Be compassionate to Witnesses - Bishop

The Most Reverend Charles Palmer Buckle, Member of the National Reconciliation Commission (NRC), on Thursday called on members of the public not to discriminate in showing compassion to the suffering of witnesses who appeared before the Commission.

He said the Commission was instituted to lessen, if not entirely erase, the pain of people, who had suffered torture in one way or another.

"It should not entertain issues like the least or most important people in society," he said.

The Most Rev. Buckle made these comments when members in the public gallery became agitated as Mr Kofi Agyepong, a witness, was unable to express himself and was inconsistent in his testimony because he was apparently over emotional.

The Most Rev. Buckle called on the public to share the sorrows of those, who were afflicted, as that would go a long way to heal the wounds of the majority of people in the society.

He advised Agyepong to see members of the Commission's counselling unit to help him come out of his pain.

He had said his uncle, who was taking care of him was executed during the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) era thus crippling his life.

According to Agyepong in 1985, his uncle, Mr Yaw Brefo Beeko, who was working with the State Insurance Corporation (SIC), was arrested and executed by the PNDC for making derogatory remarks about that regime.

He said he had been under the care of his uncle from 1984 when he was 11 years old due to the death of his mother.

He said that her mother being a cocoa farmer left all her property to Mr. Beeko to take care of her seven children.

Agyepong, who is now 29 years old, said a few days after his uncle was arrested, three men who claimed to be lawyers came on different occasions to collect money from his grandfather with the promise that they would help secure the release of Mr Beeko, but to no avail.

He said on May 20, 1986 he heard his uncle's name on radio, being mentioned among those that had been executed after being found guilty of treason.

Agyepong said a friend informed him that his uncle was tied to a vehicle and dragged on the street until his skin pealed off. His friend also told him that his uncle and the others who were executed were thrown into the sea.

He said his uncle's house was confiscated to the state, but the family filed a suit at the court and it was returned to his children.

Agyepong said his uncle's death prevented him from having any formal education. That had led to his unemployment and as such, he could not fend for himself.

He asked the Commission for compensation him to enable him to look after himself.

General Emmanuel Erskine, a member of the Commission advised him to forget the past, forge ahead and build a bright future for himself, instead of dwelling on the pain.

He invited Mr Beeko's children to contact the Commission to help them ascertain the truth.