Talking Drums

The West African News Magazine

The Refugee Drama

Mercy Oppong

Both the New York Daily News and the New York Times of April 28th, carried a sad, even if bizarre, story about a Ghanaian youth that needs to be recalled here.

The stories said that a 17-year-old Ghanain youth, identified as Michael Odametey had jumped from a cargo ship to a tugboat in New York Harbour and demanded political asylum from the United States authorities, claiming it was unsafe for him to return to his own country.

According to the newspaper report, Michael Odametey was a stowaway on a cargo ship 'Columbo Maru' and "his leap to freedom" occurred when the cargo ship was pulling out of Pier 88 in Port Elizabeth, N.J. and was about to be released to open waters by the tugboat Dorothy Moran, when he jumped, Odametey was reported to have handcuffs dangling from his right arm.

This story was taken up at a recent press conference in New York by the United Front for the Liberation of Ghana. Said the General Secretary of the Front: "Now, how does one explain why a 17-year-old boy decides to leave his parents and country, at first a stowaway and then secondly, risk his life by jumping from a ship all the way down into a tugboat?"

The Front then offered an answer to its own posed question: "the story of Michael Odametey is the story of Ghana, the odyssey of Michael is the odyssey of Ghana and Ghanaians, what prompted him to risk his life in these circumstances, redolent of Hollywood make-believe movies, is a microcosm of what is happening in Ghana right now. How all those oppressed people in Ghana wish they could follow young Michael's steps and jump off the sinking ship of state".

The United Front then expressed the view that the Immigration and Naturalization Services "should not take Michael's case as that of one fired by temerity of youth, nor consumed by maritime adventure, engaging in acrobatics, but that it should be seen as representing a whole nation being strangled by men of sadistic mien. We wish that his application for political asylum, and similar requests by other Ghanaians, be granted on humanitarian grounds."

From the dramatic events of New York Harbour and the equally dramatic language of the general secretary of the United Front for the Liberation of Ghana, we should shift our attention to a recent press conference in Accra. Star speaker was David Kwasi Aboagye, said to be a 34-year- old Ghanaian from Juabeng, Ashanti. What he had to say was about as dramatic as the events in New York Harbour.

The general import of his statement was that contrary to reports of his death through having been shot dead by a soldier as published in a West German newspaper, he was still very much alive.

Aboagye recounted a saga worthy of a bestseller. He was deported from West Germany after his application for political asylum had been rejected and arrived in Ghana in November 1983. He admitted writing to his friends in Germany a letter about his impressions on arrival. . . "it is hell in Ghana, and they kill like animals and they also lynch" which letter was taken by his friends to the newspaper and published.

A second letter signed by a Margaret Owusu to Germany said that Aboagye had been killed by soldiers on his arrival in Ghana.

This letter also published in the newspaper predictably raised an outcry against the German authorities for having deported somebody back to a country where there was persecution only for the person to be killed on his arrival!

Obviously, no government likes to be accused of repression and more so by the international community and perhaps even more seriously when many western nations claim to link aid to human rights, the PNDC seized the opportunity to get the maximum mileage out of it.

Mrs. Valerie (harmless middle-aged lady) Sackey, the Acting Head of Castle Information at the Castle, Osu who organised the press conference - attended by "both local and international journalists" according to the People's Daily Graphic - went to great lengths to emphasize what calumny and lies had been made against the PNDC by Ghanaians living abroad.

The impact this press conference was meant to have is obvious. The stories being told about terror are not true - here is somebody said to have been shot dead by soldiers, very alive; he has admitted writing a letter in which he lied about conditions in Ghana!

Those who have been asking for political asylum are like David Kwasi Aboagye whose story has been shown to be false therefore there is no basis for others to seek political asylum. Ghana is fine, thank you very much.

It is most reassuring that when the story first broke about somebody having been shot by soldiers, the Ghana Embassy did not feel confident enough to issue a statement telling the German public that such things do not happen in Ghana.

There are many people who live in Ghana or have visited the country in recent times whose descriptions of conditions there are much more picturesque than "it is hell, they kill like animals and they lynch".

Back in the early days of the revolution, the late Mrs. Cecilia Koranteng-Addow advised a friend of hers to try and leave the country because it was not safe for her (the friend had been "relieved of her post with immediate effect" on the radio) she did not consider herself at any risk, and it is not unlikely that if she had left Ghana at that time, she would have had a most difficult time convincing any Refugee Council that she was in danger.

Some three months after she encouraged her friend to leave (which advice was gratefully taken) Mrs. Koranteng Addow was abducted and murdered!

The deaths of the judges signaled the exodus by the lawyers and judges. This was the time when the newspapers launched a frontal attack on the "professionals". There are very few countries in the world where confidential files from the Inland Revenue Department are published in newspapers and a particular profession is identified as subversive and guilty of tax evasion. There are those among them who have wearied of the arbitrariness of military rule and the unpredictable nature of the regime and have therefore left the country.

But the problem about the Ghanaian refugees becomes acute when the people do not belong to the identifiable "possibly at risk" groups, when they are not judges, lawyers, journalists or successful businessmen or any of the groups that have at one time or the other invoked the rage of either the PNDC or the revolutionary organs.

The dilemma that faces the authorities in the countries in which Ghanaians are seeking asylum is: does the Ghana situation put this particular person at risk?

The problem really is that there is no order in the madness that has engulfed Ghana. It is the very arbitrary and random nature of the violence that puts everybody at risk. The gentleman who was shot in the petrol queue by a soldier last year had possibly never expressed a political opinion in his life, but then it cannot be denied that it is the general political situation that makes such unnecessary deaths possible.

Undoubtedly, the economic situation in Ghana has contributed in some measure to some people leaving the country and it is fair to recount that the exodus started before the advent of Flt.-Lt. Rawlings and his revolution. The over one million Ghanaians who were thrown out of Nigeria last year hardly belonged to the "political refugee" category and West Germany had been having problems with illegal immigrants since before the PNDC. Sometimes with hilarious stories going back and forth. During the periods when there were no political prisoners in Ghana, it was easy for both the German and Ghanaian governments to repudiate any such claims easily.

But right now, it will be a brave person indeed who will state that disagreement with the PNDC is not a particularly risky undertaking. Flt-Lt. Rawlings is on record as having denied that people who disagree with his government are dealt with ruthlessly. Said he: "the picture is further confused by cases where someone has committed an offense, and also happens to disagree with our policies. The penalty for the offense has sometimes been presented as a penalty for disagreement”.

The case of Mike Adjei, John Kugblenu and the "recently released on health grounds", Tommy Thompson hardly bear the Flight Lieutenant's argument. He has been unable to state what "offense" has been committed by the journalists, the penalty however has meant almost a year's incarceration and they were known to have disagreed with the PNDC.

It is difficult to find a single person who has disagreed with the PNDC and has said so openly who has not been or is not currently in jail. For some curious reason, all those who disagree with the PNDC seem to have become prone to offenses...

But whether political, economic or simply personal, it has become clear that there is a situation in Ghana that has made the country singularly unattractive to its citizens.

Within the past two years something like 80 per cent of the Foreign Service officials who have been recalled from their postings abroad have refused to go back.

Those who want to see a deliberate method of oppression before they recognise the terror as official are asking for the impossible. The regime's strongest card lies in the random nature of who the next target will be.

There is an unnatural situation in Ghana, it is bound to breed equally bizarre situations in which a few will seek to profit.
Stranded Ghanaian refugees at the Ghana-Togo border and a few lucky ones are happy to be leaving in a haulage vehicle


Next A Catalogue of Horrors





talking drums 1984-06-04 what makes people leave Ghana - nigeria trials changing the rules in midstream