By Fatou Sillah
The United States expelled four Gambian diplomats earlier this month in response to allegations of visa fraud. Gambian Foreign Minister Mamadou Tangara downplayed the issue at a news conference today, saying that it is not a serious matter in the Gambian context.
“The issue of our diplomats in Washington is rather unfortunate, but I’m not holding a brief for anyone. As far as I know, what we received is nothing very serious in a Gambian context. Imagine you are posted in Europe or America, and you have relatives who will ask you for help to take them because they think it is easy, but it is not like that. Sometimes people innocently will do it without knowing the implication.
“I was an ambassador myself to the United Nations, and many times relatives will ask me to write letters for them, but I do reject it, but people will think that you are wicked, but that’s not the reality, and unfortunately with the issue of Washington, “he said.
The minister asserted that the expulsion of Gambians from Washington did not have a negative impact on the Gambia’s international reputation.
“On the issue of Washington, I don’t think Gambia has lost its credibility in the international arena today. More than ever before, the Gambia is well respected. During the recently concluded executive council of the African Union, I stayed a day behind because the UNDP was singling out the Gambia for the democratic governance that we have in this country, and for that credit is due to all the political leaders, whether government or opposition. We display maturity in dealing with some political issues. We have free, fair, and violence-free elections, and today other countries are coming to the Gambia to learn from the Gambian example,” he said.
When asked about the fate of the expelled diplomats, the minister declined to comment, saying that they could not speculate on what would happen to them.
“We cannot jump to conclusions and say that we are going to do XYZ; you have to go to the bottom of things to know exactly what happened before you take any decisions.”
The minister took the opportunity to caution other diplomats to be mindful of their deeds and uterrances.
“The issue of Washington, I think that’s a wake-up call to all the diplomats to be able to resolve things within the mission because what I saw on social media, some of these things we were not even aware of, which means someone was talking too much, so we have to be very careful of that, but it has not created any reputational damage; they have not been declared personae non grata they gave us a timeline to evacuate them, and we are doing that,” he concludes.