After reading our front page comment last week on the continued desecration of the bodies of the executed heads of state and their colleagues, a caller at THE STATESMAN offices claimed he had details on how the bodies were disposed of.
His report left us totally stunned. Citing certain officers as his source, he said for some reason, General Afrifa was singled out for excruciating punishment, as his executioners deliberately allowed him to live a little longer before finishing him off. We are unable to print the details of what he said happened to the murdered General. NO civilised conscience can take the gory details.
After collecting their mutilated bodies, they were deposited briefly at the mortuary of the military hospital in Accra before being sped off in the general direction of Nsawam in a military ambulance.
At a secret location where a mass grave had been prepared beforehand, they were ignominiously thrown one on top of the other in the grave and doused with acid to obliterate them completely.
Therefore, according to the caller, even if humanity finally prevails in Ghana and we have to exhume their bodies for fitting burials, there will be no bodies. The spirit of June 4, was that vengeful.
Last week, we requested the Office of the Commissioner for Human Rights and Administrative Justice to set the ball rolling to have the bodies properly buried. Now, we think it is absolutely essential for Emile Short to institute an enquiry into the circumstances leading tot the murder of the officers, whether inhumane methods were employed in killing them, and whether it is actually true that they were doused with acid prior to mass burial.
This is one blight on our national conscience that we cannot wish away.
Human rights are eternal. So even the dead must be treated with respect and dignity, just like the living.