...Liberians Tell Their Govt;
...As Eyewitnesses Say Mass Murder “Was Planned & Executed”
By: Bill K. Jarkloh
Although reports from the Liberian Embassy officials in Ghana has lied that only one Ghanaian lady was gunned down when Ghanaian police raided the Liberian refugee camp on Sunday February 13, reports emanating from Accra says the Ghanaian police had systematically planned and executed the raid according to the plan.
The Ghanaian police raid that has resulted to mass murder on the Buduburam Camp led to what was reported as the willful killing of five unarmed Liberians and a Ghanaian lady mistaken to be a Liberian on the camp.
However, Liberian citizens have blamed their government for always leaving Liberians unprotected in the cruel hands of Ghanaians, saying that this latest might trigger a citizen reciprocal action against Ghanaian residents and authorities in Liberia.
Some Liberians that have spoken to this paper in West Point, New Krutown and Gardnersville noted that for each time Ghanaians attack peaceful Liberians in that country, the Government has always treated the situation with passivity, leaving Liberians in Ghana always vulnerable to the cruelty of Ghanaian authorities.
“This time around, Liberians need to reciprocate this Ghanaian attacks on peaceful Liberians; after all there are Ghanaians in Liberia amassing properties just as Liberians in Ghana are also amassing properties. What is good for Peter is equally good for John,” says Tonia Blama, who spoke to the Liberian Journal on the Bushrod Island.
Mary Wesseh in Gardnersville, apparently concurring with this traced the history of Ghanaian attacks on Liberians, saying, “my sister was a victim of the attacks on peaceful refugee protestors, who were on a sit-in action but were ordered attacked by Ghanaian Minister of Interior.”
Mary said unless the Liberian Government reacts decisively to these kind of constant Ghanaian brutalities masterminded usually by Ghanaian officials, citizens’ actions against Ghanaians here will be necessary as a way of protesting such cruelty.
Another Barsee Johnson, in his own reaction, was blunt: Unless the Government reacts to such unlike of past instances of such acts of barbarity by Ghanaian authorities against Liberians, we are capable of mobilizing decisive reciprocal action that would signal the disapproval of Ghanaian cruelty against Liberians by the sovereign people of this country.
Other others reacted in like manner, calling on the Government to act quickly so as to appease the dependents of the Liberians that were murdered by unidentified Ghanaian police in that country at the Buduburam Camp.
Mr. John Matthias, for his part described the report emanating from the Liberian Embassy in Accra that only one Ghanaian lady was killed as a betrayal of the country and its people in that foreign land, saying that this should show to the Liberian people that the Government’s international sympathy of this Government is aimed at sacrificing the interest of Liberians internationally.
“If nothing is done about this, we will use it as a campaign tool against the Ellen Johnson Government to vote it out because international assistance should not jeopardize the interest and welfare of Liberians at home and at broad,” Mr. John Matthias added.
Accordingly, University of Liberia Students through the institutions’ student government staged a street demonstration that took them to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs where the presented a protest statement to the President threatening that Ghanaians in Liberian risked suffering similar fate in the hands of the citizens if the government did nothing to forestall recurrence of the Ghanaian police brutality.
Chronicle of the police brutality
From Buduburam, eyewitnesses on the Camp indicated that the Ghanaian police raid was reportedly executed by unidentified police who removed their identity tags from their uniforms during the raid, noting further that the police entered the camp with shooting at the unarmed Liberians.
Other accounts said some corpses were nicodemusly taken away to unknown destinations apparent to erase evidence, noting that those bodies that were visible to the public and accounted for were all shot from their backs, an indication that they were shot deliberately by the Ghanaian police while escaping police brutality. A phone call by the Liberian resident on the Buduburam Camp, Decontee Pannoh, who called on a local Liberian radio from Ghana, alleged that officers of the Ghanaian Police Service were gunning down Liberians. She put the number of instant deaths at four Liberians in the wake of a leadership debacle between two Liberians groups over control of a welfare council, and said that the panic created by the despicable melancholy droved the Liberians indoor. Decontee noted that she was making the call from indoor at Buduburam.
The news that sent chills into the spines of most Liberians brought to memory past Ghanaian misbehavior towards Liberians in that country without reciprocation since the Tubmanic regime, when scores of Liberians were bundled up and deported back home leaving back their possessions they amass in their life to Ghanaians that had coveted and took over them.
Decontee, from the Liberian refugee camp, further explained that the Liberians on the camp had elected one Joseph Sambullah to Head them. She said on that Sunday, April 13 was a scheduled date for the installation of the elected officials.
But she noted that surprising, she discovered the massive movement of Ghanaian police on the Camp well-armed, shooting at the unarmed crowds of Liberians - killing four persons instantly.
She did not disclose their identities; she however noted that the act of the police caused panic amongst the refugees who were forced indoors for fear of their dear lives. Latter calls established that the police went firing at the Buduburam Camp hosting more than 15,000 Liberians. According to her, several others were wounded while Decontee in one of her calls said she noticed the police were taking some of the wounded or dead to an unknown destination, apparently to conceal identities or temper with evidence.
While apprehensions were growing amongst Liberians at home as most people were glued to their radio receivers, Deputy Information Minister Jerolinmek Piah called from Ganta unofficially confirming the news. He said one Smith he called from Ghana confirmed that Ghanaian police have gone about shooting the Liberian refugees.
The Deputy Information Minister for Public Affairs who used his phone call to call for calm amongst the Liberian people explained that he was told the Ghanaian police went into the camp armed, and that it was his information that they went shooting at the Buduburam.
Piah said he was told that one person was reported dead instead of the claim of four by Decontee, noting that the Government was making contact with the Liberian Embassy in Accra to give an official account. He said the Ghanaian Police entered the Camp amidst confusion over the leadership of a welfare oriented group which reports named as Jahred.
Police brutality: A condemnable act
In a CNN account, Ghanaian police spokesman Kwesi Ofori said the police were called in to quell what he referred to as “disturbances” between two rival factions on the camp, both of whom were claiming legitimacy to the camp’s leadership. Ofori noted that the Ghanaian police entered the camp while one of the factions was trying to install its leadership and added that 30 persons were arrested. This account did not mention the number of deaths, while eyewitness account puts the number of Liberian arrested at 60
The Liberians arrested were bundled into the Cape Coast Prison where Ghanaian security officials are using them to solicit bribe from relatives under the pretext that they would free them once the bribe of US$250 equivalent in Ghana cedi was proffered.
The matter was already taken to court where the Liberians at the Cape Coast Prison were paraded before a Court in that country, but the matter was reportedly adjoined for the March term of Court.
But a broadcast on Vibe FM near Accra in Ghana located a Ghanaian national, Code named 919 made it clear the Ghanaian police had indeed killed Liberians and that he has a video tape he was willing to release to the FM station’s management.
The Buduburam Refugee Camp
The Buduburam Camp was used to harbor Liberian refugees who fled the country at the height of the Liberian civil war. The area was said to be a forbidden forest given to the Liberians refugees, and reports indicated that the refugees have development the camp to a modern urban community booming with life and interest to the envy of insolent Ghanaians who thought the areas could not be the way it was being developed by the Liberians.
Buduburam has therefore become a modern Liberian refugee community until when the Ghanaian Refugees Council announced the end of Liberian refugee status in that country in 2007, forcing the Liberians to controversially return home amidst security brutality ordered by Ghanaian Interior Minister then, Mr. Kwamenah Barteh, who claimed that women that were protesting for their just repatriation packages demonstrated naked thereby warranting the security brutality meted to the Liberians before their deportation.
The Women were then protesting against US$500 package provided each of them instead of US$1,000 the refugees said they should have been given to either return home of travel to third country for refuge.
Since then, they remaining more than 15,000 Liberians that built modern structures at the camp sought integration into the Ghanaian Society, and have further been developing the camp for their convenient habitation, reports from Ghana noted.
Since then, the Liberians have been living in peace until Sunday, February 13, when the Ghana Police raided the camp.
History of Ghanaian attacks
It can be recalled that Ghanaian authorities, during the regime of President William V. S. Tubman in the 1940s, unjustifiably bundled Liberians fishermen, mostly of the Kru tribe, like cargo and deported them – leaving back their real estates and other personal properties they amassed over the years in that country.
Noticing reciprocation of the Ghanaian cruelty towards Liberians, Ghanaian in Liberian demonstrated against their government to avert reciprocal eventualities.
Although the Li9berian government under Tubman did nothing about that, most of the deportees died at home out of frustration.
The Ghanaian cruelty towards Liberians repeated itself during the Samuel Doe regime in the 1980s when Liberians were massively bundled and deported from Ghana for no justifiable reason with the Liberian Government remaining silent on the matter.
Similar attacks were carried out during the Ellen Johnson Administration, the latest been at the command of the Ghanaian Minister of Interior Kwamenah Barteh in 2007/2008, which only left the refugees at the mercy of the UNHCR as the government’s action was again passive.
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