President Jammeh

President Alhaji Dr Yaya Jammeh, speaking at a welcoming ceremony for a top-brass Pakistani Military Advisory Team at State House, emphasised the importance of the twin virtues of military discipline and honesty in the life and security of any country.

"With discipline we cannot compromise. The military must be number one in terms of discipline, truthfulness and honesty. Patriotic, disciplined soldiers are capable of defending their country, dying for their country if necessary. Discipline is the key to a professional army," he said.

The president urged the Pakistani Assistance Team to "inculcate the virtues of discipline and honesty".  H.E urged the Team to help GAF in molding "dedicated, patriotic and loyal soldiers of whom we can be proud". The President offered the Team his full support saying "don't be a diplomat ... only someone who does not want to learn will resist advice ... show them what a professional soldier should be ... do what is right and fear nobody".

The president went on to thank his friend and Muslim brother, President Musharaf of Pakistan, for kindness in assisting in the development of the Gambia Armed Forces.

"Pakistan is a foremost supporter of the UN with peace-keepers in most UN policed areas.

There has never been one UN peace mission where Pakistan has not played an important part and that is important because peace enables people to develop. Nothing useful can happen without peace.

The Gambia has equally helped the UN, in East Timor, in Ethiopia-Eritrea, in Sierra Leone, in Liberia and Sudan. Peace is important to peoples' lives everywhere. We are happy as a country to be helping to restore peace to people across the globe working with the UN so that they can enjoy the peace that we enjoy in The Gambia. We thank Pakistan for helping us develop a professional army," he went.

The President ended by again offering the Pakistani Military Assistance Team his and the government's full support.

The head of the Pakistani team, Brigadier General Amir Murtaz, in turn thanked the president. The general explained that the President's warm words of welcome have completely mirrored what he had written down in his notes. "Pakistani has 10,000 soldiers serving the UN world-wide as dedicated professional soldiers," he said, "and we will do our best to ensure that our brother Gambian soldiers will become experienced professional soldiers of whom Gambians, Africans and indeed the world can be proud".

General Muntaz explain how much he and his team felt at home here, saying "The Adhan early morning call to prayer and recitations of the Holy Quran from the mosque loudspeakers is exactly as it is back home in Pakistan, we feel very much at home here".

For his part, Brigadier General Tamba, host of the team, thanked His Excellency, the president for giving them audience, assuring the head of State and Commander-in-Chief that the Gambian Armed Forces will indeed take full opportunity of the expertise and training offered by the Pakistani Military Training Team.

"We will learn from the professionalism of the Pakistani Armed Forces and turn the Gambia Armed Forces into role models around the world," concluded Brigadier General Tamba.

The Pakistani Military Asistance Team consists of Brigadier General Amir Muntaz, Air-Force Group Captain Tameez Uddin Shakir Qazi, and Navy Captain Baber Bilal.