LETTER TO WILLIAM J. CASEY FROM JUDE E. AIDOO

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP87M00539R001501950005-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 23
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: November 16, 2009
• Sequence Number: 5
• Publication Date: September 30, 1985
• Content Type: LETTER

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ROl'TI\G SLIP
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0 Oct 85
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GHRNA CONGRESS OF U.S.A. AND CANADA
The American
Friendship Committee for
the People of Ghana,
Baltimore
Ghana Citizens
Organization of U.SA.
and Canada, Chicago
Ghanaian International
Association, New York
Ghana International Club,
Santa Clara/San Francisco
United Front for
the the Liberation
of Ghana
Ghanaians for Freeda?
and Justice
Organization
Los Angeles
Coalition for
Desocraey in 6haes
Coluebss. Ohio
8hans Faro,
Detroit
Ghanaian Association
Oklahosa
Cancerna0 Citizens
of 6hans
Oelawre Valley
E. Aidoo, M.D.
In dedicated service for Ghana
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P.O. BOX 2929
BALTIMORE, MD 21229
U.S.A.
Tel. [phone]
Executive Registry
~'' 395
September 30, 1985.
Mr. William J. Casey
Director,Central Intelligence Agency
Washington, D.C. 20505
After the coup d'etat of Flight Lieutenant Jerry J. Rawlings
against the constitutionally elected representative government,
Ghana was thrust in the throes of the worst political, economic,
social and moral crisis in its history. In general the world has
been silent and perhaps watching, some in the belief that Chair-
man Rawlings is another rising African star, others simply per-
plexed. Four years is a long time to judge the performance of a
ruler, particularly Rawlings, who. characteristically condemned
the programs and policies of other Ghanaian governments before
him. Our point of view, contained in the pages in your hands,
is that the Provisional National Defence Council is not "provi-
sional", that it is engaged in a very coercive struggle to maintain
itself in power permanently. Our assessment is that the PNDC,
through its principal representatives, has brought Ghana nowhere
near the heaven Rawlings promised on December 31, 1981; it has
rather nailed a dictatorship on Ghana. Briefly stated, it has
totally failed the. people of Ghana.Were it an elected government,
its own contradictions, its deceptive rhetoric alone, would have
liquidated it before more harm was done to the good people of Ghana.
We invite you to share our data and opinion, to join us in
condemning the PNDC, and to assist in every legitimate way possible
to end the nightmare facing this once affluent African republic.
This, I believe, will rescue Ghana in the short run, and, in the
long run, save other African countries as well.
I am taking the liberty to send you a copy of a letter that has
been forwarded to President Ronald Reagan.
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GHANA CONGRESS OF U.S.A. AND CANADA
P.O. BOX 2929
BALTIMORE, MD 21229
U.S.A.
Tel. [phone]
September 30, 1985
The American
Friendship Committee for
the People of Ghana,
Baltimore
Ghana Citizens
Organiratan of U.SA.
and Canada, Chicago
Ghanaian International
Association, New York
Ghana Internatanal Club,
Santa Clara/San Francisco
Unitad Front for
tM the l.ibaratia+
of F~ana
A+anaians for F~edsat
and Justice
Organitetian
los ti+~eles
Coalition tar
OseoRae~r in Ausna
ColueOse~, 010
8haae Forst
Detroit
ewrian As~oeiatian
Oklah~asa
Concerned Citizens
of 9rana
Oelararo Yallq
President Ronald Reagan
White House
Washington, D.C. 20500
In early 1982, Professor Willie B. Lamouse-Smith, Executive
Secretary of the Ghana Congress of U.S.A. and Canada, wrote to
Secretary of State George Schultz urging that the U.S. refrain
from any action that would lend credibility to the usurpation of
Jerry J. Rawlings or give support to his regime. He also offered
a prognostic analysis of Rawlings' military coup and predicted
what has since become history. Had his warning been heeded, the
U.S. would have been spared the humiliation and embarrassment
meted out recently by the Ghanaian security agents. :iany
Ghanaian families would have also been spared the deaths of loved
ones who were fighting against the "reign of terror" in Ghana.
Indeed, the U.S. must not continue to place itself in the position
of having to accept full responsibility for the consequences that
the Rawlings' regime unleashed on a large number of Ghanaians
as a result of a C.I.A. employee's revelations of Ghanaian dis-
sidents and C.I.A. contacts in Ghana.
We continue to be deeply concerned that U.S. policy and
practice in Ghana support the usurper-regime of Jerry J. Rawlings
in building up a government modelled after Castro's Cuba,
Qaddafi's Libya and Ortega's Nicaragua. The U.S. has been applying
equivocal standards to comparable situations and left in the lurch
Ghanaians striving for personal freedom, liberty, justice and
democratic institutions. In Ghana, the ideals of the United
States of America have been betrayed by the support which the
Administration has been giving to the totalitarian regime of
Rawlings.
Having equated Ghana with Rawlings and placed it in the con-
text of the international cold-war, the U.S. chose to wean the
regime of Rawlings, caring less about what the brutal regime com-
mitted against Ghanaians. The policy of the Administration may
win Rawlings, but it stands in danger of losing the people of
Ghana.
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GHANA CONGRESS OF U.S.A. AND CANADA
P.O. BOX 2929
BALTIMORE, MD 21229
U.S.A.
Tel. [phone]
The American
friendship Committee for
the People of Ghana,
Baltimore
Ghana Citizens
Organization of U.SA.
and Canada, Chicago
Ghanaian International
Associatan, New York
?
Ghana International Club,
Santa Clara/San Francisco
United Front for
the the Liberation
of Buns
6banaians tar Frwd~
and Justin
Orgariution
Los An4sres
Coalition far
Osoarary in 9+ssa
Cotust~es. Orio
Aw+s Farus
Detroit
Qranaian Association
Ohlaho^s
Concerns! Citrons
of E?~sns
Dslawrs Valley
We can only believe that the real picture of Ghana has not
been presented to you. Our report on the rule of Rawlings tells
the story of the millions of Ghanaians whose lives are daily
bruised by that rule. They are silent because silence has become
the only means of avoiding the late night knock at the front door,
abduction and disappearance, or detention and torture.
Once again, we have to point out that even in its present
decline Ghana is still looked upon as the nreciatint thissrole
to be by millions of Africans. 'rTithout app g
model that Ghana has in Africa, the support which your Admin-
istration gives to Rawlings inadvertently encourages the potential
spread in Africa of the ideologies and methods which Rawlings
represents. Neither the short-term nor the long-term interests
of Americans are well-served. Your Administration must not
only~be, but must be seen to be on the side of freedom, justice
and liberty in Ghana and in Africa at large.
Yours truly,
~. `''~-mob
~~9
Jude E. Aidoo, M.D.
President
I In dedicated service for Ghana
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GHANA
1982 TO PRESENT
THE RULE OF JERRY J. RAWLINGS
Issued
by
GHANA CONGRESS OF U. S. A. AND CANADA
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A STATEMENT ISSUED BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE GHANA CONGRESS OF USA
AND CANADA ON THE RECORD OF THE PNDC REGIME, 1982-1985
INTRODUCTION
We of the Ghana Congress of U.S.A. and Canada wish to issue this
statement on the occasion of Flight Lieutenant J.J. Rawlings' address
to the U.N. Assembly, October 1985. Our objective is to lay certain
observed facts about Rawlings' regime before the international community
and to indicate thereby both the ways in and the reasons for which we
are in disagreement with the Provisional National Defence Council which
is the ruling body in Ghana. We will examine Rawlings' rhetoric and
performance regarding Ghana's home and foreign policies during and past
three-and-a-half years. We do not pretend to tell the whole sordid story of
the PNDC: we do not want to. As Ghanaians, it is too painful for us to
talk about the wounds, the deaths, the deprivations and the fears that the
PNDC has inflicted upon our fellow citizens. Moreover, as researchers we
know that cases of government torture cannot easily be quantified, that
violations resulting from government action cannot always be identified, and
that corrupt practices by government officials in Ghana cannot always be
monitored. Nevertheless, to tell a credible story about the PNDC's record
to date, we have pieced together information from diverse sources including
the Ghanaian daily papers, foreign newspapers, government policy statements,
private reports and commentaries, and our own intimate knowledge of our
nativeland.
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I. HOME POLICY
A. POLITICS
(i) PNDC vs. Constitutional Rule
When Flt. Lt. ?awlings ousted the twenty-seven month old
constitutional government of President Hilla Limann in a military
coup during the early hours of the 1982 New Year, he promised on the
national radio nothing short of "a revolution," or "proper democracy,"
or "participatory democracy." According to Gaddafi's GREEN
BOOK which the new regime was to regard as the main source of its
inspiration, "participatory democracy" was superior to parliamentary
democracy to the extent that it would enable the ordinary people of
Ghana to participate directly in governance and thus to call the
shots. In other words, under the PNDC Ghana was to experience a
new rule in the interest of the community at large.
After nearly four years, however, Ghana has a government not
of all the people but of one man, J.J. Rawlings, who by PNDC Law
42 possesses absolute sovereignty: all political power flows from
his will; his power and authority are unlimited in scope and in
time. Chairman Rawlings is not accountable to anybody or to any
legal, civil, or military institution; indeed, by decree he has the
right to interfere and does interfere with every sphere of social
life in Ghana. Rawlings does not accept, recognize, or tolerate any
authority in Ghana not associated with him. On March 14, 1983 Chief
Justice Apaloo himself commented that the PNDC was by virtue of PNDC
Law 42 "the highest court in the land. That seems to me as unprecedented
as it is dangerous." The danger is the abuse of power: Ghana as a
nation has not delegated power and authority to Rawlins. Another
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danger is the creation of dictatorship. Whereas a popularly
elected government would by Ghana's constitutional processes of
1979 be getting out of the scene after nearly four years, Rawlings'
regime is still alive and is continually seeking ways and means to
establish a totalitarian dictatorship to last the rest of Rawlings'
life. The PNDC does not believe in government by popular consensus.
Significantly none of the men and women who formed Rawlings'
first ruling body remains with him in power; one was executed by
Rawlings, the rest quit disillusioned. Today, most of those who serve
under him do so with great trepidation because, as Brigadier
Nunoo-Mensah observed when he resigned his membership of the PNDC,
"our people are going through one of the most gruesome and traumatic
times in their lives." Mr. Chris Abukari Atim, also formerly a
member of the PNDC, compares Rawlings' torture methods to those of
"Emperor" Bokassa of the Central African Republic and is "pained
about ... the regime of fascism and incipient (sic) dictatorship
which you (Rawlings) are instituting, about the personality cult
which you are gradually cultivating...." Almost all the identifiable
groups are aware of the evil about which Atim now complains; indeed
many have risked the lives of their members and demanded the exit
of the PNDC: the Ghana Bar Association, The Association of
Recognized Professional Bodies, the University Teachers Association
of Ghana, the National Union of Ghana Students, and the Christian
Council together with the Catholic Bishops' Conference. Rawlings
flatly disregards the will of the people.
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(ii) Tribal Dictatorship
For the most part Rawlings' government is based on tribal
terrorism and on the proscription of all political activity. The
most sensitive and important areas of government, such as national
security, the command positions in the Ghana Armed Forces, ministerial
portfolios, the top openings in the Ghana missions abroad and in the
corporations and civil service are filled with Ewes. The Ewes
are Rawlings tribesmen who together form nearly one-ninth of the
total number of electoral districts in the country. Not all Ewes
agree with Rawlings' dictatorial methods, but there is an Ewe
esprit de corps which Rawlings exploits to his political advantage.
Here is a list of top appointments and the names of Ewes who hold them:
Chairman of PNDC J.J. Rawlings
Security Advisor &
PNDC Member Kodjo Tsikata
Army Commander &
Forces Commander ; Arnold Quainoo
First Infantry Bri-
gade Commander Klutse
Secretary for Foreign
Affairs Obed Asamoah
Ghana Ambassador to
UN, New York Gbeho
In addition, immediately after the coup that brought Rawlings to power
in 1982, retired Ewe civilian and military officers, namely Kattah,
Tevi, Ashley Larsen, and Mawuyenga were recalled and assigned top-level
jobs. Meanwhile, as part of the deliberate tribal and political purge
which the regime has instituted, several Akans and Northerners in
the Armed Forces and Civil Service have been either killed, dismissed,
or prematurely retired against their will and against the best
interest of the country. This punitive system, reminiscent of the
1937-38 Stalin purge in the Soviet Union, is one of the most efficient
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methods of control devised by the PNDC.
We have reason to believe that Rawlings seized power with
the support of an elite Ewe tribal cabal apparently prepared to
help build a tribal oligarchy in Ghana. One testimony is Ambassador
Kofi Awoonor's book, The Ghana Revolution, which is to all intents
and purposes a hidden manifesto of Ewecracy, i.e., an Ewe dictatorship
sustained by a longstanding passion to rule Ghana. From the
evidence of Awoonor's book, that passion goes back to the later years
of Nkrumah when the question of succession surfaced; it also goes back
to the National Alliance of Liberals led by Gbedemah and to the
brief interlude of the AFRC which Rawlings headed in 1979. The PNDC
is, without a doubt, the fulfillment of that tribalist passion which
Ewes of the ilk of Kodjo Tsikata, J.J. Rawlings, Selormey, Agbo,
Kattah, and Kotoka have slowly but surely nurtured. This is why power
is so unequally distributed in Ghana today. Needless to say that this
system bristles with dangers.
(iii) The National Commission for Democracy
The National Commission for Democracy of which PNDC member Justice
Annan is chairman was supposed to recommend a "new" political structure
to the people of Ghana by December 1984. To date, no recommendation
has been made and none is in sight. The fact is that the NCD is too
closely allied to the PNDC to find an independent, nationally
acceptable political format for Ghana. Moreover, no amount of
intellectual wizardry can produce a document more in tune with the
wishes of the Ghanaian populace than the 1979 Constitution of recent
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memory. We fear that the government decentralization policy
concerning electoral processes which is currently being canvassed
in the regions is a clever preparation for a mock election to
confirm Rawlings in power.
(iv) Human Rights
The record of the PNDC in this area is bewildering: more people
have been executed, killed, jailed, maimed for life, beaten, or
subjected to other despicable forms of treatment than in all the
previous regimes put together. Admittedly, we may never know the
total figure of deaths for which this government can be held
responsible; the point is that not even medical officials are
allowed to investigate and report the real causes of death when
unnatural causes are suspected.
In 1983 Amnesty International, the most authoritative source on
the subject of torture, reported that the number of killings by Ghana's
security forces and other government agencies like the Public Tribunals
and the People's Defence Committees "probably runs to several hundred."
In a memorandum to the government of Ghana, AI appealed to the PNDC
"to make appropriate changes in PNDC Law 42 ;pursuant to which the
Public Tribunals were established) to assure that the procedures
followed are in compliance with international standards relating to
fair trial." The PNDC has rarely given expression to the concept of
fair trial: it is proof enough to incur the wrath of the PNDC or
its agents.
We do believe, by reasonable calculations, that the captives and
victims of Rawlings easily number in several thousands. The known
cases that shook the moral conscience of the nation most violently
are those of the three High Court judges plus a retired Army officer
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who were in 1982 abducted and cruelly murdered upon the instructions of
a member of the ruling council, Amartey Kwei, and probably with the
connivance of Kodjo Tsikata and Rawlings also. It will be recalled
that in 1979 when Rawlings first came to power he executed eight high
ranking military rulers, three of whom were former Heads of State.
They were not tried. In August 1984 the outspoken journalist
John Kugblenu, editor of the privately owned Accra newspaper, the
Free Press, died barely one month after he was released from a
year's incarceration. He was only 49. Although some political
prisoners were released earlier this year, several others are still
held and new ones have been added in recent months. For example,
active and prominent dissidents like Obeng Manu, a law lecturer at
Kumasi, and Sam Okudzeto, an attorney, were recently arrested.
Ghana today mocks its national coat-of-arms which proclaims
"Freedom and Justice"; it defies the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights. The human person does not come first, the PNDC and their
agents like Committees for the Defence of the Revolution, the National
Investigations Committee, the Citizens' Vetting Committee, and the
People's Tribunals do. No citizen, from the gravedigger to the
kingmaker, from the trade unions to the churches, is protected from
governmental acts or decrees that are immediately and directly injurious.
To illustrate, Chairman Rawlings worked himself up to a confrontation
with the Catholic Bishop of the large diocese of Kumasi, The Right
Reverend Sarpong, whom he verbally humiliated on national radio and
television in terms we cannot repeat here so as not to offend our
readers.
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B. THE ECONOMY
(i) "The Economic Recovery Programme"
When Rawlings took office he accused the Limann Administration
of corruption, economic mismanagement, and the mortgaging of Ghana's
resources to "imperialist" agencies such as the International Mone-
tary Fund and the World Bank. After a year in office he launched
what is now known as "The Economic Recovery Programme." February 22,
1984 the London FINANCIAL TIMES was uncomfortably accurate when it
described the "recovery programme" as "The economics of desperation."
Ghana's cocoa production which used to account for 60% to 70% of
export earnings has slumped behind that of Nigeria, Brazil, and the
Ivory Coast, and prospects for the future are said by experts to be
gloomy.
The cedi which the PNDC fans row claim was overvalued by as much
as 816 per cent since 1973 has been devalued by over 1,000 per cent, the
steepest in the fiscal history of any country. In a recent interview
in West Africa magazine President Limann lamented the destruction of the
cedi which he said was now worth less than 3 cents at the present exchange
rate of 57 cedis to 1 dollar. In fact, the cedi is equivalent to about
2 cents. In 1981 the exchange rate was $2.75 to $1.00. Our view is
that the current cedi devaluation is unrealistic because it brings untold
hardships to the people under a so-called revolutionary government. We
note that the PNDC's reaction to this kind of criticism is to play
around with semantics by calling the devaluation a "cedi adjustment."
It will be recalled that in 1978 the unpopular Supreme Military Council
(SMC II) in a similar coverup called their devaluation a "flexible
exchange rate."
Ghanaians today are impoverished. No one can live on their salaries.
Take for instance a laborer who earns 70 cedis a day and a loaf of bread
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low." Naturally foreign investors will be "cautious" because
there are fundamental questions of discipline and efficiency or
rather indiscipline and inefficiency as well as issues of political
legitimacy and public credibility with which the coercive PNDC is
still grappling. Every investor knows that a long period of stability
is required for any economic practice to fully impact upon society.
Consequently, which serious investor will not think twice about in-
vesting in Ghana if he knows that Ghana's Head of State congratulates
workers at Tema for taking over the management of a factory? Who in
his right mind would invest in a climate of managerial difficulties?
(iii) Educational Decline
In a broadcast to the nation August 28, 1983 Rawlings said:
"Development means education, organization and discipline." Yet under
his own Administration, high school and college students were encouraged
sometimes by former Education Secretary Ama Ata Aidoo to go on strike
against their teachers in the spirit of the revolution. The universities
were for the most part of 1983 and 1984 closed, and the Legon campus
turned into a training ground for revolutionary cadres Cuban-style.
Hundreds of Ghanaian teachers have been exported to Libya; those of them
left at home are so underpaid and thus find it so difficult to feed
their families that they abandon their pupils and students to go and work
on their private farms or some other business. The result is that the
entrance rate to high school has dropped dramatically; educational
standards have fallen below acceptable levels. Even university education
in Ghana has declined. This is unquestionably an enormous social problem
for Ghana. But the principal cause lies in the fact that the revolution
speaks against educated behavior and against the middle class, i.e., doc-
tors, lawyers, academics, teachers, civil servants, nurses, etc. The
revolution clearly rewards mere revolutionary rhetoric, vandalism, ban-
ditry and mediocrity.
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channelled through Gbeho to one of his "vrovhets"? Could that money have
helped pay for his house in London? How many of Rawlings' officials,
supposedly not receiving salaries, nevertheless have houses in London?
And finally where is the vast amount of money that the Armed Forces
Revolutionary Council collected in taxes in 1979?
By contrast not a single case of impropriety was found against
the top representatives of the PNP government that the PNDC overthrew.
(ii) The 1985 Investment Code
The PNDC Investment Code which received Gazette notification
July 17 this year is not original conceptually and in content; it
owes much to Limann's 1981 Investment Code which spelt out in detail
the regulations to govern trade between Ghana and her trading partners.
First of all, that the PNDC waited nearly four years before
coming out with an investment policy showing not only economic indecision
on their part but also the hopelessness of the economic theories and
practices that have bedevilled the regime to date. We might add that
because the PNDC was in charge of our national economy without the
guidance of investment regulations the country accrued financial losses
needlessly.
Second, the fact that the new Investment Code, unlike the 1981
Investment Code, is silent on the question of mining and petroleum
is a matter of concern because mining and oil exploration are major
areas of our economy. However, we understand that Law lecturer
Tsatsu Tsikata and Economics lecturer Arthur are undertaking secret
negotiations with foreign firms regarding these vital fields. Is
this "participatory democracy"?
Third, the 1985 Investment Code does not enjoy the political condi-
tions, and the professional support and discipline it needs to be
satisfactorily operative. Finance Secretary Dr. Botchway has himself
admitted that "private direct investment (in Ghana) remains cautiously
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which costs 120 cedis; in real economic terms he has to work almost
two days on an empty stomach in order to afford just one loaf! Prices
of foreign goods which are now plentiful in the coastal markets due to
a belated implementation of Limann's liberalization trade policies are
prohibitive. Meanwhile the local factories stand idle partly resulting
from the indiscipline which the PNDC gave birth to in 1982 and partly
because of the very heavy tax system which the PNDC has devised. For
example, business registration fee is now 50 thousand cedis, a figure
which clearly discourages the small-time business man or woman.
Because the economic situation was surely worsening under the PNDC,
the junta was forced to accept very harsh dependency terms from the IMF
and the World Bank, terms which in the long run may be politically and
economically detrimental to Ghana. Unexpectedly, Kodjo Tsikata, the
pro-Communist and anti-capitalist zealot, turned around and told a
restive TUC on May Day this year thatthe World Bank and the IMF of all
financial institutions had extended about a total amount of 1 billion
dollars to the PNDC.
Has corruption minimized under the PNDC? Our research team in
Ghana has concluded that the National Investigations Committee has
failed to "clean" the country; in some cases it has promoted corruption.
Corrupt practices stare you in the face and hit you in the nose wherever
you care to turn: Kotoka Airport, Tema Customs, UN. Mission in New York.
Who operates the Interim Force in Lebanon Account? What has become of
an amount estimated to be about 4 million dollars which has been for
about a year now the bone of contention between certain Ghanaian officials
in the USA and in Ghana? Where is the sum of 100,000.00 dollars which
disappeared during the Group of 77 meeting in Manila just before the 1979
coup? Futhermore, was Palaver not severely critical of Ambassador Gbeho's
extravagant living in Geneva? Where is the money that allegedly Acheampong
* Trade Union Congress
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The PNDC's efforts in the area of education are geared toward
inculcating in the young people of Ghana outworn Marxist or pseudo-
Marxist ideas from Moscow, Havana, and Tripoli. To illustrate, in
August 1984, 80 Ghanaians selected from the People's Militia Committees
and the Public Tribunals flew to Moscow to study for 4 to 6 years;
28 Ghanaian youths flew to Libya to receive awards for their essays
on Gaddafi's "Third Universal Theory"; and in 1983, 600 high school
students were taken away from their parents and sent to Havana. Further-
more, the GREEN BOOK Study Club with its premises in a monstrous Libyan-
sponsored building at Abelenkpe on the Achimota Road in Accra is
testimony to Libya's intent to colonize Ghana's young minds. Meanwhile
those Ghanaians who are well-educated according to the traditional
educational standards are among the poorest and the most wretched
in the country: their salaries and their living conditions ridicule
their brains, their efforts, and their potential. Is the ongoing exodus
of qualified personnel a surprise?
II. FOREIGN POLICY
Prior to 1982 Ghana's foreign policy was strictly non-aligned,
which was what accounted for the selection of 600 or so Ghanaian
soldiers to help with the II.N. International Peacekeeping Force in
Lebanon. Now that traditional neutrality seems to have been blown to
pieces as Rawlings moves more closely to the USSR and Bulgaria, Libya,
Cuba and Nicaragua, East Germany, and North Korea than any previous
government in Ghana has done. Yet the PNDC foreign policy is in practice
essentially contradictory. Whereas they look to the East-bloc nations
for their ideas of government, for security methods, and for military
hardware, they borrow money from the West and depend on Western govern-
ments and charities to save their people from hunger and starvation.
Some observers say Rawlings is cleverly playing off East and West to
Ghana's advantage; we believe differently for the reasons given below.
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(i) The Libyan Connection
Almost every Ghanaian in and outside Ghana believes that Rawlings
overthrew the government of the Third Republic with the financial and
military assistance of Gaddafi who later attempted but failed to sponsor
coups in Togo, Senegal, the Ivory Coast, Niger and Nigeria. Rawlings'
emergence is part of an international terrorist design contained in
Gaddafi's GREEN BOOK.
The GREEN BOOK was launched in Accra in December 1982 as part of the
First Anniversary celebrations of the coup that brought Rawlings to power
the second time. It highlights Gaddafi's political and economic theories
while inveighing against all the Western democracies; it encourages tribal
or caste dictatorships and the rule of family dynasties because they
supposedly ensure permanence. These propositions, as we
said earlier,
are reflected in the purpose and structure of the PNDC. We might add
that the GREEN BOOK's idea of people's committees organized at block,
regional and national levels is already rooted in the PNDC. The idea
itself can be traced back to Castro's Revolution and even further back
to the Russian Revolution. A two-man delegation from the Cuban Institute
of Friendships with Peoples that visited Accra last year was pleased to
find the PNDC implementing the people's committees as organs of the
Ghana revolution. It would not suprise us if Rawlings were to, as the
final step toward the Libyan model, introduce in Ghana the General
Peoples' Congress or Assembly.
(ii) The Cuban and Nicaraguan Connections
Chairman Rawlings and National Security Advisor Kodjo Tsikata
are inspired by the Cuban and Nicaraguan examples. Rawlings in
particular is fascinated by Fidel Castro.
First, the editorial comments, articles on Cuba and Nicaragua
in the foreign news sections of the Ghana newspapers, quotations from
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Castro and Che Guevara, organized activities in Ghana to mark Cuba's
National Days and references to Cuba in official pronouncements all
provide ample evidence.
Second, Rawlings paid at least two official visits to Cuba, one
in 1979 and again in July 1984. On the second visit he received the
revolutionary medal that Castro gives to his Third World disciples,
the Jose Marti award. It was also on that occasion that, according
to BBC reports, he said he would welcome Cuban troops in Ghana. This
alarmed Ghanaians and Secretary of Information Joyce Aryee issued a
press statement denying Chairman Rawlings Cuban plans. Nevertheless we
have reason to believe that some Cuban military presence is in Ghana.
Third, two joint commissions of Cuba and Ghana have been held
since 1982. The last one was in Accra in February this year; its
objective, as reported by the PNDC Coordinating Secretary, Mr. P.V.
Obeng, in the PEOPLE's DAILY GRAPHIC of Feb. 15, 1985 was "to bring
closer cooperation between the two countries." On Oct. 7, 1983 the Cuban
Deputy Foreign Minister, Comrade Oscar Oramas, visited Ghana and met with
Comrade Rawlings; they resolved to pool their resources "to fight
imperialism and neocolonialism."
Fourth, the Ghana-Cuban Friendship Association in Accra sells
Cuban Marxism to the Ghanaian youths by showing them documentary films
on Cuba and Nicaragua. Cuban films such as "The Last Supper," "Portrait
of Teresa," "Maniola" and "Red Dust" were shown at the Accra Roxy, Royal,
Orion and Casino cinema halls respectively. Reciprocally, Havana held a
week-long festival on Ghana films in 1984. The following Ghanaian films
were shown: "Two Years of Transformation," "No Tears for Ananse,"
"Power to the People," "June 4th," "Ghanaian Kids in Cuba," "Doing Their
Thing," "I Told You So," "The Boy Kumasenu," "Tongo-Hemile," and "You
Hide Me." All this forms part of the implementation of the Protocol for
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Cultural Cooperation between Ghana and Cuba signed in Havana in 1983.
Fifth, Ghana, similar to other Marxist states in Africa, are
training their youths in Cuba's Isle of Youth. As already mentioned,
several hundreds of Ghanaian children are studying in Cuba; their school,
originally called Heroes del Baile, has been renamed the Kwame Nkrumah
Memorial School (West Africa magazine, Oct. 15, 1984). It has been
estimated by Cuba International (March 19, 1979) that in 1979 more
than 3,000 African students, some as young as second graders, were
receiving some education in Cuba. By 1981 there were over 15,000 African
students in Cuba's Isle of Youth: they came from the Congo, Ethiopia,
Mozambique, Namibia, Sao Tome, Angola, and the Western Sahara. By 1983
the number had risen over 18,000 according to a report by a Cuban re-
presentation in Accra's PEOPLE's DAILY GRAPHIC, April 5, 1983. We
don't know the figure beyond 1983, but our guess is that it is over 20,000.
Our concern can be framed in the form of a question: what will Africa
become when these youths return home?
(iii) The Burkina Faso-Ghana Partnership
Ghana and Burkina Faso (formerly Upper Volta) are the two recent
additions to the African states under Cuban influence. Sankara's rise
to power in Ouagadougou through a military takeover was sponsored by
Rawlings and Gaddafi. Since then both countries have engaged in similar
forms of rhetoric and action that are reminiscent of those of Gaddafi
and Castro.
One example is the fact that Ghana and Burkina Faso in 1983 signed
a military pact called the "Bold Union." Its purpose was or is to defeat
so-called Western imperialism and to defend each other's territorial
integrity in the event of an internal insurrection or an external attack.
Women and children have been included in combat activities as is done in
Cuba and Nicaragua. For instance, near the end of 1983 NEW YORK TIMES
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reported that at a Ouagadougou celebration of Capt. Sankara's victory
the participants, in the majority women, wore olive green khaki uniforms
and chanted in French "Fatherland or Death, We Shall Overcome." Olive
green Khaki is the color of the Cuban army; the victory chant comes
straight out of the Cuban slogan "Patria o muerte, venceremos" with which
Castro often ends his lengthy speeches.
Another example is the press release issued by Ghana's Foreign
Secretary Obed Asamoah and the Burkinabe Minister of Territorial Adminis-
tration and Security Comrade Nongma E. Ouedraogo after the 5th Session of
the Ghana-Burkina Faso Permanent Joint Commission for Cooperation, April
27-29, 1985 at Ouagadougou. The release contained a scandalous clause
proposing "the political integration" of Burkina Faso and Ghana as a way of
"consolidating their revolutions and sovereignties." Again the communique
ended with the words of Cuba's national battlecry, "Fatherland or Death,
We Shall Overcome."
It is clear to us that Cuba and Libya have a strong influence on
the foreign policymaking in both Ghana and Burkina Faso. The deeper
the penetration the more the West African region will be threatened with
destabilization. Of course, Ghanaian and Burkinabe societies are already
imperilled.
(iv) Ghana and the West
Ghana and many Western countries, especially Britain and USA, are
kept together by cultural and historical forces. There are also economic,
education, social and religious institutions that bind us to the West without
compromising our independence. There are racial and psychological variables
that keep us permanently united with Afro-America which is located in the
West.
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Oblivious of these facts, the Rawlings revolution has persistently
antagonized our traditional friends in the West. For instance, in 1982
Security Advisor Kodjo Tsikata caused great consternation in diplomatic
circles when he published a fictitious German-language document in
the Ghanaian papers detailing a US mercenary plan to overthrow
the PNDC. Later, following protests from the US and German governments,
he conceded that the whole exercise was a hoax, and the government of
Ghana apologized. Since then economic hardships and the need to turn
to Western financial institutions for help have forced the PNDC to
tone down their language. It has been said in Ghana that Rawlings was
pleasantly surprised by the amount of aid that poured into Ghana
from Western sources during the Hunger Year of 1983. The Eastern
bloc would provide arms and amunition but not food or money.
We are convinced that as long as Gaddafi and Castro have some
influence in Ghana, the PNDC will never be able to normalize relations
with the West, especially the United States. A cold war will
continually characterize those relations, especially since the discovery
last July that Ghana might have been passing secret CIA information
to Libya, Cuba and other countries. The day after Sharon Scranage
and Mike Soussouddis were arrested in a Virginia hotel and charged
with espionage on behalf of Ghana, the Accra PEOPLE's DAILY GRAPHIC
summed up the position of Ghana's Interior Ministry: "Yesterday's
reports of CIA activity in Ghana have come as no surprise since the
government has all along known of the involvement of the CIA in
dissident activities in the country as well as attempts to destabilise
the Revolutionary cause." (People's Daily Graphic, July 13, 1985)
Official Western professions, however, continue to characterize the
relations as'-good. When Idi Amin and Milton Obote were killing their
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people no Western voice was raised in condemnation until they were
overthrown. A similar situation exists in Ghana today. By keeping
quiet, some of Ghana's traditional friends are helping Rawlings to
establish a totalitarian dictatorship. Once that happens, our fear
is that Rawlings or Tsikata will nationalize all the foreign investments
in Ghana and once and for all abolish the hypocritical core of Ghana's
present relationship with the West.
CONCLUSION
The PNDC has spent nearly four dismal years in office. During that
period they destroyed or wasted Ghana's economic and human resources.
They promised heaven but delivered hell; they spoke of democracy but
practised autocracy; they pointed to a happy future but are destroying
the present by spilling innocent blood; they showed us "clean" hands
but will leave behind a land more corrupt than ever before; they said
they would offer our children food but instead gave them guns and starved
them. In brief, they have HUMILIATED a proud people and turned a
civilized race into a cowered herd. They have dragged tiny Ghana into the
bitter arena of international cold-war politics--to Ghana's immediate
and longterm disadvantage.
I appeal to those who care for international peace, to those
who are interested in an African development independent of external
ideological coercion, and to those for whom Ghana is still of
emotional and symbolic value to join us in condemning the PNDC record.
Jude Aidoo, M.D.
President
Ghana Congress of USA & Canada
Date: Sept. 1985
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