Afrigator

Archive for July, 1998

Forum On Post-War Rehabilitation In Sierra Leone - Panafrican News Agency - 31 July 1998

Friday, July 31st, 1998

Sierra Leonean President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah has
appealed to the international community to support the West African
Peace Monitoring Group, Ecomog, in its efforts to restore security in
his country.

Addressing a UN conference on his country Thursday, the president
noted that until Ecomog is assisted in its task of restoring security,
rebel activities would continue to create more human tragedy and drain
his government’s limited resources.

Kabbah, who was restored to power 10 May by Ecomog, said the force is
experiencing logistics problems to rid his country of the rebel
elements.

The rebels, made up the Revolutionary United Front and elements of
the junta that was ousted to pave the way for the return of Kabbah, have
continued to unleash terror on the population in the east of the
country.

Kabbah told the conference that lack of funds has stalled efforts to
mobilise additional forces from other sub-regional countries to boost
the strength of Ecomog so it can deal with the rebel offensive.

“There is thus an urgent need for additional material and logistics
support for Ecomog, which until now, has been sustained almost entirely
by Nigeria, assisted by Guinea and Ghana as well as the United Kingdom
and the United States of America,” he said.

According to him, while his plans for the reconstruction and long-
term economic recovery are attainable, everything would come to nothing
if the complicated problems of security are not dealt with.

But aside from the security matters, Kabbah said the poor condition
of roads, bridges and social infrastructure in his country has deterred
the progress of establishing normal life and resettling refugees and
displaced persons.

“The urgent need for continued humanitarian assistance, including
medicines, health care services and food cannot be over re-emphasised,”
he stated.

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan called on the rebels to lay down
their arms, warning that “those responsible for the atrocities and gross
violations of human rights will in time be brought to justice.”

“But for all others, this is the time to put the past behind them and
put the future first and join the process of national reconciliation,”
he said.

He welcomed the government’s plan of disarmament, demobilisation and
reintegration into society.

Army Confirms Retirement Of Top Officer - Panafrican News Agency - 31 July 1998

Friday, July 31st, 1998

The Nigerian Defence Headquarters in Lagos
has confirmed the retirement of Lt.Gen. Jerry Useni, until recently
minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.

Defence spokesman Col. Godwin Ugbo told reporters that the voluntary
retirement of Useni, 55, after 40 years in service, takes effect

Saturday.

A close confidant of the late military ruler Gen. Sani Abacha, Useni
for the past 15 years held several political appointments, including
those of military administrator of former Mid-West State of Bendel,
Quarter Master-General of the Nigerian army and Commander of the Brigade
of Guards in Lagos.

After graduating from the Nigerian Military School in Zaria in 1957,
he also had further military training in Britain and the United States.

Government Wants Size Of Ecomog Reduced - Panafrican News Agency - 31 July 1998

Friday, July 31st, 1998

The Liberian government Friday said the
Nigeria-led West African Peace Monitoring Force, Ecomog, should be
reduced in view of the current level of peace and stability in the
country.

Defence Minister Daniel Chea told reporters the government was
planning to cut down the number of security forces in the streets,
including Ecomog soldiers jointly manning checkpoints with police in the
city.

“This is to remove the fears peaceful citizens harbour against
securitymen,” he said.

“Government does not expect additional troops for Ecomog at this time
because there are little jobs for them in Liberia,” Chea said in
reaction to earlier announcement by Ecomog outgoing chief of staff Brig.
Gen. Abdul-One Mohammed that some 200 Guinean troops were returning to
Liberia.

He said government has made no request for additional troops for
Ecomog, adding that government “is not aware of the so-called Ecowas
decision announced by General Mohammed.”

Guinea was among several West African countries that contributed
troops to Ecomog but withdrew its soldiers in March after the force’s
mandate officially expired in February.

Chea said the announced by Mohammed was intended “to create confusion
in Liberia.”

The official mandate of Ecomog, sent by Ecowas in 1990 to stop the
factional fighting and mayhem and restore peace and democracy to
Liberia, expired 2 February, six months after the inauguration of an
elected president.

Chea also described as “false, misleading and unfounded,” remarks by
Mohammed that the recent status of forces agreement signed by Liberia
and Ecowas was “inconclusive and incomplete without a protocol
explaining its implementation.”

Police Disperse Peace March, Arrest More Labour Leaders - Panafrican News Agency - 31 July 1998

Friday, July 31st, 1998

Police fired tear gas canisters to disperse a
peaceful demonstration in Dakar Friday by the National Union of Free
Trade Unions of Senegal (UNSAS) to press for the release of some of
their detained colleagues.

The police also arrested a number of demonstrators who took to the
streets of Dakar late Friday afternoon calling for the release of
Mademba Sock, Secretary-General of the Electricity Workers Union
(SUTELEC) and 25 others who were arrested 20 July.

Sock was accused of having collaborated with others to sabotage
equipment of the electricity company of Senegal (SENELEC) during a sit-
down strike organised by the workers in protest of the planned
privatisation of the company.

Most parts of Dakar, the capital, and other areas of the country were
deprived of electricity for days during the strike. The SENELEC
management leter dismissed Sock and his alleged collaborators.

The government had earlier issued a statement banning Friday’s march
which was however, supported by some opposition parties. Security forces
took position in strategic points of the Dakar in anticipation of the
demonstration which was subsequently stopped, and some of the leaders
arrested.

The leader of the Party for Independence and Labour, Amath Dansoko,
described the police action as “barbarous”.

“We have today been given proof that we are in a brutal state which
is rotten inside and outside,” Dansoko told PANA.

Iba Der Thiam of the Convention of Democrats and Patriots said the
police intervention was violent beyond description.

Attorney Rates Liberian Judiciary as Rotten - Panafrican News Agency - 31 July 1998

Friday, July 31st, 1998

A prominent Liberian lawyer, Varney
Sherman, has described the judiciary and the criminal justice and legal
system in the country as “rotten.”

“The judiciary is rotten and ineffective my people, and no one trusts
us - lawyers and judges,” he told delegates attending the ongoing
national conference on the future of Liberia Thursday night.

“If any one has trust in us, then put your hand up,” Sherman asked
delegates amidst laughter and long applause.

“As you see, you don’t trust us,” he added after no one in the
audience raised a hand.

He said some of the clerks, judges and other judicial personnel “are
not qualified, have no good character, and lack moral rectitude.”

Blaming the government for doing “nothing to strengthen the
judiciary,” Sherman said: “The courts lack logistics, no stationery. You
get frustrated seeing an outdated typewriter.”

Another lawyer, Tiawon Gongloe, said “the crucial and major problem
of the judiciary is the strong influence of the executive on the
judiciary.”

Chief Justice Gloria Scott, in an earlier address to delegates,
complained about interferences in judiciary matters by the executive and
legislative branches of the government.

She also said little support was given to the judicial branch of
government, although it was one of the three equal branches of the
state.

Scott cited that only 7 percent of the 1998 fiscal budget was
allocated to the judiciary, while the executive carries the lion share
of 89 percent.

In her intervention, the president of the Association of Female
Lawyers of Liberia, Elizabeth Nouyenneh, recommended that the government
ratify and implement all international and regional human rights
conventions on the elimination of all forms of discrimination against
women.

She further recommended the scrapping of laws that place traditional
married women in Liberia in the category of chattels.

Three Killed In Rebel Attack In Southern Senegal - Panafrican News Agency - 31 July 1998

Friday, July 31st, 1998

Three persons were killed Thursday in the
southern Senegalese town of Kolda, when gunmen suspected to belong to
the rebel Movement of Democratic Forces in Casamance (MFDC), opened fire
on a commuter bus.

The Senegalese news agency reported Friday that the attack took place
at about 8.30 GMT Thursday. It said 8 other people in the bus who were
injured in the attack were receiving treatment at the Kolda health
centre.

It said the gunmen who numbered up to 50, were later tracked down by
an army patrol. An unspecified number of them were killed in a shoot-out
with the security forces, the agency added.

Insecurity, Human Rights Abuse Abound in Liberia - Panafrican News Agency - 31 July 1998

Friday, July 31st, 1998

Insecurity and frequent violations of
human rights in most parts of Liberia pose a vast challenge for
inaugural promises of President Charles Taylor one year ago to respect
the rule of law and protect those rights.

The gruesome murder of opposition politician Samuel Dokie and three
family members in November, with pointers at Taylor’s Special Security
Service bodyguards, marked the emergence of human rights’ abuse under
his administration.

Three persons tried for the murder of the Dokies were acquitted for
lack of sufficient evidence.

Since the quadruple murder, abuses of human rights through instant
flogging and harassment of persons in towns and at highway roadblocks by
government security forces, have become pervasive.

Reports of people disappearing have also appeared in local dailies,
all linked to persons working with state security forces.

In September, the press reported Liberia’s vice president, Enoch
Dogolea, ordered the flogging of a member of parliament, Sando Johnson,
for alleged failure to vacate a driveway at parliament house.

“I am taking the issue very seriously because every citizen,
including even the sweeper, should be protected by the law. We can not
have a vice president who does not respect the rights of others,”
Johnson said after the incident.

Former rebel leader Roosevelt Johnson on several times complained
that Taylor’s guards attacked his residence in central Monrovia with the
intention to kill him.

Johnson, who has repeatedly accused Taylor of recruiting and staffing
the Liberian army, the National Security Agency, the police and other
paramilitary agencies with former fighters of his defunct National
Patriotic Front of Liberia, called for the revamping of the nation’s
security apparatus “if durable peace is to return to Liberia.”

The big one came when a former member of the former Transitional
Council of State, Vamba Kanneh, told reporters state security agents
“harassed and kept surveillance” on him, after Taylor quoted a security
report implicating him in a planned coup.

Kanneh said he assured Taylor of his innocence about the alleged
plot, and rather accused state security of “misinforming the president
by branding everyone as enemy to the president.”

Taylor had earlier accused Johnson of a similar plot to unseat him.

Residents of southeastern Liberia label harassment “terror” due to
its intensity in their areas. Witnesses from Grand Gedeh county accused
a former Taylor militiaman, Gen. Coocoo Dennis, of using some “2000
well-armed bandits posing as security for his logging company to
terrorise us.”

The Liberian police, including their head, Joe Tate, have also been
accused of numerous abuses.

Several journalists, who complained of threats on their lives by the
police, have sought asylum in the United States and elsewhere in Europe.

Human rights activist Korma Bryemah in April accused Tate of ordering
his flogging and detention without charge. Taylor ordered a probe of the
charge, but refused to make the findings public.

The Commander of the West African Peace Monitoring Group, Ecomog,
Maj. Gen. Timothy Shelpidi, in April also accused the government of
violating the United Nations arms embargo on Liberia by re-arming
Liberian soldiers, Special Security Service agents and units of the
police. He questioned where the arms, which included AK-47 rifles for
police and soldiers, and even RPGs, came from.

Security is among key topics being discussed at the ongoing national
conference on the future of Liberia. Speakers, including Liberian and US
retired generals, have expressed unanimous views that restructuring the
national security apparatus must be open and transparent to deserve
public confidence.

Robert Yerks, a retired US general, told the conference the presence
of armed military personnel on the streets “poses threat and fear among
the people, and must therefore be redeployed to their barracks.”

Former chief of staff of the Liberian army, Gen. George Toe
Washington, said “the frequent wanton and heinous murders and
disappearances of citizens should stop now, because it is disheartening
for our image.”

He blamed the government for failing to exert itself to reflect that
an atmosphere of transparency exists.

“We can not be recognised as a national with all these vicious things
happening,” Washington said.

Liberian Daily News Bulletin - Star Radio - 31 July 1998

Friday, July 31st, 1998

The Ministry of Information says government is unaware of
the return of Guinean troops to Liberia.

The ministry said although government appreciates ECOMOG’s presence
in the country, it is pleased with the current level of troops. The out-
going Chief of Staff of ECOMOG told a news conference Wednesday that two
hundred Guinean troops were returning to Liberia. Their return, he said,
was to help in the capacity building process. But the Ministry of
Information in a press statement yesterday, said such issues as the
increase in ECOMOG troops is a decision of the ECOWAS leadership.

* The Budget Bureau has accused the Finance Ministry of spending
twice the amount in this year’s budget appropriated to the ministry. In
its mid-year review of the fiscal year, the bureau claimed Finance
Ministry’s actual expenditure was eighty-eight million Liberian dollars.
But the Assistant Finance Minister for Expenditure has disputed the
report. Mr. Charles Allen told a senate confirmation hearing that the
bureau has been unable to prove the figure. Finance Minister Elie
Saleeby said at a news conference that over forty-seven million
Liberians dollars was appropriated for the ministry. Out of this amount
he says, seventeen and a half million Liberians dollars have been spent.

* A team of representatives from the donor community is due to visit
Liberia soon. The team’s visit is to assess progress made by the
Liberian government in its fiscal management. Finance Minister Elie
Saleeby said the report by the team will determine the level of
assistance that donors will provide Liberia. He said the assessment
mission will be a follow-up to last April’s donors’ conference on
Liberia. The conference was held in Paris, France. A second round of the
conference is due at the end of the year. Addressing a news conference
Wednesday, Minister Saleeby said, the donor community was developing a
frame work to bring debt relief to Liberia. He noted, however, that the
implementation of any such frame work depended on Liberia’s track
record. The donor community has been insisting on marco-economic
reports, fiscal discipline and respect for human rights. They are
demanding that improvement in these areas by the Liberian government be
the basis for more funding to the country. But Minister Saleeby said if
the government’s fiscal policy is to succeed, the capacity of financial
management institutions must be strengthened.

* Liberians in the United States have demonstrated in Washington
D.C. The Liberians demonstrated to focus attention on the immigration
difficulties they are encountering in that country. They are seeking
U.S. government’s permission to allow them to adjust their immigration
status. The U.S. had set this year as the deadline for Liberians to
regularize their status or leave the country. But the Liberians are
asking for an extension of the deadline. About twenty thousand Liberians
could face deportation.

* The Ministry of Education says high schools graduating seniors
before August will not receive national exam results. The ministry said
the decision was a consensus reached with the school principals about a
couple of months ago. The ministry said it has resolved that graduation
be held after the release of this year’s national examinations results.
The West African Examination Council is expected to release the exams
results next month. Education Minister Evelyn Kandakai said she has
instructed WAEC not to release the results of schools graduating before
August. More than five seniors high schools have so far violated the
ministry’s decision. Minister Kandakai said these schools would pay a
twenty-five thousand dollars fine.

* A cross section of students from the Sinkor Assembly of God
Mission School yesterday stormed the Ministry of Education. The

students, all graduating seniors, were protesting the discrepancy in
conditions for graduation. A spokesman explained that the school
administration is accepting only students who scored sixty-eight and
sixty-nine for the enrichment program. Student Matthew Philips, however,
said this was contrary to the provision of the school’s handbook.
According to the handbook, all students who fail only one subject are
eligible to attend the program.

Under the enrichment program, extra classes are conducted for
graduating students who do not score the required grade. The students
say they see no reason why students who scored sixty-seven and below in
one subject do not quality for the program. The students described this
condition as biased and therefore unacceptable. Meanwhile, the Ministry
of Education yesterday convened a meeting to resolve the issue. The
meeting was attended by parents, teachers and Education Ministry
officials. The meeting agreed that all students who failed one subject
should attend the enrichment program.

* Sierra Leonean President Ahmed Tejan Kabbah has told a special
United Nations conference that junta and RUF rebels are still
terrorizing parts of the country. He made reference to the killing,
maiming and raping of civilians. The conference is trying to raise money
for Sierra Leone’s recover after seven years of civil war. The war has
left one million people displaced and half of that country’s
infrastructure destroyed. The U.N. Secretary General appealed to the
rebels to lay down their arms.

In Sierra Leone itself, clashes are reported to be continuing in the
northern town of Kabala between ECOMOG and the rebels. The ECOMOG
Commander in Sierra Leone, General Maxwell Khobe has announced changes
in the amnesty available to rebels who are surrendering. General Khobe
said the amnesty was still in place but rebels will now have to
surrender individually or in twos, but not in large groups. Reports say
the battle for Kabala is the most serious between ECOMOG and the rebels
in several months.

* The out-going ECOMOG Chief of Staff says the fate of RUF Foday
Sankoh rests with the government of Sierra Leone. General Abdul One-
Mohammed, however, pointed out that Nigeria would cooperate if Sankoh is
a factor in ending the war in Sierra Leone. He added that diplomatic
discussions were continuing in Nigeria and Sierra Leone in that
direction. General Mohammed said it would be in the interest of the
rebel leader to cooperate with the authorities in Freetown. He said
ECOMOG has no desire to launch a full scale war on the rebels if they
see reason to end the fighting. Meanwhile, General Mohammed says the RUF
rebels have resumed attack on ECOMOG positions in various parts of the
country. He added the rebels were still unleashing terror in eastern
Sierra Leone. They are also holding hundreds of civilians hostage in
Kailahun, Koindu and other areas bordering Liberia, General Mohammed
said.

* The National Conference continued last evening with delegates
speaking on problems affecting their various areas. Yesterday speakers
came from Grand Bassa, Grand Cape Mount, Sinoe and Grand Gedeh counties.
Vice President Enoch Dogolea, who chaired the session, said delegates
from other counties would be allowed to speak. The representative of
various townships and districts spoke of developmental needs in the
areas of commerce, education, and health. Delegates from Sinoe and Grand
Gedeh made particular reference to harassment from armed soldiers in
their areas. Meanwhile, other delegates are still complaining of not
receiving perdiems as well as poor lodging and feeding facilities. They
complained of being abandoned since President Taylor last week issued
instructions regarding their welfare.

* The Solicitor-General of Liberia yesterday paid four thousand
Liberian dollars in settlement of a fine imposed last week on him by the
senate. The senate last month cited the Solicitor-General to the Capitol

on contempt charges. Cllr. Gould allegedly ordered the detention of some
senators. In a communication to the senate, Solicitor-General Gould
apologized to the senate.

* A fourteen year-old girl yesterday drowned in the Atlantic Ocean.
The girl identified only as Kona was swept away by waves in the
afternoon at the Coconut Plantation beach. Eye witnesses told STAR radio
that Kona had gone to swim with her friends when the unfortunate
incident occurred. Kona was a resident of the car-wash community near
the Foreign Ministry in Mamba Point. This is the third person to have
drowned this year in the Atlantic Ocean near the Foreign Ministry.

* The Chief Justice Scott wants twenty-five percent of the national
budget to be allotted to the judiciary. She said the judicial branch was
allotted four percent of the nineteen ninety-eight budget. The
legislative and executive branches received seven and eighty-nine
percent. The Chief Justice said this unfair distribution of the budget
was hindering the judiciary. She said financial autonomy will ensure
judicial independence and integrity. The Chief Justice is also calling
for the establishment of a judicial commission to review nominees for
judicial appointment. She said this would help discourage interference
from the other branches of government. Chief Justice Scott was speaking
Wednesday at the National Conference on Liberia’s future.

* Police authorities in Monrovia have warned members of the force
against intimidating and harassing innocent civilians. Police Director
Joseph Tate told officers that the guns given them were intended to
protect the citizens and not to harass or intimidate them. He said such
acts would bring shame to the police force. Director Tate warned of
drastic disciplinary measures against officers caught in such acts. Mr.
Tate made the remarks yesterday during a tour of various checkpoints in
and around Monrovia. The tour was to familiarize himself with problems
at the checkpoints.

* A community development organization is offering training to
several youths in Palala, Bong County. The Palala Development
Association is training the youths in tie-dyeing and soap making. The
association’s chairman said skills acquired from the program will make
beneficiaries self- reliant. Mr. Mulbah Dolo told journalists the youths
are mostly former combatants. He said his association has appealed to
NARDA for more assistance to organize a microcredit program. NARDA, the
New African Research Development Agency, coordinates the activities of
local NGOs in Liberia.

* The sesquicentennial basketball tournament failed to continue
yesterday at the Sports Commission. The Liberian and Sierra Leonean
national basketball teams are playing in a best out of three basketball
tournament in observance of the anniversary. Liberia Basketball
Federation officials said the Sierra Leoneans could not honour the game
because of feeding problems. They said the team was denied food
yesterday by the Holiday Inn Hotel management. They told STAR radio this
was because of government’s failure to reduce its arrears to the hotel
by yesterday. The Youths and Sports Ministry and the hotel management
reportedly entered an agreement to reduce the arrears by yesterday. The
government is said to be owing Holiday Inn over eighty thousand Liberian
dollars. The LBF Acting President said two days ago the Sierra Leonean
team had planned to boycott the remaining games. Mr. Phillibert Browne
said this was due to Minister Francois Massaquoi ’s lack of hospitality
shown towards the Sierra Leoneans. In football the two countries played
to a one-all draw yesterday. Meanwhile, Sierra Leonean Ambassador
Wilfred Kanu last night saved his country’s national basketball team
from hunger.

* A Liberian diplomat says the country will only win international
sympathy and support if Liberians bury their differences and live in
peace. Ambassador George Kiadii observed that hearsay spread by

Liberians paints a bad picture of their country to the outside world.
Ambassador Kiadii is President Charles Taylor’s special envoy to the
United States on Trade and Commerce. He told STAR radio the
international community will only respond to the extent to which
Liberians sell their country. Ambassador Kiadii said all Liberians must
now forget the pains inflicted by the war and collectively decide where
to go next.

* Grand Kru Senator Thomas Nimely says government’s priority now is
to decentralize national reconstruction. He said government remains
concerned about the people’s welfare despite the many problems facing it
.Senator Nimely made the remarks at a reception he held in honor of
delegates from Grand Kru to the national conference. He pledged equal
distribution of aid intended for national reconstruction. Nimely
currently chairs the Senate’s Concession and Investment Committee.

* An American NGO has rescued over seventeen thousand displaced at
Masingbi from hunger and starvation. The America NGO, CARE, collaborated
with other charities to provide desperately needed food and medical
assistance to the displaced. Thanking CARE for its leading role,
Masingbi Paramount Chief, Kanaka Boro Sanka praised all of the charities
for their intervention. At the moment, local authorities in Masingbi say
the food situation has improved and the death rate is declining. Over
one hundred children and three hundred adults are reported to have died
over the last three months.

NOTE FOR EDITORS: Star Radio is staffed by Liberian journalists and
managed by the Swiss NGO Fondation Hirondelle with financing from the
U.S. Agency for International Development through the International
Foundation for Election Systems. Non commercial redistribution is
allowed, providing that the source is quoted and no editing other than
reformatting is made.

Ghanaian Editors Refused Bail - Panafrican News Agency - 31 July 1998

Friday, July 31st, 1998

Ghana’s Court of Appeal by a majority of 2-1
Friday, refused to grant bail to two editors jailed by the same court on
23 July for contempt.

The editors, Harruna Atta and Kweku Baako Jr., of the Statesman and
the Guide respectively, filed an appeal against their conviction and
sentence to one month each in prison.

The majority decision of the appeal court was that there was no merit
in the application. The attorney for the editors, Nana Akufo Addo, urged
the court to grant them bail since the appeal had sufficient prospects
of success.

He argued that their continued incarceration while the higher courts
are on vacation would be prejudicial to their rights.

However, Charles Hayibor, counsel for Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings,
respondent in the case, submitted that the original judgement for the
contempt case was valid and that no exceptional circumstances could
warrant the granting of bail.

He urged the court to dismiss the application because it had no
merit. The editors have appealed against their conviction to the Supreme
Court which has not fixed a date for hearing.

Rawlings Calls For Unity Of The Black Race - Panafrican News Agency - 31 July 1998

Friday, July 31st, 1998

Ghanaian President Jerry Rawlings has called
for a strong bond between Africans on the continent and those in the
Diaspora to ensure unity and progress of the black race.

“If the nations and peoples of Africa and of the Diaspora can come
together with determination to build a strong economic base, our people
can live in peace and dignity,” he said.

Rawlings was speaking Thursday at the official opening ceremony of

the First Emancipation Day celebration to be hosted by Ghana.

The nine-day celebrations, under the theme “Our Heritage, Our
Strength”, has brought together a large number of people of African
descent from the United States and the Caribbean.

Rawlings recounted the atrocities of slavery and said the sacrifices
made by Africans should spur them on to a greater sense of unity and
well-being.

“Among us, we have many complementary resources, skills and talents.
Divided, we can achieve only relatively modest gains. Together, we can
create prosperity and address the causes of poverty, ignorance and
strife,” he stressed.

The president said Africans have reached a point where they need to
rely on the potentials of one another to ensure their development.

“What we need is the commitment and the resolve, as willing
collaborators of one family, to harness our collective skills and
investments to provide a true and healthy meaning to our freedom,” he
pointed out.

“We remember the past, not in bitterness and hatred,…but in
recognition of our duty to ensure that such injustice shall never happen
again,” he added. “Shared pain and sorrow may unite us, but we have the
will and the commitment to turn it into shared hope, pride and
progress.”

Rawlings said his country is an appropriate setting for the first
celebration of Emancipation Day outside the Caribbean because it is
regarded as the centre of the slave trade and “government was
considering waiving visa requirements for Africans in the Diaspora.”

Owuraku Amofa, Deputy Minister of Tourism and Chairman of the
Emancipation Day Planning Committee, said although slavery was abolished
over a century ago, the black race is yet to be totally emancipated as
their minds are still dominated by conditions set up by their slave
masters.

“Now the black race is at a cross-roads where they will have to
decide which way they will have to take forward to regain their dignity
and ensure their progress,” Amofa said.

The highpoint of the event will be the re-burial of the remains of
two Africans, a man from the United States and a woman from Jamaica on
Friday.

The remains of Samuel Carson and Crystal from the US and Jamaica,
respectively, will be re-buried at Assin Manso, believed to have been
the last “check point” of Africans before they were shipped into
slavery.

It was at Assin Manso that the slave traders checked the “fitness” of
the Africans and bathed them in the “Slave River” (Ndonkor Nsuo) before
purchasing them for final shipment out of Africa.

Carson rose to become a naval officer in the US Navy while Crystal,
believed to have died of hunger, got her name from a crystal found on
her body.

The remains of the two were accompanied by a 30-member delegation led
by Sunny Carson, a descendant of Samuel and Minnon Philips, a Jamaican.

Amofa said the significance of the remains was to undo all the
atrocities meted out to African slaves by the Europeans.

He said the Emancipation Day should serve as a unifying bond between
Africans on the continent and those in the diaspora, adding that there

will be a yearly pilgrimage of African-Americans to Ghana to consolidate
the re-union.