Rawlings Executions •29 Years On

Mr. Jerry John Rawlings called off a scheduled press conference to be held at the Ridge residence yesterday which he would have used to lambaste the executive and judiciary for throwing Mr. Tsatsu Tsikata into jail for causing financial loss to the state.

According to sources close to the former President's office, it was feared that nosy journalists would have used the occasion to ask questions on the execution of 8 high ranking military officers, including three ex-heads of state.

It would be recalled that three decades short of a year ago, yesterday, Ghana recorded her first execution when the military officers were tied to the stakes and shot without proper judicial process.

Carried out under the authority of the Chairman of the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC), Flt. Lt. Jerry John Rawlings, the executions elicited mixed reactions from Ghanaians and created a schism within the Armed Forces.

The daughter of General Acheampong, Ms Victoria Acheampong, a teenager at the time her father was executed, regrets that other children like her suffered unduly from the developments of the times but were denied any form of counseling to sooth the trauma they were going through.

“We did not have the opportunity of counseling and went through the trauma just like that,” she told DAILY GUIDE rather reluctantly, trying not to bring the traumatic memories back.

Continuing, she said, “It still hurts. Had my father been alive things could have been different for me. The dream of every girl is to have her father take part in her transition from being single to married life. I have not had that opportunity.”

For Okatakyie Henry Amankwaa Afrifa, son of General A.A. Afrifa, the release of the remains of his father for a befitting re-burial calls for the expression of gratitude to President John Agyekum Kufuor.

He said June every year reminds him of how his father was shot at the Teshie Military Range alongside others.

Okatakyie considers the non-celebration of June 4 as helping to reduce the impact of the remembrance of the execution on him.

His father, he said, was executed out of a strong fear by leaders of the June 4 uprising.

Now a General Manager of a community radio station in Tarkwa, the late head of state's son said his father's contribution to Ghana's politics cannot be wiped out.

Ironically today, former President Rawlings who turned 61 recently claims that justice is being denied his buddy Tsatsu Tsikata, a position shared by some of his apologists.

The former President has even turned down a national honour for which he has been nominated.

Following his steps yesterday in a statement was his close pal, Hon. E.T. Mensah, MP for Ningo/Prampram who has turned down his nomination for a national honour.

According to a letter he directed at the Secretary to the Cabinet, he stated that under the prevailing circumstances, “I am unable to receive the honour.

“I am a member of the NDC family. As you may be aware, some of its members are battling with countless accusations and incessant persecution.

The fresh case involving a leading member of the party, Tsatsu Tsikata, who has been incarcerated, gives me cause to deny myself of certain comforts and remain in a pensive mood until the case is formally determined.

It is rather unfortunate that my nomination has coincided with this unfortunate incident in the history of our country.”

The former President and a number of his followers are ironically angry at the conviction of Tsatsu Tsikata on causing financial loss to the state.

The execution of top military officers was sequel to what was considered by many observers especially officers, as a mutiny by Other Ranks against their senior officers which led to the overthrow of the military government of Gen. Akuffo or the Supreme Military Council II.

The Akuffo junta replaced General Kutu Acheampong's regime at a time the strongman was under house arrest.

The mutiny or take-over was defended later as constitutional, according to apologists of the intervention.

The apologists drew their position from the constitution which empowers Ghanaians to defend the sacrosanct document by standing up against coup makers or those who make it unworkable.

The AFRC which was responsible for the decisions taken in what the junta considered a house-cleaning exercise had 15 persons as members, including Flt. Lt. Rawlings as Chairman, Maj. Boakye Djan, Maj. Mensah Poku, Maj. Mensah Gbedemah, Lt. Cdr. Apaloo, Capt. Baah Achamfour and WOII Harry Obeng. Others were Staff Sgt. Alex Adjei, Cpl. Owusu Boateng, Leading Aircraftman Gatsiko, L/Cpl Tasiri, L/Cpl Atiemo, L/Cpl Sarkodie Addo, Cpl Sheikh Tetteh and Private Owusu Addo.

The AFRC was born on June 4, 1979 spanning through to September 24, 1979. The junta was preceded by an earlier abortive attempt on May 15, 1979.

The soldiers had been incited to rise against their superior officers by Mr. Rawlings, who for instance, pointed at what he said was an all-pervading rot in the Ghanaian society including the Armed Forces.

The mutiny, which started as a jailbreak organized by a few soldiers to release Rawlings who was then being held for an earlier insurrection attempt, soon spread to other formations.

The junta strongman's position was though different, as according to him, the military action was the culmination of a number of factors.

Kangaroo courts were created ostensibly to try the former heads of state and others who in the opinion of the mutineers had committed malfeasances against the state.

Being a novelty, most Ghanaians were stunned at the executions thinking initially that they were not going to be carried out at all, until the reality dawned on them and volley of bullets snuffed life out of the former leaders. That was 26th June, 1979 and the victims of the extra-judicial execution won the sympathy of many across the world.

There was a flurry of requests for the pardoning of the victims from across the world, but the defiant Air Force pilot would not budge.

He has explained that the action was demanded by the rank and file of the military who would have done the worst by killing many more persons in the country if their wish had been ignored.

The post-execution remark by Mr. Rawlings which sought to extricate him from any possible fallout from the action was incongruous with another bashful one he made when he said during one of his many public utterances, “We sprayed them like mosquitoes.”

General Akwasi Amankwah was flown in from Mampong to be executed.

The victims were killed because they had allegedly taken bank loans- an action deemed iniquitous by the junta.

Disclosures during the sittings of the National Reconciliation Commission (NRC) gave an insight into how decisions were taken on the executions.

While one of the victims, General E.K. Utuka was executed for ethnic balance others died because some members of the junta had an axe to grind with them.

General Kutu Acheampong, General Akuffo, General Roger Felli, Air Vice Marshal Yaw Boakye, Rear Admiral Amedume, General Afrifa, General Utuka were all executed.

Rear Admiral Amedume and General Felli were alleged to have used their positions to obtain bank loans. This formed the basis of their charge.

Three decades after that sordid event in Ghana's history, the surviving members of the junta are poles apart with their former buddy with whom they planned it all.

Mr. Boakye Djan, whose position is shared by others who participated in the so-called house-cleaning exercise, condemned in no uncertain terms the return of Rawlings to the country's politics through a second coup after all of them had agreed that theirs was to be the last of such interventions.

The National Reconciliation Commission Report has copious texts on the AFRC and the PNDC, both of which had Rawlings playing key parts.

By A.R. Gomda