By Clint Chan Tack Thursday, November 19 2009

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Gambian president Yahya Jammeh...

GAMBIAN PRESIDENT Dr Yahya Jammeh is not coming to next week’s Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Port-of-Spain.

Official confirmation of Jammeh’s non-attendance came yesterday from the Foreign Affairs Ministry. The Gambian delegation to the CHOGM will be led by Gambian Foreign Affairs Minister Ousman Jammeh. The ministry did not indicate whether the minister and the president are relatives.

On Monday, Newsday exclusively reported concerns raised by the Caribbean Human Centre for Human Rights (CCHR) and the India-based Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) about President Jammeh’s attendance at the CHOGM after he threatened on Gambian television to “kill anyone who wants to destabilise” his country.

The CCHR and the CHRI called on Commonwealth leaders to withdraw the Gambian leader’s invitation after he made these comments. On Tuesday, Trade and Industry Minister Mariano Browne said President Jammeh would be sending his vice-president and foreign minister to represent him at the CHOGM. However Foreign Affairs Minister Paula Gopee-Scoon was of the view that the Gambian leader was coming. Gopee-Scoon said human rights issues were always a concern to the Government but “it’s just that we have not addressed this particular issue.”

In an address to the nation last night, Prime Minister Patrick Manning said 40 of the 53 leaders of the Commonwealth nations confirmed they will attend the meeting. He also updated the nation on preparations for the meeting which is being viewed internationally as a stepping stone towards next month’s United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, Denmark.

As CHOGM preparations continued apace yesterday, Opposition Leader Basdeo Panday charged that Government’s expenditure on meetings had gone wild at a time when “our Treasury is bleeding.” Panday said Manning first indicated the cost to host the Fifth Summit and CHOGM was $503 million and then mentioned the allocation had increased to $632 million.

“One wonders what the real figure is to date,” Panday said.