As if being jailed for economic crimes and having his assets frozen is not enough, Baba Kajally Jobe, former director of President Yahya Jammeh's New Millennium Airline, is still on the United Nations Security Council travel ban list.
In its latest travel ban list update in pursuant of resolution 1343 (2001) on Liberia, adopted on 7 March 2001, the UN Security Council still described Mr Jobe as an "arms trafficker, who supported former President Charles Taylor’s regime in effort to destabilise Sierra Leone and gain illicit access to diamonds."
It urged all states to take the necessary measures to prevent the entry into or transit through their territories of Mr Jobe and 58 others, "who constitute a threat to the peace process in Liberia, or who are engaged in activities aimed at undermining peace and stability in Liberia and the sub-region, including those senior members of former President Charles Taylor’s Government and their spouses and members of Liberia’s former armed forces who retain links to former President Charles Taylor, and any other individuals, or individuals associated with entities, providing financial or military support to armed rebel groups in Liberia or in countries in the region."
Mr Jobe, 49, who was majority leader and National Assembly Member for Jarra West, is accused to have conspired with others to run an arms smuggling ring in contravention of UN Security Council resolution 1343. And in between January and June 2001, Mr Jobe and the New Millennium Airline were said to have been used as transiting companies for illegal weapons handled by gun running mafias, Samih Osailly and Aziz Nassour who were jailed in Antwerp, Belgium for illegal diamond smuggling and weapons purchases.
Mr Osailly and Nassour, who are cousins from Lebanon, were also reported to have sold blood diamonds and indirectly or directly supported the Taylor regime.
Baba Jobe is also said to have, according to a commercial aviation database, use the New Millennium Airline, a Russian-made passenger jet acquired from Centrafrican Airlines, to cover the operations of Victor Anatoljevitch Bout, one of the world's biggest arms dealers.
A former Russian lieutenant who has acquired the nicknames Merchant of Death and Lord of War, Mr Bout used to fly his ancient Soviet planes into battlefields from Liberia to Afghanistan and some of his clients are said to have included the Taliban and African warlords.
He is said to have transported weapons and minerals in contravention of UN Security Council resolution 1343, and have supported former President Taylor’s regime in effort to destabilise Sierra Leone and gain illicit access to diamonds.
>By PK Jarju
