Another shooting incident at AngloGold Ashanti Obuasi Mine

Accra, Aug. 12, GNA – There has been another shooting incident at the AngloGold Ashanti Obuasi Mine during which 23-year-old Kwame Eric of Binsere, near Obuasi, was shot by a detail of a private security organisation engaged by the Company.

He was shot at the South Tailings Storage Facility near Dokyiwa Village on Wednesday, August 10, at approximately 1930 hours.

A release signed by Mr John Owusu, General Manager, Public Affairs of AngloGold Ashanti, Ghana, said: “Initial reports suggest that a group unlawfully entered the South Tailings Storage Dam area and an employee of Ghanatta Security Services, a private firm under contract with Obuasi Mine, allegedly discharged a firearm hitting a 23 year old man from Binsere in the back.”

The release said: “Following the shooting, the injured man was taken to Government Hospital in Obuasi by colleagues. AngloGold Ashanti subsequently provided medical assistance from the Company’s hospital in Obuasi and transported the injured individual by Company ambulance to Kumasi Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital. AngloGold Ashanti has arranged for specialist care, is committed to bearing the full costs of treatment, and is closely monitoring his condition.”

It said: “The incident was immediately reported to the Obuasi Central Police Station for further investigation, and the Municipal Commissioner for Human Rights and Administrative Justice has been briefed on the case.”

According to the release Mr Kwesi Enyan, Managing Director of the Obuasi Mine, has said: “We are committed to helping this individual recover and we sympathize with him and his family as they go through this trying situation. AngloGold Ashanti remains committed to ensuring that all employees, security companies, and all other contractors working with us, respect human rights and conduct themselves in full compliance with our policies, protocols and guidelines.”

Commenting on the incident, Mr Daniel Owusu-Koranteng, Executive Director of Wacam, a human rights and mining advocacy non-governmental organization, told the Ghana News Agency in Accra that AngloGold Ashanti should be held fully responsible for what has happened.

He condemned the act and said the Company has signed on to the Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights, which stated that companies that employed the services of security agencies were liable to their actions that violated human rights.

Mr Owusu-Koranteng said it was illegal for private security agencies to carry firearms and must act in accordance with internationally recognized human rights protocols, adding; “mining companies in Ghana are taking the laws into their own hands and perpetrating the jungle law of instant justice instead of strengthening the rule of law in the country”.

He recalled the shooting of Mr Awudu Mohammed by a team of security personnel made up of the Company’s Security and the Police at Sansu, near Obuasi in 2005, in which the intestines of the victim gushed out.

Mr Owusu-Koranteng said Mr Mohammed had since undergone three surgical operations and has been rendered incapable of working to earn a living and carried a tube in his urinary tract.