Gambia: Kukoi And Men Kidnapped
Jan 30,2007 00:00
by
editor
The Gambia Journal has learnt from a reliable source that the leader of the failed 1981 coup and popular uprising, Kukoi Samba Sanyang and a still unknown number of his men are in detention at the house of a military officer in Bissau. They were rounded up and detained over six months ago when, for reasons yet unknown, they paid a visit to the capital of the West African country.According to the source who is reliable but who was only able to secretly speak to The Gambia Journal from Bissau, some military officers have been blocking attempts by the Bissau authorities to hand over the dissident Gambians to the authorities in Banjul. He added that an official Gambian aircraft had twice landed in the Bissau airport to collect the prisoners, but failed in the attempt in both cases because of resistance from some powerful military officers in Bissau. In the middle of last year, rumors were circulating that the authorities in Banjul and Bissau were engaged in a swapping deal in which Casamance hard-line rebel leader was to be handed over to Senegal in exchange for the repatriation of Mr. Sanyang to Banjul.
In 1995 about half a dozen men who later claimed they were collaborators of Mr. Sanyang's, attacked the Farafenni army camp, killing some Gambian soldiers and taking over the camp for hours. Some of the men who were later captured, have since been sentenced to death and are still waiting for their execution. Another one, who was arrested in 2003, is still on trial for treason in a court in Banjul. In 2003, Mr. Sanyang paid a number of secrete visits to The Gambia where he held several rounds of talks with Gambian President, Yahya Jammeh at his Kaninlai residence. When the negotiations failed in August 2003, Mr. Sanyang returned to Senegal, where he has been based from early 2003 until his disappearance in early June 2006.
The secret source, who has been able to give only sketchy information on the arrests, has promised to furnish The Gambia journal with more information on the detention of Mr. Sanyang soon. The Gambia Journal promises to publish any reliable information by this source on the fate of Kukoi and his men.