The timing of the withdrawals appear to suggest that Jammeh issued the directives for the government to withdraw the invitations in retaliation to the humiliating treatment he received at the hands of the Gambian dissidents in Washington DC during the past several days.
Reasons for the withdrawals were not given. Whether the visits will be rescheduled is not evident either.
The invitation to the Special Rapporteur on torture and other inhumane degrading treatment, and a similar invitation to the other Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions were extended by the government of the Gambia to visit the country.
The visits were to take place from 11-18 August 2014, including possibly a two-day visit to Dakar.
The regime's invitations to the Rapporteurs were more of a surprise because of its poor human rights record with numerous documented extrajudicial killings and executions than their withdrawal because of Yaya Jammeh's predictable trait of lashing out at his "enemies", real and perceived. He withdrew the country's membership in the Commonwealth and he broke off diplomatic relations with Taiwan after suffering similar humiliating treatment at the hands of the same group of dissidents during last year's UN general Assembly.
This is the opening salvo of what is going to be a series of retaliatory measures against poor defenseless Gambians and innocent civil servants who will be blamed for what has taken place at the Hay Adams Hotel in Washington DC. That is his way of exerting revenge. That's just who Yaya Jammeh is. The sooner the international community is aware of this monster's makeup, the better.
