By Tabora Bojang
The Minister of Local Government and Lands Hamat Bah yesterday told the National Assembly that The Gambia does not own the land where the Bulock military barrack fence was erected, adding that the site instead belongs to Senegal.
In July, a contingent of heavily armed Senegalese soldiers put the fence down. The Senegalese government said the act was designed to draw attention to wider unresolved border issues between the two countries.
Answering questions on the incident and other border issues with Senegal yesterday, Minister Bah clarified that it has been confirmed and affirmed that the location of the fence was in Senegal.
“We don’t own where we put the structure on. We built it on Senegalese land and we have affirmed that. So those who are misinforming Gambians that the Senegalese are taking our territories are misleading people. Nobody is taking anybody’s land. We are just affirming where the pillars are. So let me assure you there is no land cheating in this,” Bah said.
He added that as a responsible government, they will do what it takes to protect the integrity of The Gambia but in this case, Senegal is not taking any Gambian land. “All what we are doing is reaffirming our border position to make sure we all know what, or where belongs to us,” the minister said.
He said The Gambia now has got equipment that will help in determining her borders with Senegal. “So where there are no makers, the instruments we have now will determine and these instruments cannot fail, because our experts are trained. Our people are safe. Our country is safe but we must address these border issues once and for all,” Bah said.
He said both President Barrow and his counterpart Diomaye Faye want to amicably resolve the issues surrounding the border.
“In this vein I must commend opposition leader Ousainu Darboe for appreciating government efforts in addressing the matter which demonstrates his knowledge and maturity,” Hamat said of the UDP leader.
The minister used the occasion to accuse previous regimes of failing to address the border issues between Gambia and Senegal.
He said the Barrow administration believes the matter must be dealt with as it is always the number one concern of Senegal at presidential council meetings.
He explained that the government however refused to accept some of the issues agreed with the Senegalese during the presidential council meeting in Dakar because they felt Gambia does not have the required expertise and equipment to do border demarcation or delineations by herself..
“So we insisted to our Senegalese counterparts that we must have those equipment and once we got them, I insisted that our people be trained to know how to use it. So we insisted to have experts, not from Senegal, but Ghana and Burkina Faso to come and train our people and then after that we started the programme of implementing what was agreed,” Minister Bah said.