Accra, June 3, GNA - Mr Elvis Afriyie-Ankrah, Deputy Minister of Local Government and Rural Development has called on human rights activists to remain calm and allow the security agencies to decisively deal with miscreants who foment troubles resulting in conflicts. He pointed out that security agencies required some decorum to operate and the use of appropriate minimum force in conflict areas to restore law and order for development in those areas.

Mr Afriyie-Ankrah made the call when presenting a paper on "Management and Resolution of Conflicts" at a Conflict and Crisis Management Course (CCMC) for personnel of security agencies at the Ghana Armed Forces Command and Staff College (GAFCSC) at Teshie in Accra on Thursday. His topic was "Local Government: The Reality of Funding and the Management/Resolution of Crisis at the District Level". The CCMC is a collaboration between GAFCSC and Cranfield University of United Kingdom.

The three-week course is being attended by 90 participants, made up of 39 GAFCSC students and 51 external participants from various institutions, including Uniformed and Emergency Services.

The course is to provide participants with clear understanding of conflict and internal crisis management to enable them to work more effectively, efficiently and cohesively.

Mr Afriyie-Ankrah said human rights activists should know the miscreants they defended in order not to compromise or prejudice their activities against innocent people.

He urged personnel from the security agencies not to operate beyond their limit but should endeavour to prevent miscreants from fomenting trouble adding; "conflicts are inevitable in every human institution and the most important issue is how to manage and contain such conflicts to safeguard life and property".

"To avert conflicts and crisis, we must not ignore early warning signs but rather act swiftly to pre-empt them from occurring and act decisively when they occur," he added.

Mr Afriyie Ankrah called for the establishment of an emergency support fund for crisis and conflict management and resolution because crisis and conflict situations occurred unexpectedly. He urged government to appeal to international organisations for continuous support in times of conflicts at the local level for their resolution.

"This would ensure that resources for the development of local communities were not spent on conflict resolution to the detriment of building schools, health facilities and other social infrastructure," he said.

Mr Afriyie Ankrah enumerated several conflict prone communities and actual conflict areas saying they took a large chunk of resources which should have otherwise gone into provision of social infrastructure for development.

He called for an increase in the District Assembly Common Fund from the current 7.5 per cent to 15 per cent to ensure that Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies had enough funds to prosecute their development agenda.

Dr Vladimir Antwi Danso, Fellow of Legon Centre for International Affairs (LECIA) called on government to constantly engage the academia to manage as well as solve conflicts. He said the academia had been doing critical researches on the phenomenon.

Participants called for resourcing of security agencies to effectively manage crisis and conflict situations. They said delay in releasing funds for such purposes demoralised security personnel and had serious consequences on resolving the situation. 3 June 10