A civil society coalition on national reconciliation in Ghana has been established under the auspices of the Ghana Centre for Democracy and Development (GCDD) to enable civil society to take active part in national reconstruction.

The coalition, according to Professor Emmanuel Gyimah-Boadi, Executive Secretary of GCDD, has the objective of mobilising civil society support for government's national reconstruction initiative.

It will also help identify the scope and overall nature of the National Reconstruction Bill currently before Parliament.

Prof. Gyimah-Boadi told journalists that it is important to ensure that government does not become the only body to come out with how to fashion the reconciliation effort that was announced recently.

He said a number of activities have been planned to achieve these objectives, namely mobilising key civil society organisations and opinion leaders to explore ways of supporting government's initiative, exploring ideas to strengthen the national reconciliation process, broadening public support for it, preventing backlash and mobilising resources for the initiative.

Prof. Gyimah-Boadi said civil society organisations have held several meetings and undertaken a countrywide survey of public opinion to collate information on how the reconciliation should be like, adding that the report would be released before the international conference on reconciliation and transitional justice scheduled for June 19-20, 2001.

Maulvi Wahab Adam, Ameer of the Ahmadiyya Mission in Ghana, congratulated the GCDD for taking the step saying, "reconciliation is of paramount interest that requires everybody's input hence the need to involve all the stakeholders in the process in order to make it complete and acceptable."