Human Rights Abuses in Ghana Continues, but...

...there were no reports of politically-motivated disappearances in 2001

The US Department of State country report on human rights practices worldwide has said the Ghana government?s generally poor human rights record improved in the year 2001. The report said there were no reports of politically motivated disappearance, torture or other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment. While the report said there was significant improvement in several areas, it warned that serious problems remained in other areas.

?Police use of excessive force resulted in extra judicial killings,? the paper said, adding, ?Opposition activists claimed that government security forces engaged in harassments including unlawful searches and detentions.?

Prison conditions remained harsh, said the report, which was released by the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labour of the State Department. It also said there were credible reports that the police and some members of in the military arbitrarily arrested and detained persons.

According to the report, although members of the security forces are often not punished for abuses, the government transferred the commanding officers and members of the 64th Infantry unit, which is believed to commit many abuses. Again the report said prolonged pre-trial detention remained a problem, stressing that inadequate resources and a system vulnerable to political and economic influence compromised the integrity of the overburdened judicial system.

The report further said although government respects freedom of speech and press, there were occasional reports that government officials pressurized government media outlets to minimise coverage on opposition politicians. Unlike in previous years, the report says only one minister filed a libel suit against the media.

The report also said violence against women is a problem. Trokosi, a traditional form of ritual servitude, is practiced on a limited scale in the Volta Region while Female Genital Mutilation is still practiced in Northern Ghana. Religious differences also led to tensions and occasional clashes between different groups with some incidence of ethnically motivated and occasional clashes, while some ethnic groups complained of discrimination.

The report also cites child labour and trafficking of women and children as other human rights problems in the country?s informal sector.

In recent years, the police service in particular has come under severe criticism following incidents of police brutality, corruption, and negligence. The report said the number of deaths reportedly caused by security services increased from five in 2000 to seven in 2001. Police continued to use rubber bullets and water cannons in crowd control situations. Public confidence in the police remains low due to low perceived ability to protect the public against crime. Mobs have attacked several police stations due to perceived police inaction. Many complainof long delays in prosecuting suspects, rumours of collaboration with criminals, and vigilante activities motivated by the desire to deal out instant justice.

The Ghana Governance and Corruption survey, completed during the year, found that the police were among the ?least trusted, least effective, and most corrupt? government institutions in the country. In 1999 the presidential archer Commission issued a white paper criticizing police operations and providing specific directives as to how to address police manpower, training, and logistical needs. The Inspector General of Police (IGP) publicly acknowledged these problems and attempted to address them through training in human rights and riot control. The report detailed how a police sergeant was placed in custody in February for allegedly killing a 25-year-old man in Tamale, Northern Region, while attempting to arrest him for selling marijuana. According to a police spokesman, the suspect was killed instantly when the sergeant?s gun went off accidentally while he was struggling with the suspect. The police investigation into the incident was ongoing at the year?s end. The following month, according to the report, three persons were killed and nine were injured on March 5 in Nsoatre, Brong-ahafo Region, when police attempted to disperse residents opposed to the enstoolment of the new chief who had occupied the chief?s palace and barricaded the road with burning tires. According to witnesses quoted in press reports, the police used tear gas and shot at protesters indiscriminately, and some of the protesters who allegedly were armed returned fire. Nine persons were arrested. Local officials asked the government to conduct an investigation into the incident; however, no investigation had begun by the year?s end, the report alleged.

The report went on to describe the tragedy at the Accra Sports Stadium on May 9 and the findings of the official inquiries that followed the horrific event. Police used tear gas to control a portion of the crowd who began destroying seats and tossing them onto the field during a soccer match. In the ensuing stampede, 126 persons were crushed and trampled to death as they tried to escape the tear gas. On November 6, an official Commission on Inquiry concluded that the police overreacted to fan vandalism and should therefore bear primary responsibility for the incident. The Commission also cited negligence by the National Sports Council and the poor design of the stadium?s stairwells. The IGP testified to the Commission that the use of tear gas was uncalled for, indicating that other equipment, such as batons and water cannons, should have been used instead. Some police officers gave contradictory testimony regarding the use of tear gas at the stadium. The Commission concluded that the police who provided testimony conspired to subvert the Commission?s work through a conspiracy of silence.

The government publicly committed itself to the prosecution of the six senior police officers who gave the order to fire the tear gas; however, the police officers had not been arrested or prosecuted by year?s end, according to the report.

The report cited an incident on May 24 in Obuasi in Ashanti region, involving the beating of a 46 year old farmer by police. The man died the next day from his injuries at a local clinic. Police arrested the man on the orders of the local chief who reported that the man had not paid $3.60 (25,000 cedis) for a community electrification project. There was no further information available on the incident at year?s end, the report stated. In another suspicious incident, a 90-year-old man in Sunyani, Brong-Ahafo region, died in prison 11 days after being sentenced for defiling a 16-year-old girl. Photographs of the man in court show him held up by two policemen because he was too weak and ill to stand. The cause of death was listed as ?senile dementia.? The Sunyani Central Prison called for a review of his case; however, there was no further information available at the year?s end.

The report described how a policeman shot and killed a 27-year-old Accra Polytechnic student at Dansoman, Greater Accra on August 16. According to press reports, the student was shot after he intervened in a dispute between the policeman and cab driver; he died en route to a hospital. An initial police investigation concluded that the policeman?s gun went off accidentally during the scuffle with the driver; however, other reports claimed that the policeman was drunk at the time of the incident. The deceased student?s family and the Minister of Education called for a full inquiry into the matter. After a subsequent police investigation, the police officer was charged with murder, remanded into custody, and was awaiting trial at the year?s end. On September 2, a policeman in Aiyinase, Western Region, killed two persons and injured six others when he shot his gun at a minibus and several bystanders, according to the report. A mob quickly gathered and lynched the policeman.

A police investigation into the incident was ongoing at year?s end. The following month, an armed bank robbery suspect in Mampong, Ashanti District, died on October 16 while in custody at the Kumasi Central Prison. The suspect was one of the seven persons arrested in connection with an October 11 robbery, which resulted in the deaths of two police officers. According to a police statement, the suspect was not subject to any abuse while in custody, and the cause of death could not be determined immediately. The report stated that an autopsy was scheduled but had not been conducted by year?s end. The report alleged that many persons died in prisons due to extremely harsh conditions and lack of medical treatment.

On August 21, the attorney General?s office advised the police not to prosecute five officers who had been accused of involvement in the August 2000 killing of a bystander during a dispute between off-duty junior military officers and a bartender at an Accra nightclub. According to the Director of Public Prosecutions, there was no evidence that the five were accomplices to the crime. According to the police investigation, the gun that killed the bystander had been issued to a sixth officer present at the nightclub that evening. The officer, who was a member of the 64th Infantry Regiment, was found hanged, reportedly a suicide, within 2 weeks of the incident.

The report narrated that a driver who allegedly caused an accident in October 2000 involving the President and his wife died of unexplained causes in December 2000, while hospitalized. Four of Rawlings? bodyguards had been killed in the accident. The suspect had appeared before the Accra Circuit tribunal charged with two counts of manslaughter and negligently causing harm. The chairman of the tribunal ordered the police to take the suspect to the police hospital because he appeared ill. The Bar Association criticized the circumstances of the driver?s arrest and called for the autopsy report to be released to the public. In March the family of the deceased suspect lodged a complaint against the police with the Commission for Human rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), claiming that the victim was denied proper medical care while in custody. The hearing was ongoing at year?s end.

In November 2000, police shot and killed an alleged fuel smuggler in the Afedido in the Volta Region, according to the report. At year?s end, the investigation was ongoing as the police awaited the results of the ballistics tests. There were no developments in the investigation of the 2000 police shooting of a 23-year-old man who was sitting with friends in a cemetery in Madina, Greater Accra Region. Police investigations into the killing were ongoing at year?s end.

According to the report, there was no investigation during the year into the July 2000 killing of a young man in the Eastern region who had a history of mental illness or the April 2000 killing of a miner during a conflict between 120 military and police personnel and more than 100 men attempting to steal ore from a gold mine in Bibiani. The report stated that a former chief and more than 60 town residents were arrested in connection with the January 1999 case in which police shot and killed a farmer during a riot at Juaso in the Ashanti Region, were released on bail. The trial was ongoing at a regional tribunal in Kumasi at year?s end. In October a police officer accused of killing a passenger in a truck in August 1999 was indicted, according to the report. In July 2000, the employee of the National Security Council who allegedly shot and killed an agricultural officer in June 1999 was sentenced to death in July. His lawyers filed an appeal, and the case was ongoing at year?s end, the report stated. The report narrated another incident of possible police brutality in the February 1999 case of police who fired into a crowd at the Konkomba market in Accra and ordered that those liable be prosecuted. The IGP recommended an inquiry into the matter. The case was forwarded to the Attorney General?s Office, which advised against prosecution of the police because their actions occurred during looting by the crowd. On August 30, a police officer accused in the 1999 fatal shooting of a vendor in Soe, near Bolgatanga, Upper East Region was indicted. The report could not ascertain whether the officer was tried by year?s end. There were no developments in the investigation into the 1999 police killing of the driver of a timber truck at a police barricade in the Ashanti region town of Barekese.

Moreover, there were no further developments in the 1999 case in which police shot and killed a driver at his residence in Korpeyia, near the border with Togo, according to the report. The report detailed the Attorney General?s review of cases in 1999. During the year, the Attorney General reviewed the 1999 case of a police and military patrol team who killed two taxi passengers in Tema. The Attorney General advised the police that the evidence was inadequate to warrant prosecution on murder or manslaughter. The police have not issued any formal statement.

On August 9, the Government exhumed the bodies of three former heads of state and five senior military officers who had been executed in July 1979. Family members had requested private exhumation and proper reburial, and the Government granted the request as a humanitarian gesture, according to the report. A committee led by current senior military officers supervised the exhumation, which was witnessed only by the families and military officials. Burial ceremonies, public and private, commenced at year?s end.