Gambia expels Unicef boss

  1. Posted on Tuesday 16 February 2010 - 12:40
    Kemo
    Image of Kemo
    Kemo Cham, AfricaNews reporter in Dakar, Senegal
    The Gambian government has expelled the country representative of the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) to the Gambia, Min Whee-Kang. An executive order served to the UN diplomat in the form of a letter officially declared her persona non grata, last week, and she was given just 72 hrs to leave the country.
    Gambia
    The South Korean born Kan reportedly left Banjul for Dakar by road.

    Confirming the story, UNICEF communication specialist in Gambia, Sally Sadie-Singhateh, was quoted by online newspaper Jollofnews.com as saying that “UNICEF received a letter last week from the government stating that the Country Rep., Ms Min-Whee Kang, was no longer welcomed in The Gambia.”

    Sadie-Singhateh went on to say that no reason was given to justify such a decision. Jollofnews also reported that an unidentified official at the UNICEF Regional Office in neighboring Senegal confirmed that the expelled Gambia representative of the UN children’s agency was indeed in the Senegalese capital. ‘‘It is true, she is here,’’ the official told Jollof News.

    This is the third time the Gambian government under President Yahya Jammeh is expelling a high profile foreign representative from the country, and it is the second time for a UN official to be asked out of the country unceremoniously.

    In February 2007, UNDP residence representative, Zimbabwean Fadzai Gwaradzimba, was declared persona non grata following a comment about President Yahya Jammeh’s controversial HIV/AIDS treatment program. Earlier in 2001, former deputy British High Commissioner in Banjul, Bharat Joshi, was also told his presence in the country was "against the national interest of The Gambia and intolerable". He was given 72 hours to leave.

    UNICEF Gambia office is among a few bodies that submitted reports to the 7th session of United Nations Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review in the Swiss capital of Geneva. While the agency’s report to the UPR on the Gambia couldn’t be said to be totally different from the rest of the independently submitted reports, like all the others, UNICEF made critically mild observations on the contentious human rights situation in the country. Observers say could possibly have been the reason behind the Gambian government move.

    The UN children’s agency report to the UN meeting also touched on the issue of HIV/AIDS, a subject that has become more or less a taboo in Gambia, after President Yahya Jammeh announced a divine order for him to commence its treatment. It was the same issue that cost the former UNDP residence representative her job.

    Just last week, the Gambia leader recommenced his controversial treatment program, after inviting what is the sixth batch of HIV/AIDS patients for registration.

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