost their lives.

"Not that the Government is quiet but we have to get some hard facts before we proceed and that is why we are using diplomacy to approach the case", he said.

Speaking to The Chronicle in an interview over the weekend, Hon. Bartels said a government delegation had been to The Gambia three times, Senegal two times and were currently in The Gambia.

He said they had not laid hands on any evidence just yet and that what an eyewitness was saying over here in Ghana was different from the position of the Gambians.

He continued that since the government had no evidence, there was no way they could attack a President of a sovereign country. "You can't take any action when you don't have your facts", he stressed.

The MP for Ablekuma North said the government did not even know the actual number of people who had died and their real identities since there were no records to prove that.

He further indicated that whether those killed were legal or illegal Ghanaian immigrants was another question.

On what Ghanaians should expect if the evidence gathered go against President Yahya Jammeh, Hon. Bartels said to him the best thing would be for President Jammeh to compensate the families of the victims.

The former Minister of Information and National Orientation concluded, "This is a very complicated issue that must be approached with caution".

It would be recalled that forty-four Ghanaian immigrants were killed in The Gambia on Friday, July 22, 2005. President Yahya Jammeh is accused of being the brain behind the killings.