Soldiers stationed at AngloGold Ashanti (AGA) Obuasi mines reportedly opened fire on some illegal miners who had entered the concession of the mining giants to mine for gold without approval from any authority. Nine people have so far been confirmed dead when the bullets stopped flying at the spot the confusion erupted.
The miners claim AGA had stopped mining in the pit they had wanted to enter to mine for gold and that they did not understand why the military personnel on duty should open fire and kill some of them when they did not confront them. Both the Member of Parliament for the area on the ticket of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the National Democratic Congress (NDC) parliamentary candidate for the same area seem to be supporting the miners.
The military high command on the other hand has explained through a statement that the illegal miners came to the protected concession well-armed with cutlasses, guns and other offensive weapons. The Military further claimed that it was the miners who first opened fire on their troops without any provocation. Looking at their sheer numbers and for the fact that these miners were firing at them, they (military) were left with no option than to return fire, resulting in the death of the nine miners.
To the Military High Command, their personnel acted in self-defence and advised the civilian population to stop firing at troops who are well armed for no reasonable cause. First of all, The Chronicle extends its heartfelt condolences to the families of the deceased miners because human life is simply irreplaceable.
We dare, however, say that the military cannot this time be blamed for what has happened. When military personnel from the Burma Camp went and attacked the residents of Ashaiman some two or so years ago, over the killing of a soldier, we used this very column and our front pages to condemn the conduct of the officers.
We made it clear that what happened to the deceased soldier was a pure criminal conduct perpetrated by certain individuals and that the people of Ashaiman should not suffer collective punishment for it. We went further to state at the time that the fact that they (military) have access to weapons and also the monopoly over the use force does not mean they should abuse their powers or act capriciously.
But the Ashaiman case cannot be equated to what happened at Obuasi on Sunday, this week. This time the military personnel, in our view, did not act ultra-vires but acted within the ambit of the law. Though the miners claim they did not provoke the soldiers before they fired to kill some of them, we will not, though not right at the spot, accept this alibi. Yes, we admit that soldiers are usually trained to kill, but no sensible soldiers will just pick up a gun and start firing at human beings just because he or she has been trained to kill.
The mining company deployed the soldiers to the mines for a purpose – to protect its assets against intruders. The military men cannot, therefore, sit idle when large number of illegal miners had invaded the mines without any reaction from them.
It was, therefore, wrong for the miners to claim that they did not provoke the military personnel, when their going there in the first place was an illegality. Ghana is not a banana republic – it is a country governed by a constitution – and it is the same constitution that has given AGA right to own the concession. It was, therefore, wrong for the illegal miners to have invaded the legally acquired concession in search of gold.
We must sometimes be bold to call a spade a spade and not a big spoon. The fact that the youth are looking for jobs does not mean that they should forcibly take over one’s property.
In Our opinion, whether it was Jonah who swallowed the whale or the whale that swallowed Jonah, the truth is that there was a ‘swallow’. The illegal miners entered into a private property without any legal authorisation, period!
We nevertheless welcome President Mahama’s order to investigate the matter for the truth to come out. Our hard stance should, however, not be misconstrued to mean that we are supporting the killing of fellow human beings.
That certainly is not our position – what we want Ghanaians to understand is that the miners acted illegally, but because of the casualties they have suffered, they are courting the sympathy of the public, which is wrong.
