Gbeho clarifies Ghana/Togo border issue

Accra, Sept. 14, GNA - Foreign Minister James Victor Gbeho on Tuesday gave the assurance that the security agencies and political authorities are alive to their responsibilities to ensure the country's territorial integrity.

He, therefore, appealed to the media to be circumspect when writing on the issues that touch on Ghana's relations with its neighbours in order not to create unnecessary anxiety between Ghana and its neighbours. Mr Gbeho was addressing a press conference in Accra to correct what he termed as misrepresentations by the media on the recent developments along the Ghana/Togo border.

He made reference to media reports on recent Togolese helicopter landings in Ghana and said his office took the necessary steps that made President Gnassingbe Eyadema to apologise.

However, he said, recent reports by the media that another helicopter landing had taken place turned out to be untrue, adding that investigations showed that it was a World Health Organisation Onchocerciasis Control Programme (OCP) aircraft, which was on an international spraying campaign. He said the misleading report of another case of Togolese violation of Ghanaian airspace greatly disturbed the authorities in Togo.

He reiterated that government is committed to good neighbourly policy with Togo and has spared no effort to ensure that the peoples of the two countries, who share historical and ethnic ties, live in peace and prosperity.

The responsibility of the media, therefore, is to ensure that the peace is sustained. Foreign Minister Gbeho said the work of the Ghana/Togo Border Re-demarcation Commission was proceeding cautiously, pending the completion of the work by a technical team tasked to re-demarcate the boundaries, as inherited at the time of independence.

He said the idea of the Commissions was to re-demarcate the borders, using boundary pillars at regular intervals and to clear an eight-meter wide no man's land to facilitate detection by the ordinary dwellers on both sides of the borders. While work on the Ghana-Cote d'Ivoire and Ghana-Burkina Faso sides has been largely completed, only 30 miles out of the 400 miles of common border between Ghana and Togo were re-demarcated.

He said knowing that it is only the completion of the exercise that would put an end to the suspected cases of encroachments and their attendant tensions, government has used various channels to impress upon the Togolese authorities on the need to expedite the work of the Commission. These exchanges, he said, have resulted in various meetings by the two sides, including the recent visit by the Interior Ministers of both countries to the border areas. The Minister expressed the hope that all concerns raised would be resolved once and for all, including the issue about the construction of a bridge over river Nubui by the Togolese authorities.