Ghana hunts for rebel recruiters in refugee camp

ACCRA, Feb. 24 — A Ghanaian military officer said on Monday a makeshift training ground had been found in a Liberian refugee camp in the West African country during a raid sparked by reports that refugees were being recruited for war.

Joseph Danquah, commander of the southern troops of the Ghana Armed Forces, said the training ground was discovered on Sunday when soldiers and police raided the Buduburam refugee camp, on the outskirts of the capital Accra.

''Some of the refugees themselves confirmed to us that it was a training and meeting place for ex-combatants and those who are trying to recruit people for wars in neighbouring countries,'' Danquah, who led the team to the camp, told Reuters.

The raid was organised to arrest suspected recruiters but the authorities failed to find the people they were seeking.

A search for firearms by police with sniffer dogs at the sprawling camp yielded just one weapon in the possession of a Ghanaian.

The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) in Ghana said on Monday it would investigate reports that Liberian refugees in Ghana were being recruited to fight in neighbouring Ivory Coast.

''We're concerned about the continued rumours of rebel recruitments and we'll follow the reports,'' Krista Zongolowicz, UNHCR spokeswoman in Accra, said.

''But so far we have no evidence or indication of systematic recruitment or training at the camp.''

Liberian mercenaries have been hired by rebels in Ivory Coast to fight President Laurent Gbagbo's troops in the war which has split the nation and left thousands dead.

The rebels say Liberians have also been recruited to fight alongside government troops in the cocoa-rich west of the country, close to the border with Liberia.

Ghana estimates the Buduburam Camp is home to about 60,000 Liberians. The UNHCR's count of registered refugees is 27,000.

Many of the refugees have lived in Ghana since the early 1990s when they fled Liberia's brutal civil war which was notorious for atrocities by all sides and left 200,000 dead.

Danquah said he had names of suspected recruiters in the Ghanaian camp, but he was not able to identify the suspects at a parade of male adults because he did not have their photographs.

''When we called out those particular names at a roll call of the able-bodied male refugees above the age of 18, they did not respond,'' he said. About 2,000 adult males who were not registered were handed over to Ghana's immigration service for questioning.

Liberian refugees in the former British colony are often blamed for armed robbery, drug-peddling and prostitution.