Annan re-sends envoy to promote relations

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has asked his Special Envoy for The Gambia and Guinea-Bissau, James Victor Gbeho, to return to West Africa to promote peace between the two countries, the UN reported on Monday. "The Special Envoy will explore with Presidents Yahya Jammeh and Kumba Yala [of Gambia and Bissau respectively] ways in which their two governments could implement speedily and fully commitments agreed on 4 July," the UN said. The envoy, the UN added, would also travel to Addis Ababa to brief the interim chairperson of the commission of the African Union Amara Essy, and to ECOWAS (Economic Community of Western African States) to brief the executive secretary Mohammed Chambas and chairman Abdoulaye Wade on the UN efforts. Annan first sent Gbeho to West Africa in early July to diffuse tension over a claim by Guinea-Bissau's government that The Gambia was behind coup plots against Bissau. Yala had claimed during an 11 June meeting with local and foreign dignitaries that his security forces had foiled two coup attempts in December 2001 and May 2002. He threatened to "crush" The Gambia militarily if its government continued "fomenting subversion" against Guinea-Bissau. Jammeh and his foreign minister, Babucarr Jagne, publicly denied any Gambian involvement in plots against Guinea-Bissau and demanded a retraction of the allegation which they described as "slanderous, baseless and evil-intentioned".