Uncovering Truth: Ghana’s National Reconciliation Commission Excavation of Past Human Rights Abuses¹

[1] This is a revised version of a paper presented at the annual conference of the American Society of Criminology in Denver, Colorado, on November 20, 2003. I am grateful to the University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, Canada, for the New Faculty Research Grant that facilitated my trip and stay in Ghana in July and August 2003. I am equally grateful to the NRC for readily opening its doors and allowing me to interview members of the Commission and other key staff. I want to place on record the unqualified support I received from Dr Ken Attafuah, Executive Secretary of the NRC, due to his appreciation of scholarship and the need to research the work of the NRC. I also want to acknowledge the useful comments and suggestions made by the anonymous reviewer of the original manuscript, which have made this paper richer.

Abstract

A key mandate of all truth and reconciliation commissions (TRCs) is to ascertain the truth about past injustices and to establish accurate records of violations and abuses. But truth has different connotations to diverse people and is often applied variously. So, how do TRCs uncover the truth surrounding a case of past human rights abuse? But what is truth? More specifically, how did Ghana’s National Reconciliation Commission (NRC) ascertain the truth in the cases that came before it? These are the key questions addressed in this paper, which is based on interviews with members and key staff of NRC, analysis of parliamentary debates and media coverage of the reconciliation exercise, and a two‐month observation of the NRC. The paper concludes that the specific yet flexible mandate of the NRC, the standard of proof adopted, the elaborate information management process, and the internal control mechanisms put in place favorably positioned the NRC to ascertain truth regarding the cases it deliberated.

Keywords:

• Truth and Reconciliation Commissions
• Human Rights
• Restorative Justice
• Remembering Harms‐Done
• Accountability in Justice

Notes

[1] This is a revised version of a paper presented at the annual conference of the American Society of Criminology in Denver, Colorado, on November 20, 2003. I am grateful to the University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, Canada, for the New Faculty Research Grant that facilitated my trip and stay in Ghana in July and August 2003. I am equally grateful to the NRC for readily opening its doors and allowing me to interview members of the Commission and other key staff. I want to place on record the unqualified support I received from Dr Ken Attafuah, Executive Secretary of the NRC, due to his appreciation of scholarship and the need to research the work of the NRC. I also want to acknowledge the useful comments and suggestions made by the anonymous reviewer of the original manuscript, which have made this paper richer.

[2] Justice K. E. Amua‐Sekyi, Chairman of the NRC, cited these figures when he addressed the public hearing on the last day of its sittings in Accra on Tuesday, July 13, 2004. This event, low‐key in comparison to the grand launching ceremony at the beginning of the hearings on January 14, 2003, was covered by most of the Ghanaian media (e.g., Accra Daily Mail, 2004b; Ghana Home Page, 2004; Ghana News Agency, 2004c; Salia & Mensah, 2004). The final NRC report (2004), however put the total number of cases collected by the Commission at 4240 (see p. 157 in Vol. 1).

[3] See, for example, the transcripts—National Reconciliation Commission Public Hearing: Transcripts of Proceedings Held at the Old Parliament House, Accra, on Thursday 22 May, 2003, at 9:35am (#ACC00739, Cpl Mathew Adabuga); on Thursday 12 June, 2003, at 9:40am (#ACC01164, Mathias Cudjoe); and on Thursday 21 August, 2003 (#ACC001190, Chris Asher). Jemima Acquah, widow of the retired army officer, testified at the public hearings on February 26, 2003, while Kwabena Agyapong, son of one of the judges, and current Presidential Spokesperson, took the witness stand on Wednesday, February 3, 2004. Kwabena Agyapong’s appearance at the NRC was given wide publicity in the Ghanaian media. Both prayed the Commission to re‐open investigations into the case.

[4] The full text of Boakye Djan’s statement submitted to the NRC and dated October 13, 2003, is available online at the Ghana Home Page (2003c) and Joy Online (2003b). In his statement, Boakye Djan created the impression that the three former heads of state, all of them generals in the Ghana Armed Forces, were tried by the AFRC People’s Court for staging what he called ‘anti‐constitutional coups’. But Squadron‐Leader Kosi Dargbe, Chairman of the People’s Court, who testified at the NRC on January 8, 2004, stated that the People’s Court was set up after the execution of the former generals (see the Ghana Home Page’s report of the proceedings at the NRC on January 8, 2004, at http://www.ghanaweb.com/ghanahomepage/newsarchive). The Heritage newspaper also recently published evidence culled from past speeches made by AFRC leaders, including Boakye Djan, that shows a discrepancy between the justifications given in their speeches for killing the generals and the statement Boakye Djan submitted to the NRC (see Asah‐Asante, 2004). Boakye Djan’s testimony at the public hearings only muddied the waters regarding the ‘truth’ in the matter of the execution of the generals; it generated a lot of controversy on various Ghanaian discussion sites such as Joy Online (http://www.myjoyonline.com) and Ghana Home Page’s discussion site, Say It Loud (http://www.ghanaweb.com/ghanahomepage/sil). Recently, Baah Achamfour, a former member of the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council, in his testimony at the NRC, also contradicted the statement of Boakye Djan (see Accra Daily Mail, 2004a; Ghana News Agency, 2004a). Ansah Atiemo, also a former member of the AFRC, accused Baah Achamfour of lying (see Atiemo, 2004). The apparent disagreement among the former members of the AFRC prompted this headline in the Concord: ‘Fight Breaks Out Among AFRC Members’ (Ogbamey, 2004).

[5] Captain Tsikata provided a 40‐page statement to the NRC in which he denied all allegations against him. For a full text of his statement, see Tsikata (2004) or Joy Online (2004). I do not know if Rawlings has provided a statement to the NRC—the statement by his lawyers in response to allegations was rejected by the NRC (Joy Online, 2003a)—but he has denied all accusations against him in his numerous interactions with the media (see, e.g., The Lens, 2004).

[6] The following are some of the key reports and books that seek to give an account of the abduction and murder of the three judges and the retired army officer: Adjei (1994), Yidana (2002), Agyekum (1999), Shillington (1992), and the final report of the Special Investigative Board (1983).

[7] For a more detailed discussion of the political context of Ghana’s NRC, see Ameh (2003, 2006), Attafuah (2002), and Aikins (2002).

[8] The debate surrounding this issue was so passionate and fiery that on the first day of debates in Parliament, the Speaker had to ask one Member of Parliament to keep his temper and keep cool if he wanted to have national reconciliation (Republic of Ghana, 2001b), and on the last day of debates, the minority NDC members walked out of the House in protest against the Attorney General asking them to adopt what he termed the ‘constructive and statesmanlike’ attitude of ex‐President J. J. Rawlings, founder of the NDC, to the debate (Republic of Ghana, 2001d).

[9] Parliament set aside three days to debate the NRC Bill but had to add a fourth due to the intensity of the debate and the high number of Members of Parliament who wanted to contribute. The Hansard for November 20–23 and December 6, 2001, documents the debates during the second reading of the Bill, while that of December 20, 2000, and the order paper for that same date record the amendments tabled and discussed during the consideration stage of the Bill (Republic of Ghana, 2001e, 2001f).

Several Ghanaian media outlets (both private‐ and government‐owned) covered not only the debate in Parliament but also the debate that ensued among members of the public (see, e.g., Asare, 2001). An international conference was organized to determine the form and nature the proposed NRC should take. This conference addressed the period of investigation, among other issues (Ghana Center for Democratic Development, 2001a, 2001b).

[10] Due to several factors, such as the choice of some victims and their families not to appear before the Commission and some witnesses deliberately presenting misleading information, one would never expect the final NRC report to represent the complete truth about all the violations and their circumstances during the period the Commission investigated. However, in this instance, when a commission is granted discretion to exclude violations from select periods in its work, the ‘truth’ will be far less accurate than it could have been.

[11] Dr Ken Attafuah, Executive Director of the Ghana National Reconciliation Commission, in an interview with the author on August 25, 2003, in Accra. Subsequent quotes from Dr Attafuah are taken from this same interview.

[12] Four cases were heard at the Commission’s maiden sitting on Tuesday, January 14, 2003. All four cases involved unlawful arrest, detention, dismissal, and ill‐treatment under the Preventive Detention Act (PDA), 1958, during the constitutional regime of Dr Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana’s first Prime Minister, and during the 1966 coup d’etat that toppled his regime. The four petitioners were Mr Amarkai Laryea Amarteifio, Mr Albert Kpakpo Allotey, Mr Emmanuel Nii Amartey Adjaye, and Mr Thomas Ekow Halm.

The Ghanaian media gave wide coverage to this first public hearing of the NRC, which formed part of the inaugural ceremony of the Commission (Daily Guide Online, 2003; Ghana News Agency, 2003; Mensah, 2003; Mensah & Okine, 2003).

[13] This incident generated a big controversy, not only among Ghanaian legal experts but also among the public. While specifying the minimum allowable number of Supreme Court judges, the 1992 Ghanaian Constitution is silent on the maximum number the country should have. Thus, the President did not go beyond his constitutional mandate when he appointed extra judges to the Supreme Court. However, some have questioned the timing and the numbers involved. Having had nine judges before the Tsikata case, which the government lost initially, the Supreme Court currently has about 13 judges, with four appointed by the ruling government after the initial court decision in the Tsikata case. The newly constituted Supreme Court has since overturned the initial verdict in the Tsikata case. As if this was not enough, the President recently nominated another three judges to the Supreme Court (Ghana News Agency, 2004b). This situation seriously undermines the independence of the judiciary.

[14] In fact, the NRC has been variously described as the ‘Nail Rawlings Commission’, ‘Nail Rawlings Complete’, and the ‘National Revenge Commission’, and has been labeled a witch‐hunt by some of its opponents. Less than two weeks before the NRC ended its public hearings, Martin Amidu, former Deputy Attorney General and ex‐presidential running mate to the NDC presidential candidate in the 2000 elections, described the NRC as an ‘illegal body’ which should be dismantled (Bebli, 2004).

[15] For example, many traders or farmers cannot afford to devote more than two years—the minimum time it takes for a Ghanaian court to dispose of a case—to litigation. It took the Fast Track Court in Accra, the supposedly modernized court that was expected to considerably expedite the adjudicating of cases, two years (2001–2003) to arrive at a judgment in the Quality Grain Case.

[16] A quite detailed professional biography of all the members of the NRC is posted at the Commission’s website (http://www.nrcghana.org/commissioners.php). The Commission comprises: Justice Kweku Etrew Amua‐Sekyi, a retired Supreme Court Judge, who is chair; Uborr Dalafu Labal II, a traditional ruler who is also a professional engineer; two university professors—Henrietta Mensah‐Bonsu, a professor of law, and Florence Dolphyne, a professor of linguistics who was also a former pro‐vice chancellor of the University of Ghana; Christian Appiah Agyei, ex‐Secretary General of the Trade Union Congress; Emmanuel Erskine, a retired Army general; the Most Reverend Charles Palmer‐Buckle, a Bishop of the Catholic Church and former editor of the progressive Catholic newspaper The Standard; Maulvi Wahab Bin Adam, Ameer (Head) and Missionary‐in‐Charge of the Ahmadiyyaa Muslim Mission; and Dr Sylvia Boye, former registrar of the West African Examination Council. In all there were three women and six men on the Commission. The Executive Secretary of the Commission was Dr Ken Agyemang Attafuah, a criminologist and former member of the British Columbia (Canada) Human Rights Council, who until his NRC appointment was a member of the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice, of the Ghanaian Human Rights Council.

[17] NRC member, who wishes to remain anonymous, in an interview with the author on July 31, 2003, in Accra.

[18] Professor Mensah‐Bonsu, in an interview with the author on July 29, 2003, in Accra. Subsequent quotes from Professor Mensah‐Bonsu are taken from this same interview.

[19] Bishop Palmer‐Buckle, in an interview with the author on July 22, 2003, in Accra. Subsequent quotes from Bishop Palmer‐Buckle are taken from this same interview.

[20] For example, Tsatsu Tsikata, a respondent in a petition over the murder of the judges, initiated a lawsuit in July 2004 against Justice Amua‐Sekyi, the NRC Chairman, accusing him of animosity. The High Court dismissed Tsikata’s application on July 12, 2004.

[21] The NRC report provides a long list of organizations and individuals who provided various types of assistance to the Commission.

[22] See the various divisions (directorates) and organizational chart of the Commission at the NRC website (http://www.nrcghana.org).

[23] See the ‘Zonal Offices’ section on the NRC website.

[24] Dr Araba Sefa‐Dede, in an interview with the author on August 6, 2003, in Takoradi, where the NRC held its public hearings August 5–15.

[25] Araba Sefa‐Dede is a professor of psychology at the Medical School of the University of Ghana.

[26] The ruling NPP government declared the country a highly indebted poor country (HIPC) on assuming power in 2001. On July 13, 2004, the same day that the NRC completed its public hearings, the World Bank ratified an agreement that signified Ghana’s HIPC completion status. See, Ghana News Agency (2004d).

[27] Recently the Acting Commissioner of the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), a comparable institution to the NRC, lamented the administrative, technical, and financial problems that have been the lot of the Commission and which have severely constrained its output (Ocansey, 2004).

[28] I am currently working on an article‐length review of the NRC report.

[29] Captain Kojo Tsikata appeared before the Commission on February 9 and 10, 2004. Ex‐President J. J. Rawlings testified before the Commission on February 12, 2004. Reports about their attendance at the public hearings dominated Ghanaian media discussions for several weeks prior to and especially after their appearance at the Commission.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Robert Kwame Ameh

Robert Ameh is an Assistant Professor in the Human Rights and Criminology Programs at Wilfrid Laurier University.