The National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the other opposition parties excluding the Convention People’s Party (CPP) boycotted Tuesday’s opening and preliminary sitting of the National Reconciliation Commission. None of the officials of the parties turned up even though they were formally invited.

The CPP was represented by its Chairman, Alhaji Dr Abubakar Alhassan. The Free Press newspaper says the NDC did not turn out probably for fear of being blamed for atrocities meted out to some Ghanaians by Jerry Rawlings.

The inaugural ceremony was held in the refurbished chamber of the Old Parliament House in Accra, where the commission will be hearing testimonies from Ghanaians who have suffered state-sponsored human right violations.

It was addressed by the vice President of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Dr Alex Borraine and the President of the Nigerian Reconciliation Commission, Rev. Mathew Cooker who both stressed the importance of the reconciliation process to national development.

Attorney General and Minister for Justice Nana Akuffo Addo, said the commission ''seeks to promote reconciliation among the people of this country by two principal means, first by establishing an accurate and complete historical record of violations and abuses of human rights inflicted on persons by public institutions and holders of public office or persons purporting to have acted on behalf of the State during periods of unconstitutional government and other periods where it deems appropriate and secondly, by making recommendations to the President for redress of wrongs committed within the specified periods''.

The commission is also charged to make recommendations for compensating the victims and for ensuring that those injustices are not repeated.

Nana Addo pledged the determination of the government to ensure that the independence of the commission is not compromised. ''We shall give the commission the support it needs and requests of us, and leave it free as we have been doing, to discharge its obligations in accordance with law and the collective conscience of its members''.

The Attorney General also called on Ghanaians to support the work of the commission.

The nine-member national reconciliation commission has received 2800 separate petitions since it began work in September last year.