...And I have never been in a Swiss hospital

Farce or mischief, why would Flt. Lt. Rawlings and his handlers resort to using a false name to sign medical bills that would eventually have to be authenticated by the Government of Ghana before settlement?

That's what they did in the closing months of 2000 when they signed medical bills for treatment Rawlings received in a Swiss hospital. They signed the bills in the name of Paul Gyamfi (Gyamfi Paul). Since this rather curious, if suspicious act hit the Ghanaian media circuit, different spins have been put on it.

Some have seen it as an act of deception that may even be a pointer to more serious acts of corrupt activities like stashing away public funds or kickbacks in fictitious names in banks abroad. Others have also said it is nothing but a security precaution taken to protect Rawlings' identity when he checked into the Swiss hospital to be treated for what has become a closely guarded secret ailment.

A name therefore, which until last week meant nothing to Ghanaians has now assumed national dimensions and may well expose serious human rights violations committed against a Paul Gyamfi and a Rose Pinkrah in 1998.

Did they sign the name by chance or did Paul Gyamfi mean so much to them that his name was adopted as a security code for Rawlings when he was in power? And who is Paul Gyamfi? Last weekend, he revealed himself and gave The Accra Daily Mail an exclusive story which but for its tragic aspects would have been put away as just another example of the capriciousness of the so-called Rawlings Era when the seat of government also doubled up as a prison and sometimes torture chamber.

Paul Gyamfi, a senior employee with a university degree then working for the Customs Excise and Preventive Service (CEPS), was incarcerated for six days in the dreaded Castle Guardroom in March 1998.

Arrested with a co-worker, one Rose Pinkrah, now deceased over botched paperwork regarding the release of cargo at the Tema Harbour for which they were not even directly to blame, he ended up at the Castle Guardroom and Rose Pinkrah ended up in the cells of the Osu Police Station.

He survived, Rose Pinkrah did not, as the shock of her ordeal sent her into dementia and she died a few months later. He said to The Accra Daily Mail that he is much more interested in clearing that "poor woman's name and perhaps having some compensation paid to her than my own ordeal."

He said he had appealed to CHRAJ, his former employees and even the Vice President Alhaji Aliu Mahama to have his case and that of the late Rose Pinkrah re-opened for restitution. He said one of the principal characters responsible for his woes, Warrant Officer Tetteh, former ADC to Flt. Lt. Rawlings, himself now deceased, ordered his detention at the Castle Guardroom based on a totally misleading report.

He was in the guardroom when the former US President, Bill Clinton came to Ghana for his 8-hour stop over. On that day "we were all cleared from the Castle Guardroom to Osu Police Station so that Clinton would not see such happenings at the Castle. After Clinton's departure, we were sent back." He said those of them from the Castle were added to the already overcrowded Osu cells and it was a miracle that no deaths were recorded from suffocation. He said he learnt later that the shock of their arrest sent Rose Pinkrah into sudden menstrual bleeding and for the number of days she was held, she was denied water to see to her personal hygiene.

"She worked for the Service for about 20 years before the incident happened. And subsequently she developed dementia because when she was arrested they never allowed her to have her bath for the whole six days, and excuse me to say this" her menses came when she was sent to the Castle and when she realised that things were getting out of hands" they never allowed her [freedom] because they described her to the police as someone who was dangerous” and it wasn't safe to allow her out of the cells and afterwards [that is when they were released six days later] they sent us to our headquarters in our disheveled appearance to issue us with letters of interdiction."

The lady never recovered from what was obviously the most traumatic and humiliating experience of her life. They were not charged. They were not put before a court. The mere accusation of being responsible for botched entries by others on landing accounts which nearly led to uncustomed goods leaving the harbour was enough to send them to jail without trial and eventual dismissal from work.

The Accra Daily Mail wanted to know if he knew Rawlings personally and if he had ever been to a Swiss hospital for treatment before. "I have never had any condition that required me to go out of this country for any medical check up.

The only close association I have had with the former head of state who I haven't met personally, was that I happen to have a car he also used to own before he became a head of state which is an MG sports car and the same mechanic who used to bring me parts from England was also contracted to restore his for him.

Another close associate of the former head of state, Wing Commander Fojoe whom I knew, did his best to help me with my case but certainly the late RSM Tetteh was a very powerful figure even though he was a mere bodyguard." He explained that the vehicle with the uncustomed goods was impounded to the Castle, which later caught the eye of Rawlings who wanted to know what it was doing there.

Though it held only used vehicle parts from Japan, his captors told the Flt. Lt. that it was seized on the suspicion that it was carrying arms. No more questions were asked. He was immediately raised to the status of an enemy. Paul Gyamfi, exhibiting the calmness of a wise man, said after his release, when "they found nothing against me, Paul Fojoe said if I wanted another job I could come and see him but it had to be in a government sector.

I refused, because I thought without the resolution of the matter, it would be as if I did something wrong at Customs. The matter wasn't investigated and I was not allowed to go through due process of the law." He said he petitioned CEPS in April last year and was ignored. He sent a reminder again in September through CHRAJ and was again ignored.

Eventually he petitioned CEPS directly again and they finally acknowledged and agreed that his case "had merit but were dilly-dallying and so I decided to petition the Vice President in January of this year.

The Office of the Vice President wrote to CEPS for an explanation. The authorities at Customs have agreed between me and them that they would do the right thing and I am still waiting for the letter stating what action they are taking." He said there was no doubt whatsoever in his mind that his name had been bandied about long enough at the time of his incarceration for it to have registered on the memory of Rawlings and those around him, either as Paul Gyamfi or as is sometimes done in officialdom, when the surname precedes the Christian name: Gyamfi, Paul.

It is clear that he has suffered great injustice at the hands of Rawlings and his men, but why would they use his name to disguise the identity of Rawlings in a hospital in the land of milk chocolates and banks? Even if that act could be explained away as a pseudonym, which was adopted purely by chance to protect

Rawlings' identity, the wider issue of the abuse of his human rights by Rawlings and his security people cannot and should not be so easily glossed away. And who talks for Rose Pinkrah? Dead and gone".