REFUGEES NARRATE MORE HORROR ORDEALS

Editor-In-Chief, J. Lyndon Ponnie who was in Ghana for nearly 14 days and returned having interfaced with and interviewed a cross section of Liberian refugees reports the narration of the exiles’ ordeals and why they blamed their government back home for doing little or nothing to salvage them from the host country’s onslaught.

Dozens of Liberian refugees living in the Budumburam camp outside the Ghanaian capital, Accra, have explained tales of horror and mayhem visited upon them by Ghanaian security forces.

Speaking to the Public Agenda during a visit to the camp last week, the refugees said they were systematically brutalized, tortured, sexually abused and severely intimidated by Ghanaian security forces during several raids on the camp.
The refugees recorded more than three raids by securities on the camp during a peaceful protest by some refugee women and children in demand of improved resettlement packages.

The refugees, who spoke on the basis of anonymity, apparently for fear of falling to further attacks of Ghanaian officials, said they were raided and taken to unknown destinations and made to lie on the ground with their faces turned to the scourging sun.

“They police beat us with their batons, stepped on us with their boots and bundled us into their trucks,” one of the ladies who was part of the peaceful demonstration told this paper.
She said, “We had being on the field for over two weeks asking to be resettled into a third western country or be given US$1,000 to return to our country.” “One early morning at about 4 am,” she explained, “armed police surrounded them on the field and said they were going to be deported.”
At that early morning hour, she said Ghanaian police stopped them from urinating and/or toileting.

She narrated that those who could not cope to scourging anguish of nature had no option but to toilet and urinate in front of the police and later thrown into the backs of waiting trucks.
One prominent Liberian refugee who was abused by the Ghanaian securities is a former basketball star, Matthias Nimely.
Nimely said he was arrested from the camp and detained for weeks before being set free.

He narrated that he was abused in the custody of the Ghanaian Immigration. “I am sick from the maltreatment and need medication right now,” he told this paper.
Nimely said the level of ill-treatment meted out against Liberians in Ghana is beyond human imagination.
“We are coming home,” he said, “and will not forget the evil of the Ghanaian government and its security forces.”
Other refugees explained how they were taken to an evil forest and dehumanized.

“We were again tortured mentally and threatened with death,” a lady said. She explained that she and her colleagues were only released when a demon struck and killed one of the police officers who took them in the area. Another lady explained that when they were taken away from the camp, they were carried to an unknown area and some of them sexually abused by the police.
She said: “I will not be ashamed; I am a victim of the Ghanaian securities sexual attack.”

“While in the area, I told one of them I wanted to use the toilet, two of them took me behind a house and started to force me to have sex with me. They were armed, so I could not resist,” she narrated her story in tears.
At the Hatayee center in the camp, a group of young refugees stated that they are victims of political rivalries in Ghana.
One of them indicated that they (the refugees) are supporters of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) of former President Jerry John Rawlings.
He indicated that the ruling National Patriotic Party (NPP), a predominantly Ashanti party, believe that Liberians in Ghana want to vote for the opposition in solidarity with former president Rawlings. What is happening to us here is a
result of the rivalry between the two parties, he stated.
Another refugee said the Ghanaian Government has accused them of being ungrateful to the people of Ghana for their refusal to be integrated into the Ghanaian communities.

Defending their refusal to be integrated into the communities, he pointed out that Liberians are not allowed to sell in the Ghanaian markets, not allowed to work and do other things necessary to make ends meet.
He indicated that even those refugees who attend Ghanaian schools are made to pay more fees.
He explained that their reason for demanding US$1,000 each was because they heard that the UNHCR was about to give U$$50m to the Ghanaian Government for reintegration and said instead of giving the money to the Ghanaian government,
it was better had the the UNHCR given them at least US$1,000 each to return
home and restart their lives.

This, according to him, annoyed the Interior Minister of Ghana, who is also the head of the Ghana Refugee Board.
The Vice Chairman of the Liberia refugees Council Joseph Beh, has rejected claims that Liberian women naked during their peaceful demonstration and blocked highways.
He challenged the Ghanaian Government to show proof of such allegation. He indicated that all the women did was a sit in protest on the field.

The refugees are very angry with what they said it the Ellen led Government’s “don’t care attitude” towards them.
They pointed out they feel abandoned and sold to the Ghanaian government. They indicated that no responsible government will subject its citizens to danger. The refugees said the first statement issued by the Government of Liberia that
the violated Ghanaian laws without first investigation further worsened their woes.

“Once our own government believed and said we violated the laws of Ghana, it gave the government more latitude to subject us to more harms and humiliation,” one refugee said. Most of the refugees were unanimous in the view that they are not surprised
because most those in the Ellen government were the ones that brought war on Liberians and destroyed the fabric of the society.