Oh Ghana! Why Liberia Again?

…A Plea with GOL to Speed Up It Account To the People

By: Bill K. Jarkloh

Oh Ghana! Why hurt Liberia Again? This my initial reaction inwardly when a phone call from one Decontee at the Buduburam Refugee camp in Ghana related the police brutality of Ghanaian officers against Liberia in the wake of a leadership crisis on the camp. This call instantly reminded me of the Liberian -Ghanaian relations that has always been reminiscent of an eye-service and usually characterize by deception punctuated by hostilities towards the people of Liberia.

Indeed, the Liberian-Ghanaian diplomacy has never continued on the path of genuine diplomacy; it has been instead marked deception on the part of the Ghanaian side to the disadvantage of Liberians resident in Ghana. This might be basically due to the ill-thoughts of some influential Ghanaians about Liberians, thoughts especially masterminded by overzealous Ghanaian bureaucrats whose selfish desire under the messy cover-up of so-called patriotism and nationalism has driven them to defying diplomatic tenets practiced around the world bilaterally or multilaterally.

Just last Sunday, February 13, while sitting by my receiver listening to gospel Liberian music, the phone call by the Liberian resident in Ghana was broadcast from Buduburam from indoor at which time the where the Caller who identified herself on the Truth FM of the Renaissance Communication Incorporated (RCI) as “Decontee Pannoh” [I stand to be corrected] alleged that officers of the Ghanaian Police Service were gunning down Liberians. She put the number of deaths at four Liberians in the wake of a leadership debacle, and said that the panic created by the despicable melancholy droved the Liberians indoor.

The news sent chills into the spines of most Liberians who were listening, for the Ghanaian authorities have always adopted hostile attitude towards Liberians, since the Tubmanic regime, when scores of Liberians were bundled up and deported back home. And so I started to think: What will the Government do this time around? I was certainly consumed in a thought pattern after the guess that: Will it be business as usual – one like the impunity and deprivation I suffer when I was never my severance benefit by the Embassy of Ghana here for whom I worked for more than four years? Will it be business as usual when even the Foreign Ministry which I ran to for protection shy away leaving my family and I economically vulnerable? Hmm!!??!!!!?????!!!!!!! Hurtful but no redress up to present

Latest police brutality
So I was glued to my radio receiver to follow the incident as Decontee, from the Liberian refugee camp, 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 54.

Be what the situation may be, armed police were not supposed to enter the camp of unarmed civilians with excessive force to the extent of killing some of the civilians. The act by the Ghanaian police is certainly uncivilized and primitive and warrants or deserves condemnation to say the least. Just listen to Ofori saying they were called in “disturbances” between two rival factions on the camp, both of whom were claiming legitimacy to the camp’s leadership. What was the extent of the “disturbances – installing leaders? What then warrant armed police shooting at unarmed civilians – for pelting at the police? What was pelted at the police – gun fire, stones, sand or water? There must be severe cause for police to shoot at unarmed civilians.

So what would the Ghanaian authorities do had they seen a gun or knife with someone at the contentious installation? Wouldn’t they unleash military delta force on the camp? Gush!!!!!!!!! My thoughts are pouring out and I can imagine the Ghanaian skinning everyone alive if there were any form of weapon play at the installation and they would justify even if they gunned everyone down amidst unimaginable proportion. Certainly, I can safely say our government would engage into for nothing diplomacy that would produce no reprimand for the offending authorities of Ghana. That is not the first time. But we will soon come to that.

In any case and giving the varying accounts related by the Deputy Mi9nister Piah, Decontee and even Ofori – the Ghanaian police spokesman on the CNN, it must be noted that the need for an official account is inevitable. It is inevitable because the explanations leave rooms for more questions than answers as to why the police used excessive and deadly force amongst the unarmed civilians. This is in fact why such is a detestable act of barbarity and primitivism that police brutality meted against the unarmed Liberians on account of ordinary leadership crisis of a refugee-based Jahred Welfare Group. The contestable installation for which they were called in does not deserve such intolerance exhibited by the Ghanaian police. The barbarity displayed by the Ghanaian against Liberians goes beyond normality of diplomacy and is against the reciprocity nature of diplomacy, for Liberians would not dare acceptable diplomatic norms to reciprocate such dreadful police brutality against Ghanaians in Liberia.

Past offense still afresh
But this is not the first time the Ghanaians have acted hostile and intolerable towards Liberian refugees. Minds are still afresh when the Ghanaian authorities ruthlessly dealt with refuges who were protesting for higher benefits to either go to a third country or return home, when the Ghanaians announced the end of the country’s official accommodation of the Liberian refugees in 2007/2008. At the time, the crime of the Liberians was to advocate for a US$1,000 package when they were being given US$500 to return home.

The Ghanaian refugee council insisted on their package, and a peaceful sit-in protest action was turned sour for the Liberian refugees who were given security attacks. The result was a diplomatic feud that involved intensive bureaucratic negotiations when Liberians at home were rising to reciprocate drastically the Ghanaian ruthlessness. These things are usually masterminded by some heartless Ghanaians, whose naivety and so-called patriotism yields nothing but diplomatic rivalry and conflict between the two countries peoples. I can safely say Ghanaians of such nature have even attempted to do or have done same in our own country. I remember a Ghanaian who told me, “How many Ghanaians your Liberian Embassy in my country employ; here you are heavily paid by us…” This statement I will never forget, and will always come to mind whenever I notice some self-centered Ghanaians misbehaved towards my countrymen, here at home or even abroad. This is because Ghanaians alone do not harbor the sense of nationality, we Liberians - irrespective of our civil conflict – cherished mother Liberia and her beautiful daughters and handsome sons.

But one thing that that is at stake is that our government – the Government of Liberia – is overly lenient on these matters. For each time Ghanaians behave cruelly towards a Liberians or group of Liberians, our authorities that should have given provided security reneged on its responsibility to the Liberian victim/s of abuses from some Ghanaians. Oh yes! Liberian officials are always bent on the back. I am a victim – a Liberian who worked selflessly for the Republic of Ghana here in Liberia for more than four years, whose services were terminated under a no-money cover-up and was never paid his benefits – some five thousands United States dollars while the Foreign Ministry of Liberia which was run to for redress remained idle, living my family and I in an economically vulnerable turbulence for about a year. Today the Ghana Embassy still has my money and my effort with Liberian Foreign Ministry for redress is to no avail as though there are no laws covering such matters.

Someone will say he is bitter against the Ghanaians because of his money! I will say yes. But my bitterness did not lead the despicable Ghanaian police to killing unarmed Liberians, leaving their dependents in destitute last Sunday. No! It was not my bitterness that witch-hunted Liberians in Ghana and bundled peaceful protesting refugees in Ghanaian police cells where they are treated like sub-humans. I say No! it was not my bitterness that killed a Liberian on the Budumbura Camp which moved Liberians protesting at some in few years ago.

Most Ghanaians do not understand the contemporary world of interdependence. They fail to understand the culture of intermarriages that have sociologically swept across the globe. They refused to acknowledge the fact that while there are Liberians in Ghana; Ghanaians too are in Liberia enjoying the warm hospitality of the Liberian counterparts. So what is the problem?

While I may be tempted to runn a series on the Liberian-Ghanaian relations, the Ghanaian’s stance against Liberians and the Government of Liberia’s posture in this Ghanaian mishap perpetrated against Liberians. But for now, I am calling on the Liberian Government not to sweep this latest Ghanaian police brutality under the carpet. This because Liberians should not always be at the disadvantage of this so-called relationship, for whatsoever good the Ghanaian deserve here, Liberians deserve it there; whatever favor or Ghanaians rendered Liberia, Liberia was the first to help Ghana out from colonialism. Bedsides we are all brothers and sister of grandma Africa mother Africa and should be able to treat each other as such.