CSOs condemn police, military brutalities in Prestea

Nine Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) have condemned the unleashing of the Military and the Police to brutalize the people of Bondaye and Prestea in the Western Region to further the interest of Golden Star Resources (GSR), a multinational gold mining company.

In a press statement copied to the Ghana News Agency (GNA), the CSOs said: “We condemn the use of force on unarmed community people that have characterized many Public Hearings and specifically condemn the brutalization of the Bondaye community people by the Police and the Military acting on behalf of the Golden Star Resources (Bogoso/ Prestea) Mine.

“We are saddened that the militarization of mining communities, which used to be predominant some time ago, is coming back, 20 years after constitutional democracy.

“We call on the Environmental Protection Agency, the Minerals Commission and other regulatory agencies to take immediate steps to operationalise the Free Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) clause contained in the ECOWAS Directives on the Harmonization of Guiding Principles and Policies in the Mining Sector ratified and gazetted by the government of Ghana.

“The FPIC requires companies to seek the consent for mining projects from community people in an atmosphere that is free from intimidation during the decision-making processes with the local people and based on adequate information on the project before granting environmental permits and mining leases to companies. This is the only way to reduce and prevent conflicts in mining communities,” the CSOs said.

Community members protesting against the extension of mining activities to their backyard were on Tuesday September 3, 2013 brutalized when the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) decided to hold a public hearing before granting a permit to the mining company.

Four community members - Sumaila Fuseni; Kwame Amankwa; Nyamoah (Okele) Douglas Kofi and Dominic Nyame, all of Concern Citizens Association of Prestea, a local non-governmental organization fighting to protect community rights, were injured, arrested and put before court for daring to protest the extension of mining activities to their backyard..

The people of Prestea, Himan and its environs have waged a very consistent struggle against the Plant North Pit operations of Golden Star Resources for about a decade. The people opposed the establishment of the Plant North Pit, which was in Prestea Township and, very close to the Prestea Hospital and the Neil Stevenson Park.

The people complained that mining in Prestea would lead to the destruction of buildings and then create noise and air pollution. They expressed their concerns in the public hearing by the EPA on 22nd October 2002, which ended in confusion.

The EPA went ahead and granted the Company the environmental permit to undertake the mining operations, which brought untold hardships to the people including the dumping of mine waste about 50 metres from the Prestea Hospital; the destruction of 14 bungalows and the Senior Staff Club House of the defunct Prestea Goldfields Limited; the spring water of Prestea and televisions and other electrical gadgets belonging to the people because of the intensity of blasting.

Among the sad and unfortunate incidents associated with the Plant North Pit operations of Golden Star Resources was the fate suffered by Joyce Oboako, who was thrown off her bed to the ground by the intensity of blasting at the Plant North Pit in 2003 causing her to suffer brain damage when she was about six months old. Joyce Oboako has become mentally retarded and cannot walk properly as a result of the incident.

The people of Prestea and Himan bear the scars of the pain of the Plant North Pit to date and it was, therefore, natural that communities such as Bondaye that are so familiar with the problems caused by the Company in its Plant North operations would not easily welcome such an irresponsible mining operations, which have left in its trails legacies of human pain in the first phase of its Plant North Pit operations.

Now the Company wants to extend its operations to cover communities such as Bondaye and Mbease Nsuta without adequately addressing the problems of the Plant North Pit. The EPA planned a Public Hearing at Mbease Nsuta for the Beta Boundary South Mbease Nsuta Project, which is the second phase of the Plant North Pit operations of Golden Star Resources (Bogoso/ Prestea) Mine.

To intimidate the people at the public hearing the Company and EPA arranged for a heavy Police and Military presence to suppress any dissent from the communities in order to gain consent and social acceptability.

In the course of the exercise the four community members from Bondaye were brutalised by the Police and the Military without any provocation claiming that they were “galamsey” operators opposed to the mining operations.

The Bondaye Area Council, Prestea Urban Council, Mr. Kwasi Blay, Member of Parliament for Prestea - Huni Valley, NGOs, CBOs and some of the community members, boycotted the public hearing organised by EPA.

Despite the community and public opposition to the project the Company has been able to force its way to gain consent for the project. This is in clear violation of the FPIC clause contained in the ECOWAS Directives.

The CSOs are: Wacam; Centre for Environmental Impact Analysis (CEIA); Center for Public Interest Law (CEPIL); Youth For Action Ghana; Concerned Citizens Association of Prestea (COCAP) and Centre for Social Impact Studies (CeSIS).

Others are; Humanity Focus Foundation; Gender and Environmental Monitoring Advocate and Western Region Development Network of NGOs (WERENGO).