"NGOs" to Demonstrate Against Rawlings Today

Public criticism and condemnation that greeted former President Jerry Rawlings's June 4 lecture deepens as the Coalition for the Defence of Democracy, a broad league of NGOs and pro-democracy groups say they will embark on a peaceful demonstration on Tuesday, June 12 in the capital, Accra.

The demonstration is in protest of what they perceive as "the divisive and dangerous politics of former President Rawlings and his threats against our growing democracy."

The group loosely described as victims of June 4 is made of Ghanaians who claim to have suffered various atrocities and human right abuses as a result of the June 4 1979 revolt.

The Coalition also includes Peace-Seekers International, an NGO of "torture victims of the PNDC" and those who claim they were forced into exile by the reign of terror and repression "of the great usurper regime."

Both groups held press conferences earlier to speak about the various alleged atrocities they suffered under the Rawlings regime. They also expressed their appreciation to Parliament and the government for expunging June 4 from the nation's calendar as public holiday.

The Coalition told a press conference that the peace march will seek to send a message loud and clear to the forces of "repression and darkness in Ghana, as the international community, that we have had enough of the Rawlings phenomenon, which has brought us nothing but poverty and misery."

The Coalition says it prefers a Rawlings instigated "HIPCed economy" and democracy to the constantly promised and constantly betrayed Rawlings utopia.

"Twenty years of Rawlings has brought out both the best and the worst in the man. Whilst his worst has at best been satanic, his best has not been good enough. It is time therefore for the nation to rise, and as one man, say to Rawlings and his accomplices, ENOUGH is ENOUGH", the Coalition says.

The Coalition has called on such organised groups as the Trades Union Congress (TUC), National Union of Ghana Students (NUGS), Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), Market Women Association, Lawyers, Doctors and others to join them in the demonstration.

Rawlings has come under intense criticism from the government, political parties and the general public for descending heavily on the President and some members of the government.

Some former ministers have explained that the former president has no intention of subverting the Constitution, adding the speech might have been misconstrued. Others however think that Rawlings must take back seat now and act as an elder statesman and a former president.

Meanwhile, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) says the remarks of the former president also contain elements designed to encourage the masses to destabilise the government and make the country ungovernable.

Party Chairman, Samuel Odoi-Sykes said in a statement that the June 4 Uprising, to majority of Ghanaians, was a rueful day best forgotten since it ushered in a period of three months of sorrow and anguish.

"Mr. Rawlings must know from the conduct and results of the last elections that Ghanaians whether in the Armed Forces or civil society, want to live in peace and freedom in a constitutional order, even if they are poor", Odoi-Sykes said.