After the executions...the unanswered questions
by Elizabeth Ohene
Now that Flt-Lt. Rawlings has demonstrated to all that he is an even-handed ruler by ordering the execution of two people who were close to him and had committed crimes, a few questions still remain to be answered.
The two people - Flt-Lt. Robert Kojo Lee was a close friend and Nii Amoo Addy was a close relative - had both murdered innocent people without any provocation.
A year ago, the chairman of the Provisional National Defence Council had sanctioned the execution of Joachim Amartey Kwei for the murder of the three High Court Judges and retired Army officer.
It can thus be said for Flt-Lt. Rawlings that he does not allow con- siderations of friendship or family to weigh too heavily on him and he is setting a good example in eschewing the evil of nepotism.
It is unfortunately, however, not enough that Flt-Lt. Rawlings is able and willing to execute his friends and relations who commit crimes, somebody must bear the responsibility for those people having been put in positions they could not handle in the first place, and for which they had no qualifications nor aptitude.
How did Nii Amo Addy become a member of the Security Services when before December 31, 1981, the date of his relation's seizure of power, he had never been associated with security? Did he get into his exalted position because he now had a relation as the Head of State?
Joachim Amartey Kwei was a trade union official at the Ghana Industrial Holding Corporation (GIHOC) and became friendly with Flt-Lt. Rawlings when he led GIHOC workers to vandalise Parliament House in Accra. When Flt-Lt. Rawlings became Head of State, he made Amartey Kwei a member of the ruling PNDC - on what basis it has never been explained, apart from the fact that he was friendly with Fit-Lt. Rawlings.
Amartey Kwei became all powerful, every bit of nonsense he uttered was faithfully reported and newspaper columnists and university lecturers vied to put learned interpretations to his words. A small army was constituted into his bodyguards and were at his disposal to do whatever he would with them. He often utilised them to go and conduct searches on the homes of Makola women traders who had ever refused credit to him in his days of anonymity and penury.
Is it any wonder, therefore, that he assumed that he could order the murder of High Court judges that he deemed unfavourable to the cause?
And there was Flt-Lt. Lee, everybody's favourite 'crazy' revolutionary. Long discharged from the army but suddenly put back into uniform and allowed to fly the nation's jets. He became the revolution's troubleshooter, instant justice dispenser and executioner until the day he went and shot dead somebody who happened to be both an Ewe and other rank soldier - the two categories of people that are in privileged positions in Ghana currently.
Money will not bring back their beloved ones to them, but some financial help from the state and a decent acknowledgement of responsibility will ease the hardship they face.Apart from the responsibility of making it possible for such people to have wielded such absolute power, there is the other unfinished business of what happens to the survivors of their victims.
Take the High Court Judges and the retired Army officer, are their wives/ husband and children supposed to have felt avenged the day Amartey Kwei and his group were executed?
What compensation is the state going to give to the families of the murdered victims? Obviously if Mrs Cecilia Koranteng-Addow had been knocked down dead by a car in her driveway, the car insurance company would at least pay some compensation to her family. It is, of course not being suggested that any amount of money can ever compensate or replace or heal the wounds of the families of the victims. The fact still remains, however, that all those murdered were the breadwinners in their families. Who is going to look after their children and pay their school fees? Who is to feed and clothe them and look after their needs?
A Ghanaian newspaper published recently the sad story of the wife and children of the late Major Acquah who was murdered with the High Court judges. His wife had had to rent out their house and was living in the servants' quarters with her children. She was living with the constant nightmare of bills and unpaid school fees.
It could be said that there are many homes in Ghana today in which both parents are still alive and have not been murdered by agents of the revolution and are in debt and cannot feed their children.
But if the state does not feel that it owes such people a responsibility, at least there is no escaping the responsibility that is owed to the families of those who have been murdered by agents of the revolution.
Money will not bring back their beloved ones to them but some financial help from the state and a decent acknowledgement of responsibility will undoubtedly ease the hardships they face.
As the testimony of L/cpl. Dzandu, one of those executed with Amartey Kwei indicated at the Tribunal, the judges and Major Acquah were only the latest in a series of 'eliminations' that he had partaken in. It was widely believed in Ghana at the time that many other people had been abducted from their homes and killed.
Such people were unfortunate not to have been High Court judges and thus their abductions remained a matter for rumour and speculation. No international outcry followed their disappearances and no pressure was put on the PNDC to order any special investigation Board. Only their families have been left with the ache of their loss. Who should bear the responsibility for generating the atmosphere that makes it possible for people to disappear in Ghana?
What about the other victims of Flt- Lt. Lee, the unpublished ones; was his execution meant to avenge all the others? What compensation can there be for those victims? It might be worthwhile for Flt-Lt. Rawlings to consider some scheme compensation for the families of those that have lost their lives as a result of the actions of his friends and relations who have become members of the ruling class in Ghana.
Otherwise, for all anybody cares Flt Lt. Rawlings might even order executions of his mother or wife whoever to show that he is eve handed, and still not impress anybody For as the Ghanaian music 'Senior' Eddie Donkor put it popular parlance, 'na who cause an Who made it possible for the murder to take place?
