WACAM blames AGC for human rights abuses

Accra, Aug. 21, GNA- The Wassa Association of Communities Affected by Mining (WACAM) on Thursday spoke against the alleged assaults and murders of "galamsey" suspects by the Ashanti Goldfields Company (AGC) Limited over the years.

WACAM also accused AGC security men of releasing guard dogs on "galamsey" suspects after they have arrested them, leading to the death of some of the victims.

Mr Owusu Koranteng, Executive Director of WACAM, who said this at a press conference organized in reaction to AGC's press conference on August 1, to deny allegations of human rights abuses levelled against the company by WACAM.

To clarify the misconceptions and distortions about the issue, WACAM brought some of the relatives of the dead and "surviving" victims from Obuasi Sansu to tell their own stories.

He said although WACAM did not support illegal small-scale mining activities on the concession of AGC, "we strongly deplore the way some large scale mining companies like AGC take the law into their hands and brutally assault galamsey suspects".

"If AGC goes to great lengths to defend these actions of brutalizing suspects, then we are getting into a jungle law situation where might is right," he added.

Mr Kwaranteng said an independent investigation by their Fact Finding Mission showed that all those found dead at the concession, were brutalized by the AGC security men, police and military men.

He said it was amazing that AGC's explanations to the brutalities were based on reports of AGC security and police, which it claimed could not be relied on because they were the perpetrators of the brutalities.

"AGC's denial of the brutalities that led to the various deaths was not supported with scientific documents like autopsy reports. In most of the deaths, autopsy which is an important legal requirement of unexplained deaths was avoided," he said, adding that this was a serious indictment on AGC.

Mr Benjamin Annan, Assemblyman for Sansu Electoral Area in Obuasi, who claimed he witnessed the arrest of Kwame Opoku who later died in the concession, alleged, "everything in Obuasi including the security agencies and the traditional rulers seemed to be an extension of AGC". Mr Annan who said he was "a graduated galamsey boy" said he was in the company of Kwame Opoku in the concession when AGC security men chased them out.

"We managed to escape arrest but our friend Kwame was arrested and we over heard him crying for help but because we were not armed to go for his rescue, we left the concession to report to his relatives." He said the following day they went to the police station and later to the AGC security where they found Kwame Opoku dead in the concession. Amos Abu, one of the victims, showed the journalists scars on his left arms, which he claimed he sustained through dog bites during his arrest by the AGC security men in March 2002.

He said he is now partially blind in the right eye because of the beatings he received from the guards.

Kwaku Addae, who was alleged to have been shot by the police during a demonstration, also showed his gun shot scar to the conference and appealed to the government to intervene to ensure that justice prevail. Meanwhile, the AGC has since denied all allegations of human rights abuses, saying they were gross misrepresentations and distortions of facts targeted to tarnish its corporate image.