EU wants dialogue with Gambia

(BRUSSELS) - The European Union insisted Wednesday that it wanted dialogue with Gambia after President Yahya Jammeh charged that it was trying to destabilise his country by insisting on respect for human rights.

"The EU is not trying to impose" its views on Gambia, a spokesman for EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton said.

"Dialogue is a dialogue: we both speak, give our view, and we both listen to the other and see where we can agree," he said.

President Jammeh accused the EU of meddling and trying to blackmail him "with chicken change" during an emergency cabinet meeting Tuesday ahead of talks with the EU on Friday in the capital Banjul.

"What the EU wants is to create a situation of instability in this country or create a puppet government that will give them the resources of this country because they know that we now have oil," Jammeh said.

Among 17 demands made by the EU is for Jammeh's government to abolish the death penalty, re-open closed newspapers and private radio stations, give foreign diplomats access to prisons and repeal draconian media laws.

In 2010, the EU, the country's top aid donor, cancelled 22 million euros ($28.8 million) in budget support for Banjul because of concerns over human rights and governance.

Ashton's spokesman said Wednesday the EU supports "certain international values and commit ourselves to certain standards. So does The Gambia. We should both respect what we have committed ourselves to.

"The EU is always willing to discuss and to listen. Given the chance, that is what we will do," he said.

The west African nation, the smallest on the mainland, has long been dogged by rights concerns under Jammeh's administration.