Yesterday, Sunday, marked the 45th anniversary of the single bloodiest political event in contemporary history of The Gambia. It was on that day that Kukoi Samba Sanyang, and his not-so-merry men seized power and held onto it for the next several days before Senegalese forces intervened and restored President Jawara to power. In this chapter from his seminal autobiography, Kairaba, President Sir Dawda recollected the tempestuous events of those few days in July/August 1981. Continued from the Friday edition. Excerpts:
“Back in London, Richard Luce put me through to Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, and I asked her for the British government’s assistance with resolving the hostage crisis. Two British Special Air Services (SAS) troopers – a Major Ian Crooke and a sergeant were dispatched to Banjul via Dakar. Upon their arrival in Banjul they were met by Mr Clive Lee, a former SAS major, who was working in The Gambia at the time of the coup. I was confident that the three-man SAS team – men with considerable experience in dealing with hostage situations – would, with the help of our own loyal forces and the Senegalese, be able to free the hostages unharmed.
I gave a press conference before leaving London on Saturday, 1 August making it clear that my government had not been removed and that I was at that time most concerned with foiling the attempt than apportioning blame as to who was behind it. I expressed no fear for my own person whatsoever in returning and doing something about the situation. I reaffirmed the plurality of the system in place in The Gambia which should have made a coup unnecessary. It was a democracy with freedom for everybody to express themselves strictly in terms of the constitution and in conformity with the respected principles of human rights.
Our flight from London to Dakar went by quickly. The five hours it took were filled with an intense review of the situation and what I would have to cover in the broadcasts and interviews I would give. When we landed in Dakar, we were received by the High Commissioner Bakary Dabo and senior Senegalese government officials. Dabo gave me a precise briefing of the negotiations with Diouf on the size of the contingent of troops that was already deployed in Banjul. We went straight to work, finalising those matters as well as the statements I had prepared.
The Senegalese government immediately accorded me the privilege to address the Gambian people on Radio Senegal. I did so in English, following up in Mandinka and Wolof. I announced that I had arrived close to home and that I understood my supreme duty to do everything possible to save the country from the hands of the coup leader and his collaborators. I saluted the courage of my vice president, ministers, the inspector general of police, his officers and others in the Field Force who stood loyally by their country and government. I paid tribute to those who lost their lives in the tragedy, and assured their grieving families that they did not die in vain.
It was clear in my mind that my supreme responsibility was towards our country and its people. I told them that apart from invoking the Defence Agreement, I had decided to come immediately to help restore law and order as quickly as possible. I assured the nation that Senegalese troops had joined forces loyal to my government and their effort was producing a marked turnaround in the rebels’ standoff. The Senegalese troops had already retaken the airport and had also expelled the rebels from the Trans-Gambia Ferry at Farafenni. With the troops cleaning the Kombos, before long they would be joining up with loyal forces in Banjul. With more Senegalese troops continuing to enter The Gambia through Casamance, I reckoned that it would only be a matter of hours before the coup would be over. I urged all citizens, wherever they were, to continue to defend their country against such lawlessness. I asked them to be calm and vigilant.
I reminded my compatriots that for the nineteen years I had been at the helm of affairs of our country, my efforts had consistently been in the direction of safeguarding the liberty of its citizens and at the same time striving to improve their living conditions. Indeed, my country was not a country flowing with milk and honey, and our economy has come through some severe times. But my government never promised the impossible. However, I was prepared to see to it that the peace and progress achieved so far was not destroyed. I promised to be home with my people shortly to continue that noble task. I urged Kukoi and his fellow insurgents to lay down their arms and stop the wanton shedding of Gambian blood.
The Supreme Revolutionary Council, it turned out, was made up of nonentities; their leader Kukoi Samba Sanyang was a candidate for the NCP in the 1977 general election in the Eastern Foñi constituency, where he polled 708 votes against 4,532 for the PPP candidate, Ismaila Jammeh. He thus updated his curriculum vitae as a failed teacher, a failed seminarian, an unsuccessful politician and now a coup plotter, directly answerable for the deaths of hundreds of people between 30 July and 4 August 1981. It was a long-drawn-out ordeal. I prayed fervently that every one of the hostages was safe. I had meant every word I said in my stern warning to the rebels that there would be severe retribution should any of those innocent people get hurt. I was also sincere when I offered them a fair trial and possible lenient treatment if they released all the hostages unharmed.
After Senegalese troops had cleared Yundum Airport and stretches of the road through the Kombos of rebels, we flew in from Dakar. We arrived around midday on Sunday 2 August and I was received by the vice president. After a short debriefing, we were airlifted by helicopter to Banjul around the admiralty Wharf from where we then travelled in an armoured convoy to the Senegalese High Commission.
I immediately made an Emergency Proclamation and got published the Emergency Regulations 1981 (Legal Notice No 8 of 1981) having considered it expedient that certain measures were necessary for securing public safety, the defence of The Gambia, the maintenance of public order and the suspension of mutiny, rebellion and riot and for maintaining supplies and services essential to the life of the community. The notice stipulated stiff cash fines and terms of imprisonment. It gave the presidency wide-ranging powers but which, in my own conviction, would be used with the greatest consideration and restraint.
I drove to Radio Syd, the Swedish-owned private radio station just outside Banjul. I spoke in Wolof to the terrified and besieged people who in the previous few days had no markets to attend and no shops from where to get food. It was highly reassuring and welcome to the populace that I was back and speaking to them, especially telling them that the ordeal was virtually over.
We spent the next two nights at the Senegalese High Commission. On Monday 3 August, reporters from Radio Gambia came to see me for an interview. I gave them one not only to further assure the people, but also to allay the rumour making the rounds among the people that I was not really among them in Banjul. I reiterated the messages I had broadcast from London and Dakar and thanked all those who physically and morally stood by my government and by the nation when we were faced with a most regrettable event.
As the day progressed, we were ready to move to the State House that has been safely under the command of the Senegalese forces. What was of great relief to me was the news that the SAS men had successfully freed Chilel and some of the children at the Medical Research Council without incident. The US Embassy has also furnished us with the information that the Senegalese troops had freed my other children and scores of hostages including some Europeans from the Bakau Depot. The rebels holding them fled when they realised their colleagues guarding Chilel and some of the children at the MRC had been disarmed and arrested.
Kukoi had escaped on Sunday 2 August and was broadcasting recordings of his ranting from portable transmitters. He had slipped with some of his men through the confusion and made it to Kartong, a fishing village in southern Kombo, from where he escaped to Guinea Bissau. We would express our concern to President Joao Bernardo Vieira that he was harbouring the fugitive murderer and his gang if he allowed them to stay on in his country. From Bissau, Kukoi flew to Cuba, and finally to Libya.
I was united again with my family. Chilel and the children looked tired from the ordeal they had gone through, but had held up admirably well. I cringed to think of the level of cruelty meted out to my family and the other hostages; it must have been horrendous for them. Their captors constantly barked threats at them, feeding them poor food comprising mainly half-cooked potatoes and rice not fit for human consumption.”
Ends
The Kairaba is available for sale at Timbooktoo Bookshop on Garba Jahumpa Road, Bakau
