Ghana: 1. Information on the AMANFO group. 2. Information on the Free Press and the following persons: Hans Ojaba, Tommy Thompson, Mike Adjei, Kwasi Adusa Amankwa and Kwabena Poku. 3. Information on the New Democratic Party

1. There is no information presently available to the IRBDC regarding the AMANFO group.

2. The Secretariat for Information in Accra controls many aspects of Ghanaian newspapers from registration to the supply and allocation of equipment and facilities. In this way it is easy for the Secretariat to cut off any supplies to those newspapers that criticize the policies of the government. [Information, Freedom and Censorship, (Burnt Mill: Longman Publishing Group Ltd., 1988), p.28.] Therefore there is a high degree of self-censorship which has led to the creation of a "culture of silence". [ibid.] The law on sedition makes it a crime to report on anything that could bring the government into disrepute or contempt or cause disaffection. [ibid.]

The Preventive Custody Law, PNDC Law 4, has been used to arrest and detain at least three journalists from the Free Press between 1982 and 1985. This law provides for indefinite detention without trial, if the government feels that the detention is in the interest of national security. It also allows the government to detain people without informing them of the reason for their arrest. [Amnesty International Report 1988, p.42.]

 Again in April 1986, the Free Press was forced to close down because the Secretariat found its editorials "unpatriotic". At the same time several employees of the newspaper were reportedly detained for being suspected of seditious activities. Among them was Kweku Baako, a journalist who was released after a four month detention and John Kuglenu, the editor, who was detained for five months. Three other journalists were detained for a year. [ibid. p.29.]

 Mike Adjei, the leading journalist of the Free Press, and Tommy Thompson, the managing editor, were arrested in 1983, reportedly for criticizing the government in the newspaper. [Amnesty International Report 1984, p.49.] They were both released uncharged in April 1984, Tommy Thompson after having suffered a stroke. [ Amnesty International 1985, p.47.] The whereabouts of Mr. Mike Adjei is unknown since Captain Ampofo implicated him in dissident activity, while he was being interrogated by the Ghanaian authorities in August 1983. [The Ghanaian Times, Accra, 19 August 1986.] Captain Adjei Ampofo was alleged to have plotted a coup which was discovered on 16 June 1983. [Donald I. Ray, Ghana Politics, Economics and Society, (Boulder: Lynne Rienner Publishers, Inc., 1986), pp. 108-109.]

The NDM was founded in Accra on 1 May 1980 as a Marxist-Leninist vanguard organization and as such provided many members for the top revolutionary positions after 31 December 1981. [Donald Ray, p.27.]

The New Democratic Movement (NDM) operates as a group of intellectuals rather that as an opposition party in Ghana. Its membership is largely drawn from university professors and students at the University of Ghana. However, since then the NDM has expanded its base to include a few thousand working class people, mostly from the southern regions of Ghana. [Donald Ray, p.52.] The organization proposed a gradual and systematic curbing of the control that foreign companies had over the Ghanaian economy, to ensure a strong state. [Donald Ray, pp. 50-51.]

Its meetings are reported to some extent in the local press and, since 1985, it has issued statements critical of the policies of the government, particularly those concerned with economic issues (IMF proposal) and freedom of speech and the press. The document does not specify the name of the member who was detained for two months in 1986. [Refugee Status Advisory Committee, Research Unit, paper on Ghana, 28 April 1987.]

In May and July 1988 seven critics of the government were arrested and detained under PNDC Law 4. Although they were reportedly suspected of seditious activities, no charges were laid against them. [Amnesty International Report 1988, (London: Amnesty International Publications Ltd., 1988), p.42.] Akwasi Adu-Amankwah, an official of the Trades Union Congress, was among those arrested. In 1981 he was among leading members of political groups which initially supported the government of Flight-Lieutenant J.J. Rawlings. However this grouping became increasingly critical of the government's policies, claiming that it had betrayed its original ideals. [ibid.]

Captain Kwabena Bogee, arrested following the discovery of a plot to assassinate Flight-Lieutenant Rawlings in February 1985, was released in January 1987. [Amnesty International 1988, p.43.] He was detained for two years without trial. [Amnesty International Report 1988, p. 43.] According to Amnesty International, leading members of the National Union of Ghana Students, which included Hans Ojaba, were being sought by the Ghanaian authorities in 1983, in connection with seditious literature. The National Union of Ghana Students (NUGS) which had initially supported Rawling's regime, became the focus of its most outspoken opposition. To that end demonstrations were held in Universities calling for an end to political detentions and the return of power to a civilian government. [Keesing's Contemporary Archives 1983, vol. XXIX, (London: Longman Group Publications, 1983), pp. 32549-32550.] There is no information presently available to the IRBDC regarding Mr. Kwabena Poku.

For further information on the persons listed above and on the New Democratic Movement, see the attached excerpts from the following documents:

Information, Freedom and Censorship The Article 19 World Report 1988, Burnt Mills: Longman Group Publishing, 1988, pp.27-30.

Amnesty International Report, London: Amnesty International Publications Ltd., 1984-1988.

Various excerpts from the report on Ghana prepared by the Research Unit of the Refugee Status Advisory Committee, 28 April 1987.

Donald I. Ray Ghana Politics, Economy and Society, Boulder: Lynne Rienner Publications, Inc., 1986.