Accra, Feb. 4, GNA - The Wassa Association of Communities Affected By Mining (WACAM) says it is horrified by the news that a team of Soldiers, Police and personnel of SecPoint, a private security agency, deployed by AngloGold Ashanti Iduapriem Limited shot a resident of Teberebie.

A statement Mr Daniel Owusu-Koranteng, Executive Director of WACAM, signed said the Mine had created a rock waste dump in Teberebie, which had blocked the access routes to the farms of the people, so it was agreed between the parties that a new road should be constructed. Even though the road had not been completed the Mine wanted to compel the people to use it but they refused insisting that the new road should be re-gravelled and culverts constructed so that it would not become impassable when it rained.

WACAM said unknown to the farmers, Soldiers, Police and the Mine's Security had laid ambush on the route to their farms in morning of Thursday and in the course of the confrontation one person was shot in the thigh and had to be rushed to Effia-Nkwanta Hospital in Sekondi/Takoradi.

WACAM said: "We are dismayed by this apparent barbaric act meted out to innocent people, who are already victims of the greed of the Company."

It said: "It is becoming clear that violence and the shoot to kill barbarism had become part of the operational behaviour of mining companies.

We condemn the use of the Military and Police to shoot innocent people in mining communities."

WACAM called on the Inspector General of Police, Army Commander and Commissioner of Human Rights and Administrative Justice to investigate the Teberebie shooting incident and all other Military cum Police brutalities unleashed on mining communities to prove that they are not in support of such barbaric acts, which constituted an affront to the democratic governance of Ghana.

"These acts constitute corporate crimes, which if not checked would become a tradition with the potential of destroying our efforts to build a democratic society," the statement said.