The Head of the Centre for Asian Studies at the University of Ghana, Dr. Lloyd Amoah, is impressing on the Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Peter Amewu, not to succumb to the subtle diplomatic pressure from China, in the fight against illegal mining.<\/p>\n
The Chinese Ambassador and the Mayor of the Guangxi Zhuang Province, where majority of the illegal Chinese miners come from, on Monday met Ghana’s Minister over the issue.<\/p>\n
[contextly_sidebar id=”IXQlqESbkNsizjqPjLzP10mF4zLM0707″]Mr. Amewu during the meeting begged<\/strong><\/a><\/span> the Chinese delegation “to\u00a0help us address this particular difficulty that we are having” in the mining sector.<\/p>\n But close watchers of the situation believe Ghana is failing to crack the whip on Chinese illegal miners due to its\u00a0diplomatic ties with the Chinese government.<\/p>\n Dr. Amoah in an interview on the Citi Breakfast Show<\/strong>\u00a0asked the Minister to protect Ghana\u2019s interest first.<\/p>\n \u201c\u2026The onus is on us, it\u2019s our country, it\u2019s our waters, it\u2019s our land and therefore within that framework, we should be firm. In China, when Ghanaians or other nationals are arrested, they follow the law\u2026they will always tell you that the Chinese law is supreme and therefore it should fall in line that within our context, the Ghanaian law is supreme and more so the national interest of our country,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n Be firm \u2013 Dr.Amoah tells Lands Minister <\/strong><\/p>\n Dr. Amoah further encouraged Mr. Amewu to fight galamsey without fear or favour.<\/p>\n \u201c\u2026We should send a clear message to anyone in the galamsey sector including our own people, including the Chinese and anyone else that in this time, we are not going to allow the poisoning of our waters and the destruction of our land whether you are a Chinese, Japanese, American, Ukrainian or Russian, Ghanaian law will be applied. And I think that the President of our Republic who has always defended the rule of law will be behind this thing. So we should apply the law and continue to do so to send the signal that this is not a country that is prosecuting itself.\u201d<\/p>\n Five Chinese illegal miners arraigned <\/strong><\/p>\n This comes on the back of the arrest of five Chinese<\/strong><\/a><\/span> illegal miners in the Western Region.<\/p>\n The five were arrested together with five Ghanaians who were mining for gold on the Ankobrah River. They have since been remanded, waiting to appear in court again on April 10, 2017.<\/p>\n –<\/p>\n By: Godwin A. Allotey & Zoe Abu-Baidu\/citifmonline.com\/Ghana
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