...in stadium disaster
Information Minister Jake Obetsebi-Lamppey Tuesday said six senior policemen would be charged with manslaughter over the country's worst soccer tragedy which claimed 126 lives.

Obetsebi-Lamppey told a news conference here that the responsibility of the May 9 disaster at Accra Sports Stadium lay "squarely" with the police.

The tragedy occured when policemen on duty at the Stadium during a league match between Ghana's two top league clubs, Kumasi Asante Kotoko and Accra Hearts of Oak fired tear-gas into the crowd to quell rioters.

Some of the fans had ripped off seats and were throwing them onto the pitch after the match. In the ensuing stampede, 126 fans were crushed to death, many dying by suffocation.

"After much deliberation, the government of Ghana has come to the clear conclusion that the primary responsibility for the tragedy lies squarely with the police," the minister said, releasing a 53-page official report into the tragedy.

"In this regard with 126 dead and several hundred injured we cannot but hold the police officers responsible. It is proposed that the six senior police officers be charged with manslaughter," he added.

Obetsebi-Lamppey said the six senior officers would be charged "despite the fact that four of them were either off duty or not assigned responsibility for stadium duties on 9 May 2001," adding that "junior officers who were acting under their superiors' orders should be dealt with internally by the police council or the inspector general of police."

He said the government had "also accepted a recommendation that officials of the national sports council indicted in the report be dismissed for gross negligence.

"The government also decided that a city memorial to the victims will be erected at a prominent place within the sports stadium," Obetsebi-Lamppey said.

He said there would also be a "living memorial" match every year on the Sunday closest to the date of the tragedy between Hearts and Kotoko.

The enquiry commission had also been investigating the pitiful emergency provisions at the stadium. The medical team on duty had only one ambulance which could handle just one person at a time.

Ghanaians had been appalled by the narrowness of the stadium exits and the fact that the two main gates leading to the stands were locked even when the match had ended.

There were only two two-meter (6.6-feet) wide side gates serving as exit points. The stadium was poorly illuminated and the match had ended late in the evening.