Google – AFP, 3 October 2013
 |
Gambian
President Yahya Jammeh speaks at the UN General Assembly
on September 27, 2013
in New York (Pool/AFP/File, Andrew Burton)
|
Banjul —
The Gambian government announced that the former British colony is pulling out
of the Commonwealth with immediate effect, saying it would "never be a
member of any neo-colonial institution".
"The
general public is hereby informed that the government of the Gambia has left
the Commonwealth of Nations with immediate effect," it said in a
statement.
"(The)
government has withdrawn its membership of the British Commonwealth and decided
that the Gambia will never be a member of any neo-colonial institution and will
never be a party to any institution that represents an extension of
colonialism."
The
Commonwealth bloc is a voluntary association of more than 50 countries, many of
them former territories of the British empire.
 |
Flags of
the Commonwealth nations are
displayed outside the House of
Commons in London
on March 10, 2013,
the eve of Commonwealth Day (AFP/File,
Justin Tallis)
|
The
proposal followed an April 2012 visit to the Gambia by Commonwealth Secretary
General Kamalesh Sharma, during which he met with President Yahya Jammeh and
other top government officials.
Jammeh, who
is regularly accused of rights abuses, has ruled mainland Africa's smallest
country with an aura of mysticism and an iron fist since seizing power in 1994.
Earlier
this year, the Gambia was singled out for its poor rights record in Britain's
annual Human Rights and Democracy report, which cited cases of unlawful
detentions, illegal closures of newspapers and radio stations and
discrimination against minority groups.
A spokesman
at the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office said early Thursday: "We
would very much regret Gambia, or any other country, deciding to leave the
Commonwealth."
He noted
however that "decisions on Commonwealth membership are a matter for each
member government".
The Gambia
is a tiny sliver of land wedged into Senegal. It suffers from widespread
poverty but its miles of palm-fringed beaches are a favourite among sun-seeking
European tourists.
The west
African anglophone nation, the smallest on the mainland, has long been dogged
by rights concerns under Jammeh's administration.
Jammeh, who
seized power in a 1994 coup, brooks no criticism. He has been re-elected to
power three times.
The man who
claims he can cure AIDS and other illnesses is often pilloried for rights
abuses and the muzzling of journalists.
In 2010,
the EU, the country's top aid donor, cancelled 22 million euros ($30 million)
in budget support for Banjul because of concerns over human rights and
governance.
In August 2012, Jammeh came under attack from Amnesty International and others for sending nine prisoners to the firing squad and promising many more would go the same way.
 |
File
picture shows protesters holding a
banner reading 'Gambia. Stop unfair trials' outside the Gambian embassy in Senegal last year (AFP/File, Seyllou) |
Last year
he warned foreign diplomats that his country would not be "bribed"
with aid to accept homosexuality.
"If
you are to give us aid for men and men or for women and women to marry, leave
it. We don't need your aid because as far as I am the president of the Gambia,
you will never see that happen in this country," he said.
In January
this year Jammeh accused the European Union of trying to destablise Gambia,
after the EU set out a 17-point checklist of demands for reforms.
They
included calls for Gambia to abolish the death penalty and to re-open
newspapers and radio stations closed down by the authorities.
The
president regularly insists that he will not bow to external pressures for
reform.
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