Rawlings To Appear Before NRC

...Victor Smith rebuffs self-imposed exile
THE DIRECTOR of Public Affairs of the Office of the ex-President, Mr. Victor Smith, has stated that Mr. Jerry John Rawlings may appear before the National Reconciliation Commission (NRC) in public in order to clear his name. In reaction to a widely speculated notion in the media that Mr. Rawlings had gone into self-imposed exile, Mr. Smith dismissed the assertion, saying the ex-president had been away for the past three months attending to private businesses and had given public lectures in The Hague (Netherlands) on the high prevalence of HIV/AIDS on the same platform with the ex-President of Zambia, Kenneth Kaunda.

The Special aide made this observation to The Chronicle in reaction to some schools of thought that the ex-President should appear before the NRC to testify on various allegations of human rights violations made against him by witnesses who had appeared before the commission.

Additionally, he indicated that ex-president Rawlings was the guest of honour at the Independence Day celebration in Niger on the invitation of the Niger President and had also been on the Voice Of America (VOA) interviews.

Media reports have stated that the NRC had prepared a subpoena awaiting the former president since all efforts to get him to appear before it had proved futile.

But, Mr. Smith said the subpoena would be “looked into” when Mr. Rawlings arrived back home next month.

Repudiating the claims that the ex-president had gone into self-imposed exile in an attempt to buy time and escape appearing before the commission, Mr. Smith said the ex-President had never refused to respond to the commission’s calls.

According to him, the Kufuor government- sponsored agenda through the NRC, was aimed at maligning the ex-president and his family.

“Rawlings has never said he will not appear before the commission but he is of the view that the commission is of a Kufuor government- sponsored programme to destroy him.” He said what was happening at the commission in respect of Mr. Rawlings was nothing but a “tele-guided platform by some disgruntled people”.

“If the former President would appear before the commission, it would be public but not in camera as others are suggesting” he emphasized.

He said the ex-President responded in a letter to the commission on June 5, 2003 in respect of allegations leveled against him by Corporal Mathew Adabuga and noted that it was unfortunate for people to suggest he was a coward and was buying time outside the country. “Rawlings is the most brave person I have ever seen, he is not afraid of anything as others claim.”

In his statement to the NRC Mr. Rawlings wrote: “I wish to state that I have not committed or ordered any human rights violations. On the contrary, colleagues and I have on several occasions gone to great lengths and taken great risks to curb excesses as well as punish those who violated the rights of others.

“Adabuga’s government-sponsored and coached fabrications are not only false and vicious but indeed very despicable.

The NRC has not only allowed disgruntled characters to use the platform of the commission to tell very serious lies about me, it has also allowed such characters to use very disparaging and malicious language to malign me and my family.”