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Liberian refugees a threat to Ghana’s security – Bartels |
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Interior Minister, Kwamena Bartels says Liberian refugees at the Buduburam Refugees Settlement in the central region have become a threat to Ghana’s security. |
He said government is aware that a number of ex-combatants in Liberia’s decade old civil war have infiltrated the camp and are planning to cause trouble in the country.
Mr. Bartels was addressing the media at a press conference in Accra Tuesday April 1, 2008.
He told the media that the recent demonstrations by women at the camp were part of the wider strategy of the ex-combatants to disturb the peace in Ghana. He said the intentions of the group are to cause mayhem at the Settlement and in the country.
Mr. Bartels warned that while the government will work to champion peace on the African Continent, it will not sit back and allow the ex-combatants to threaten the country’s security.
He said Ghana will not champion peace in Africa at the cost of the country’s security.
He also said that some of the women who were taken to Kodeabe were misled by their own people at the Settlement who told them they were being taken to the US. According to Mr. Bartels, one of the buses got overloaded and some of them were asked by the police to get off.
Hundreds of demonstrating Liberian refugees, mostly women and children were rounded up and sent to the Kodeabe Voluntary Camp after they ignored warnings from the government to end a month long protest for improved financial packages for their repatriation to Liberia.
The demonstrators were also demanding integration into the US rather than Ghana, their host country for nearly two decades. |
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