Liberia Delegation To Meet Kufuor

Email Print Have Your Say (4) A high-powered Liberian government delegation will meet President Kufuor on Wednesday to deliver a special message from President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. The delegation is also expected to capitalise on the opportunity to further discussions on the Ghanaian government’s estranged relations with Liberian refugees. The Ghana Government planned to deport some 600 refugees back to Liberia after they held public demonstrations declared illegal by their hosts for 18 years. The refugees said they were protesting a poor repatriation package by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees. Only a last minute intervention by the Government of Liberia managed to stall the deportation pending a government-to-government meeting on Tuesday, however that intervention did not stop the deportation over the weekend of 16 others, declared illegal refugees. But the Tuesday meeting itself ended inconclusively and according to Deputy Minister for Information and National Orientation, Frank Agyekum, another meeting has been scheduled for Wednesday or Thursday after the Liberian delegation meets with President Kufuor. The delegation is led by the Foreign Minister, and includes the Minster of Justice/Attorney General, Minister for Internal Affairs and deputy Minister for Public Affairs, among others. Frank Agyekum, who described the meeting as very successful, told Joy News that a few knotty issues remain outstanding and hoped the Wednesday meeting would iron out the differences. Speaking on Joy FM’s Newsnite programme, Frank Agyekum said the two sides remain committed to reaching mutually beneficial conclusions at the meetings and hoped the two parties would reach a consensus. Unwilling to mention what other issues have been outstanding from the Tuesday meeting, he said the question of deporting the refugees remained key to the discussions. When told that 13 of the 16 deported refugees were known to the United Nations High Commission for Refugees as registered refugees, Frank Agyekum said that was only one side of the story, insisting that intelligence available to the Government of Ghana suggested their activities were inimical to national security. Security forces seized the about 600 protesting refugees, mainly women from their Gomoa Buduburam Camp for engaging in an illegal protest and carted them to their present location at Kodeabe in the Eastern Region.