On Tuesday, this week, we noted in this column that over the years Ghana has been a strong member of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), an organisation of states that did not formally associate themselves either with the West or the collapsed Soviet Union. We pointed out that though it was Ghana’s first President, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, who led us to join NAM, the country has since adopted the policy of non-alignment in all of her international dealings.
We were, therefore, surprised with the reported statement made by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, in faraway Washington DC, USA, that Ghana was in firm support of Israel and Ukraine. The pronouncement, we again noted, came at a time the United Nations and other humanitarian agencies were calling on the Israeli government to open a humanitarian corridor for the troubled Gaza strip. We wondered if Ghana could proffer any solution to end the war, now that our President had declared his stance.
It has since come to our notice that Ghana, a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, abstained from the voting to decide whether there should be a ceasefire in Gaza or not.
In the editorial we are referencing, we condemned the killing of innocent Israelis by Hamas, a militant group. We were at the same time not happy with the response from Israel, which has resulted in the killing of many children.
But since we were the very people who called for the neutrality, we cannot fault the Akufo-Addo government for deciding to stay neutral, when people are being slaughtered.
With the split, especially among the permanent members of the UN Security Council, nothing has been achieved, in terms of bringing the war to an end. The Chronicle is not, therefore, surprised that a bomb had been dropped in no other place than a hospital, killing over five hundred people in Gaza.
Interestingly, no one is prepared to accept responsibility for what has happened. Whilst Israel insists an armed group, Palestine Islamist Jihad, based in Gaza, was responsible for the firing of the rocket that hit the hospital, the said armed group has also come out to deny the claim. Indeed, the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, repeated the stance of his government when he met US President Joe Biden in Tel Aviv yesterday.
Since both parties are denying responsibility for the atrocious crime, The Chronicle suggests to the UN to set up a special investigative team to probe further for the one who really fired the rocket that landed in the hospital.
In our opinion, a potential charge of crime against humanity could be applied here, and that is why the UN must delve deeper to fish out the one who actually committed the crime.
If the International Criminal Court has issued a bench warrant for the arrest of no mean a person than Vladimir Putin, President of the Russian Federation, it means no one is above international law. The images being shown on the international television stations such as CNN, BBC and Al- Jazeera are very horrific.
Whoever fired the rocket, and the one who ordered the firing, had no human sense and must not be allowed to mingle with the human race anymore. The pains and suffering children and women are going through in Gaza is very horrendous, and that is why the UN must sit up now.
