PEACE C'TTEE FOR BAWKU INAUGURATED (PAGE 3)

THE government has inaugurated a 10-member Inter-Ethnic Peace Committee comprising both Kusasis and Mamprusis to broker a permanent peace in the Bawku municipality and its environs.
The terms of reference to guide the committee include the opening up of genuine, constructive and effective dialogue among the people of Bawku, especially the major protagonists in the conflict.
It is also to help educate the general populace on the need for peaceful co-existence, placing emphasis on commonalties that unite the people, instead of the insignificant differences dividing them.
It is to delve deeper into historical antecedents that unite the people and commit themselves to exposing all those who want to derail the peace process for the law to take its course.
The committee is also to help educate the populace of Bawku to separate criminal acts and activities from those related to the conflict and allow the law to take its natural course on those acts.
It is to make useful suggestions and recommendations to the Municipal Security Committee on ways of managing the conflict in the municipality and finally propose to the Regional Security Committee when the curfew on Bawku should be lifted.
Inaugurating the committee, the Upper East Regional Minister, Mr Mark Woyongo, said as a result of the conflict in that part of the country over the past one and half years, the government and the municipal assembly had been compelled to redirect scarce resources to manage and maintain peace and order, to the detriment of development projects in the area.
He said to worsen an already bad situation, most development partners who obviously felt unsafe working in a volatile and risky environment had also abandoned the area and left the people to their fate, culminating in the area lagging behind the rest of the country in terms of development.
“There is the need for us to stop for a moment, reflect and give peace a chance,” Mr Woyongo said.
The regional minister said he was convinced that members of the committee would live up to expectation and prove equal to the task ahead in order to restore peace in Bawku.
He commended the security agencies for the tactical manner in which they nipped in the bud the April 30, 2009 incidence in which some unidentified gunmen attacked some individuals at the Kariyama Cattle Market and stole some cattle which were later retrieved.
“That was needless and very irresponsible on the part of whoever might have orchestrated it,” he said.
Mr Woyongo tasked the security agencies to tighten their intelligence network and enhance their surveillance activities at public places to avoid such incidents in the future.
The Municipal Chief Executive for Bawku, Mr Musa Abdulai, said the absence of peace in Bawku was hampering the effective development of the area and appealed to members of the committee to work assiduously to see how best to bring permanent peace to the area.
“Nobody, apart from us, can bring peace to Bawku. We should, therefore, see dialogue as the best way to address our differences,” Mr Abdulai said.
A representative of the Mamprusis, Mr David Molie Belko, observed that what was unfolding in Bawku, with the inauguration of the committee, was a laudable process which promised to be of immense benefit to the people of Ghana.
For his part, Mr Thomas Abilla, who spoke on behalf of the Kusasis, said the inauguration of the committee would enhance dialogue among the feuding factions and lead to evolving best ways of resolving whatever differences that might exist among them.
Members of the committed are Messrs Mohammed Tahiri Nambe, David Molie Belko, Bashiru Salifu, Ziblim Adam and Alhaji Ibrahim Kobila, representing the Mamprusi side.
The rest are Messrs Patrick Adakurugu, Thomas Abilla, Richard Ayabillah, Naba Adams Awinu and Madam Grace Nkaw, representing the Kusasis.