Peace Seekers support National Reconciliation Bill

Peace Seekers International, a Non-Governmental Organisation, on Thursday declared its support for the National Reconciliation Act and called on Ghanaians to ignore those who are kicking against it.

The group, which comprises over 700 former military, police and intelligence personnel, is led by Group Captain Thomas T. Kuttin, a former Commissioner of Transport and Communications under the Acheampong Regime.

Speaking to newsmen in Accra, G/Capt. Kuttin said Peace Seekers supports January 6, 1993 and the period preceding it for the commencement of the reconciliation exercise.

This, he noted, is to give true meaning to "first reconcile the living and prevent the tendencies of frustrated persons to personally take up the exercise of revenge and retribution". "It is only when peace has been made among the living that the dead who have been wronged will smile for the peace on earth and indeed rest in peace."

G/Capt. Kuttin observed that the options for the National Democratic Congress and its supporters "are either reconciliation or recrimination and retaliation for committing the worst human rights abuses in the country".

"Ghanaians should ignore those who stand accused of the worst crimes against fellow citizens and humanity and are trying to impede the law. "Such people paid lip service to confession and restitution when they had the power and opportunity to do so," he stated.

G/Capt. Kuttin said members of the group, who were chased out of office under various guises, had opted for reconciliation and were prepared to state their cases before the National Reconciliation Commission.

Moving away from the reconciliation issue, the Peace Seekers went on to launch a bitter attack on Flt. Lt. J.J. Rawlings, warning of the threat that the former President poses to national security. They claim that Tuesday’s his Tuesday interview granted to Peace FM and picked by Joy FM, both Accra radio stations, undermined the integrity of “our country’s judicial system”. “The implication that the case is not being pursued impartially was regarded as “a clear slap in the face of our judiciary and a contempt of court.”

In their eyes Rawlings is an “over-ambitious power hungry “trouble-maker”, an enemy within, with no respect for democratic institutions and a “charlatan” in revolutionaries’ clothing. As evidence to support these allegations the Peace Seekers mentioned that they had already notified the security agencies of “certain clandestine meetings by Rawlings and his close former military guards.”