I killed only 2
Loading ...Former President Jerry John Rawlings has revisited the 1979 mass execution of senior military officers including three former heads of state, saying that the exercise was only meant for two officers.
According to him, the execution of six other officers resulted from the pressure mounted on leadership of the coupists.
These officers were lined up at the Teshie Shooting Range and murdered in cold-blood at various times after the June 4, 1979 military putsch that catapulted Rawlings to power.
Speaking at a News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) Forum in faraway Abuja, Rawlings said though the killings were regrettable, there was no way his Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) junta could have avoided them.
He disclosed that the initial idea was to execute only Gen. Ignatius Kutu Acheampong, a former head of state, and Gen. Emmanuel Kwasi Utuka who was head of the border guards, to assuage the pain and anger of Ghanaians.
The two officers were shot by firing squad at the Teshie Shooting Range on June 16, 1979.
“We were able to address that but another six were executed ten days later. It was another sad moment.
I attempted to prevent it and sent an officer but the firing squad shot the officers before their commander could give the order,” he told the journalists.
He said if the executions had not been carried out, the rank and file of the Ghanaian Army would have slaughtered the officer corps.
He cited the example of a military formation in Takoradi where, he said, the soldiers had rounded up some 200 officers and were taking them through their final prayers before execution, but he intervened.
Other senior officers executed by the Rawlings-led AFRC junta on June 26, 1979 on suspicion of corruption and embezzlement of public funds were Gen Kwasi Amankwah Afrifa, Gen F.W.K Akuffo, former heads of state; Air Vice Marshall Yaw Boakye, Chief of Air Staff; Rear Admiral Joy Amedume, Chief of Naval Staff; Gen. Robert Kotei, Chief of Defence Staff; and Col Roger Joseph Felli, Minister of Foreign Affairs.
He said: “We had no choice than to sacrifice only two originally. But you must understand our country was in a state of rage then, not different from what Russia was when it had its revolution.”
Rawlings contended that he was a victim of internal machination of the junta as he was held hostage at the time.
“I was a partial hostage to that situation. I had no force. The authority that I enjoyed was my moral authority with the people. Their action was to curtail the anger of the nation.”
He commended the Nigerian leader, Umaru Musa Yar’Adua for his leadership qualities.
“Your president, in spite of situations, is displaying an admirable level of integrity. I appeal to Nigerians and your government to keep an eye on what is happening in Africa.”
He said Nigeria as the giant of Africa should be responsible for other African countries by checkmating them to avoid a crisis situation on the continent.
He advised Yar’ Adua to leave behind an enduring legacy by using his presidency to bring out the best in Nigeria and Africa as a whole.
“You do not have to send troops or soldiers with ammunition to any country; your words can make great impact, especially now that political morality is returning to your country,” he said.
Rawlings blamed Britain and the U.S. for the escalating crisis in Africa, saying, “The crisis in Africa is a consequence of the damage the world has suffered during the leadership of Britain’s Tony Blair and America’s George Bush.”
He noted that the crisis in the continent came as no surprise to him. Specifically, he said the invasion of Iraq by U.S. and Britain in 2003 had undermined “international political morality and the judicial consciousness of the public.
Seven years ago in an interactive session with former heads of state of the world, my constant song was the damage the world had suffered under Blair and Bush.”
In denouncing the approach to the war on Iraq, Rawlings said: “Blair and Bush were in a haste to demonstrate the power of the new world order and the manner they went about it undermined fundamental ethical values.”
Rawlings also denounced the trial outside Africa of former Liberian president Charles Taylor, on war crimes at the International Criminal Court in the Hague.
“I would have wished, my black dignity would have been preserved, if Taylor was being tried on the black continent and not in the white man’s land,” he said.
Rawlings also did not rule out external influence in the trial of Taylor.
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