Socialist Forum Rejects Non-Surrender Deal

The Socialist Forum of Ghana has categorically rejected the decision of government to enter into a non-surrender agreement with the United States Government.

It said, “We unhesitantly call for mass mobilisation to demonstrate to the world that the people of Ghana are peace-loving and reject all forms of impunity and to force a reversal of the agreement.”

This was contained in a statement issued with the United States on behalf of the forum at the weekend in reaction to government’s decision last week to enter into an immunity agreement.

The statement said Ghana was one of the first countries to sign the Rome Statute on July 18, 1998 and ratified it on December 20, 1999. It said as a signatory to the statute, Ghana had undertaken not to shield or protect any individual against whom charges of genocide, crimes against humanity or war crimes have been made.

It said it was on this basis that the government announced earlier this year that if it had received a proper notification of the indictment from the Sierra Leone International Criminal Court, it would have handed former Liberian President Charles Taylor over for investigation and trial.

The statement said in breach of the clear terms of its treaty obligations, the Kufuor government, on July 1, 2003, illegally signed an immunity agreement with the US which was done without public discussion or parliamentary approval.

It said the fact of the deal was kept secret from many members of government itself and it was only through publications on the Internet by groups such as Amnesty International and International Social Watch that civil society in Ghana learned of “this shameful sell out”.

The statement said by signing the agreement, the Kufuor administration had put Ghana in breach of its international obligations under the treaty and undermined the effectiveness of its own representative on the International Criminal Court.

It stated that the US is not an important bilateral donor. “The total value of military support that the US might withhold if we had refused to sign the impunity agreement is a paltry $4 million,” it added.

The statement observed that comparing the support that the countries that support the Rome Treaty provide to Ghana’s economy, the US support is not significant. It said the purpose of US military support is not protection of Ghanaians but their integration into dependency on the US military.

“It is increasingly obvious that as the US position in Western Asia weakens, it seeks to dominate West Africa which is becoming an important oil province and that some of the destabilisation that the sub-region is already witnessing reflects the deepening US interest to challenge existing power relations. Ghana is far better off without US military support,” it said.

The statement said the position threatened the country’s sovereignty and constitutional stability and, therefore, called on Ghanaians not to accept the immunity agreement.