A human rights advocate, Nana Oye Lithur, has expressed disappointment over government's signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Gambia over the killing of some Ghanaians in 2005.

The Gambian President, Yahya Jammeh, at a meeting with President John Evans Atta Mills on the sidelines of the 11th Summit of the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) in Libya on Thursday resolved to pay some support for families of the six Ghanaians said to have been murdered in the West African country.

The men were said to have been killed by rogues in Gambia, an assertion hugely contested by a surviver whose story say gendarmes of the state carried out the sordid acts.

Initial reports put the victims at 44 but a UN/ECOWAS sanctioned investigation which submitted its report in December last year put the victims at six.

As part of the MOU the Gambian government is absolved of all charges of complicity but the support payment is only in fulfillment of “Traditional African values” of giving the dead a befiting and honourable burial.

Government sources have hailed the MOU describing it as a “major feat chalked on the sidelines of the (APRM) Summit."

But Nana Oye Lithur is incensed. In an interview with Joy News she questioned the commitment of government to fighting for the rights of the innocent citizens who lost their lives.

"Those who want to do diplomacy for Ghanaians should go ahead but shouldn't mount campaign platforms and claim to be interested in fighting for the rights of people," she chided.

The MOU according to her should not have been signed without the inputs of the victims' families here in Ghana.

Even more nauseating for her was the fact that the compensation was agreed to be paid not because the Gambian government accepts responsibility for the killing, but on values of African traditions.

She is also surprised that the MOU is silent on what will be done for the lone surviver, Martin Kyere.

Nana Oye Lithur has promised to pursue the matter through the African Human Rights Commission since the MOU which is supposed to be a closure on the incident appears to be a scratch on the surface.

Meanwhile, Martin Kyere has advised government to halt negotiations on the MOU.

He told Joy News the Gambian government cannot feign innocence in the killings, accusing the Director of National Intelligence Agency in Gambia as personally ordering the murders.

He also contests the number of victims put out in the investigative report by the UN/ECOWAS Commission saying, he personally observed more than six dead bodies.

Story by Nathan Gadugah/Myjoyonline

Source: myjoyonline - Myjoyonline.com