La Coalitions Associations Demand Parliamentary Probe Into Military Brutalities

The leadership of the Coalition of La Associations (COLA) has demanded a Parliamentary probe into the violent confrontation that ensued between some personnel of the Military and some people on La on Thursday.

In a statement dated the 16th of April, COLA demands that the probe be bipartisan and be fiercely independent of the military.

“We call on Parliament to institute a bipartisan probe into the matter in order to establish the reasons why the military acted in this unruly way uncharacteristic of the GAF we know and to punish the perpetrators of these acts.

 “The investigations should not be left in the hands of the same people who orchestrated this dastardly act. Anything of shots of that is highly unacceptable,” the group demanded.

The statement was signed by the President of the group, Nii Odoi Glover. It comes after the Military had issued a qualified apology over the confrontation in which some unarmed civilians had been brutalized by ruthless soldiers claiming they were protecting military lands.

The GAF would later further justify the violence by claiming in the apology letter that its personnel had stormed a 200-acre land at Tse Addo to disperse demonstrators who they said had turned violent.

“In order to restrain the demonstrators, a reasonable force had to be applied to remove them. Thus, in the process, some of the demonstrators/persons got injured. It later came to light that some of the injured persons were journalists who were there to cover the event. GAF seizes this opportunity to apologize to the journalists and all innocent persons who might have been affected by the troops’ effort to clear the unruly demonstrators,” the military said.

However, COLA has dismissed the claims by the Military as untruths. “We wish to bring to the attention of the general public the facts of the matter as the GAF in their attempt to control the damage it has caused itself through the assault meted on innocent and unarmed civilians has peddled so much falsehoods.”

According to the La group, the people have never demonstrated at Burma Camp as falsely mentioned by the GAF. “In fact there was never a demonstration and we never went to Burma Camp on the said day. Rather, under the instructions of the La Traditional council we went on a routine site visit to our land at Kpletso a location hundreds of meters from Burma Camp,” the challeneged the military.

Meanwhile, the locals are alleging that the personal effects of some of the brutalized victims had been stolen by the soldiers as well. 

“We wish to state without any reservations that the physical assault on innocent unarmed civilians, the stealing of mobile phones and other personal effects by personnel of the GAF and destruction of vehicles belonging to our members which facts were missing in the GAF’s statement is highly unacceptable,” the angry La indigenes revealed.