The Ghanaian Government and Newmont recently received letters from several of the ‘special rapporteurs in the Special Procedures Division of the UN Human Rights Commissioner’s (UNHRC). These questions concerned the Akyem project and its alleged impacts on the people and environment of that area. The questions were based on allegations made by unspecified parties.
Prior to the complaint coming from the UN, no person or organization had posed the allegations to Newmont or to the government directly, nor, to our knowledge, was any resident of the Akyem project area involved in the complaints.
Newmont has responded directly to the UNHRC and it is our understanding that the Government has also responded. Out of respect and courtesy, we have chosen not to make our responses to the allegations public at this stage. Rather, we await the Commission’s response.
In the meantime, however, Akyem community members have chosen to protest what seems to them to be a challenge to a project they overwhelmingly support and an attack on them by an outside group with absolutely no consultation or discussion. They have issued their own communiqué (see attached), signed by 177 community leaders including the following:
A recent petition mentioned in the Ghanaian media was allegedly signed by 370 ‘concerned farmers’. Unlike the above communiqué (and unlike the petitions appearing at www.newmontghana.com ), the new petition has never been shown publicly and includes no physical signatures by actual residents of Akyem.
| Akyem Community response to unknown party's allegations to UNHRC Aug 09 PDF |