Anglo Gold Ashanti Compensates Victim of Military Brutality

Accra, April 26, GNA - Anglo Gold Ashanti (AGA) after the intervention of WACAM, human rights and environmental mining advocacy nongovernmental organisation and CEPIL, a non-profit law firm, has compensated Mr Anthony Baidoo, whom the Military it hired brutalised in February 2006.

The Company had gone to hire the Military to prevent peasant farmers of Teberebie in the Western Region of Ghana from using a short route around its Waste Rock Dump to their farms, and in the course of performing that function shot Mr Baidoo, 52.

According to a medical report, Mr Baidoo suffered multiple fractures of the femur that has resulted in the shortening of his right leg by six centimetres and thus now hobbles in his gait. The negotiations - which were carried out under the Alternate Dispute Resolution Mechanism and had Mr John Opoku, a Legal practitioner as the Mediator - agreed on the payment of a tidy sum of money in addition to being responsible for the educational expenses of the only child of Mr Baidoo to the tertiary level.

Mr Baidoo expressed his gratitude to WACAM and CEPIL for their support and Mr Poku for the able manner in which he handled the negotiations and said he was very happy with the outcome. Mr Augustine Niber, Executive Director of CEPIL, said: 93It was good that the Company agreed to settle the matter. As Lawyers for the victim, we are happy with the outcome of the settlement. We were particularly impressed by the mutual respect that was exhibited during the negotiations process and believe that if the same spirit is extended to the communities, there would always be healthy company-community relations to prevent incidents of this nature from recurring."

Mr Daniel Owusu-Koranteng, Executive Director of WACAM, noted that though; 93it is impossible to value human life in monetary terms, we are satisfied with the outcome of the negotiations. It is our hope that the Company would learn to respect the rights of host communities to avoid causing irreparable harm to innocent people". Mr Poku commended the parties for opting for ADR, saying: 93We have been able to reach an agreement on this difficult case to the satisfaction of Mr Baidoo; Anglo Gold Ashanti; WACAM and CEPIL in just about three hours; something which could have dragged on in the courts for years."