A conversation with ex-military general, Henry Kwami Anyidoho

[Music] hello welcome to footprints my name is Samwell at amantha and today we are going to talk to a very important personality but less what this video when we come back we'll be going right to him Major General Henry Kwame Anita who one of Ghana's most distinguished military officers was born on the 13 July 1940 at Tammy Bay in the voto region he was commissioned into the Ghanaian Army's Signal Corps in 1965 since then he has served in various capacities in Ghana's armed forces including a commanding officer of the Ghana Military Academy and the commander of the northern command of the army he is a graduate of the US Marine Staff College in Virginia and the Ghana military academy he served in numerous UN peacekeeping missions during the 1994 Rwandan genocide general Anita who led a Ghanaian contingent which was deployed to serve in the United Nations assistance mission for Wanda and the Canadian general roméo Dallaire the Gannon general and his men are often singled out for praise for the courage and resourcefulness saving thousands of Tutsis and Hutus from certain death major-general Anita who was also a chairman of the Ghana telecom Board of Directors for 12 years one of Ghana's most distinguished military officers Maj Gen O'Hara choir me Anita who tells a story on footprints now welcome back to the program now you know who we are talking about general Henry Tommy and you do ho I repeat general Henry grabbed me and you do ho I salute sir very much welcome I don't even know what I did it properly well it's good enough it's a compliment at least I have five thank you for for for giving us your time today and it's it's a pleasure to really see you face to face I haven't bet you one-on-one but on television read about you you know and even the glory that you have brought to this country some of us have benefited from it outside of Ghana because you know there also you are from Ghana okay generally the ho yes yes yes a yeah it's my uncle yeah anyway so so I'm do did he answer general let me just see for the couple's a general as well yeah yeah do you still have some of your uniforms yes leave it I have a little place in my hometown where I called my heritage I'm trying to deal sort of this young yeah I call it my heritage so in my house back in my hometown there's a room reserved for that way i brung old uniforms and the relics I brought from operations that's good so if you were doing this there to be more interesting for you - yeah enter that room and take you to Ghana Tourism Authority and the museum's board for Ghana Tourism Authority I mean this is D general I need oho and I say D general I need oh ho who you will find in the history books who you find in the military books long many years after he is gone and it will be sad for Ghana Tourism Authority and museums and monuments board not to be part of this project that he's talking about because is a National Monument he sits here alone but he is an institution and that's why we should celebrate him and we'll come back to that where where did you start from this this whole Korea military thing how did you get into it well when I was in school which school well I went to elementary school in my village tiny way when I passed middle school from fall I then entered bundle Technical Institute yeah pantech yeah for 18 months after which I went to talk wordy because that was a prick program we were following at the time oh yeah immediately time ago I was in 2001 gonna had independence and the program then was you did a pretty technical training you were tested and then you follow up to a senior technical school which I went to Tecate so we do your your field of study okay so I want to talk ready to do a little crown installation works which institution would this be required technical assistance which city I tend to be very poorly now technical investor nice from it was embedded agenda so so how was it how's the experience young guy from tiny bay and then and then all the way to talk ready for five hours away from from your home yes a long journey time but the good thing was that we went with some other colleagues accused on the same exactly and it made new friends that's correct whom we were to travel on for a long time in life so even I found it more interesting than today when the kids are localized so they would have grown up before getting to make friends in life but I was started from very young age issue so so by the time you were done did you consider yourself an engineer at Nishan technician a technician and with Raja had a City & Guilds of London Institute electrical mechanical electrical great that was what I used a joined a so that's why I went into signals exactly Wow to do electronics now telecommunications in the Army in the army okay so tell me about our army so so did you have plans of being an army person when you are in school yes it occurred to me when I was integrally Ghana army was then in the Congo the 68 Congo that they went to yeah the Mumbai US and they used to be a program our forces in the Congo that's how GPC called it and every Wednesday they had your choice listen a choice for our forces in the Congo where families requested for songs to be played for their loved ones Wow so they could be here this high life music wise they were far away I think that's when I started as a no I think I would want to join the army because you want them to play high life for you also to serve yes I serve humanity I think that's what he started off so you didn't have any family ahead of you who wasn't an army that inaudible I simply saw an advert in the purpose in the near times and I think I still have that advert somewhere in Magnus Wow alekhya pinnacles Wow and I applied they were actually asking for people with GC or worse African school said certificates and I applied indicating that I didn't have any of those but the cost of instruction or studies our national I thought I was suitable for it so they invited me to come and join at this for examination here in Accra whilst I was still in school so we came to Signal Regiment for examination after which those of us they thought I'd qualify we were invited to go in start trainee in Kumasi in so I went to tell in same time intimacy as well so I said wow if you entered the room in we see one of the pictures are talking for colleague of mine as recruits Wow Wow and you enjoyed its Kumasi very long time very rough time in Kumasi recruit training those days and easy tonight especially when the Khumbu operation was still on yeah they had to make sure that he were tough enough and I was telling this story when I went to Pandu I ran away he went you went to Pandu Quinn in 1957 the cause of the seniors treatment that they were given to us and I recorded it my autobiography from Kumasi no from my village to Pandu aha decorated to pantech I couldn't take the punishment so I ran away back home and my father ordered me to go back back that he was not intercepted at all huh so I went back to Pandu and that was when I took a decision that I would not run away from anywhere no matter how difficult the situation may be Wow and I think this is also resolution that's roughly true everywhere the difficulties in the army through the operations and because I had run away once as a teenager I wasn't going to do it again your father then influenced you exactly my father did he did too much whipping and he was a tall big man if he spoke to you and you look at his face you knew that you had to obey thank you very much so when you went you started this recruit program what was your own vision at the time what did you think the military what opportunities were you you know opening up for yourself the army the a me signals then Ganic gorko signal squadron it was it was chain to Ghana signals published that if you were recruited for technicians training you are going to be sent overseas to be trained and to go to vs Malaysia what was a big big big duel so that was my number one in that I was going to an opportunity and when I joined after a trainee they did send me two versus actually for how long was the training overseas no no yeah five months five six months okay recruit training then we join our regiment mm-hm and in the regiment itself will give you a rotation after that orientation as opportunities came from outside the country he was selected to go right so I went to the United States southeastern signal school then in Georgia I had my basic overseas training there and came back so then I was qualified as a technician now when you qualified from the military the school in Kumasi what was your rank that you started with a signalman which is just a provision oh okay yeah but the trade units have their own yeah terminologies okay so in signal we were called signalman but actually private so yeah okay so you had the one laughing oh you had nothing nothing then you'll become a pro okay when you get one strike oh wow so so that's that's curious it means you started from very very busy Wow so it was actually when I was in America doing that course that I I had the substantive Lance Corporal rock I had an acting rank they gave me so that way I could be used as an instructor so they needed to give me some authority so I started teaching you know basic things like electricity and magnetism things that I hadn't learnt in school in school so I was given that rank just to identify me a more demeaning to have some authorities in India when I was in America I was then confirmed as a Lance Corporal and ask Oprah you happy very happy and of course when I came back with the rank I was posted to Kumasi again they were then establishing the second Infantry Brigade group headquarters first commander general at the legend affari so I went there as a technician the old Mangia Mangia fre and one day I had an encounter with him our to his office to repair his telephone equipment so he entered into conversation with me H died as a last couple be in charge of this expensive equipment equipment and did I have a senior person because as a pretty commodity was expecting someone a fairly senior to come and do that job so I told him that there was nobody senior to me in the signal troop then I was a one in charge of all the electronic equipment then he said if they knew that you could do it why don't they give you an rank higher than Alaska pool if indeed you are looking after all this they should have given you something and listen to it as accommodation yeah Vidia talking to who Dooley see yes I wanted to get away from the other school but he continued I can see the question is not knowing he wanted to get something out of me I'll later on what to know that the result of that conversation general ferry actually called my Doretta of Signal Corps den Komodo qui and the two of them agreed that I should be given an opportunity to go for we start training Wow that was how I was picked and I went to the military academy Wow so this will be you'll be very excited but how did your your year meets cohorts ticket for them those days we didn't have this kind of scheme peace no type of finnaly they were glad they knew that I had gone to a level higher because I was even then planning to go to USD so I was using them as my students in the even is teaching them surah twin-brother my physics and mathematics books yeah or the claws and I'll say that they respected me lovely and so I remember any of them today any of them everybody has left there some of them are like but but in that group none of my colleagues and Commission as I did yeah there were some other suggest yeah one kind I would do who unfortunately died last year was already in the regiment before I went but the two of us who went to the minitor Academy together yes Wow signal Commission people and have from time to time if you have read of Brigadier you and me fool one of the so unfortunately was killed in one of these upheavals no no I know a new foe yes shot in his home yeah in his home yeah he was also the genealogist company and we were all in the same call signal call because his his kids are my my mates thought yeah so I better wear a straight head of Sam yeah so I was oh Gideon info I was in 79 yes yeah Wow so you and a place in the military academy and how was your how was our you received look like this boy is favored by the seniors well I wasn't alone we we were put in a group with with professionals what I mean is the medical officers the lawyers you have professional already came prepared from civil street so we were given only six months they and the old soldiers had only six much training after which we were commissioned so that those from school secondly school six formulas that we went with that well then wins two years Oh okay so we were commissioned ahead of them right but we still know each other today as mates of course is good today together Academy together so at the end of six months you were commissioned as a full of talent here this 1965 may may 6th if I returned to signals is so when you were commissioned as an officer leftenant or first leftenant leftenant where you take him back to signals yes but this time in Accra Accra okay to the regiment and how did you progress from there when I was sent back to my troop the technical and maintenance of where I was as a suya this is where if you are not working for a difficulty because the s use and the whom I had saved now suddenly have to take complement to fish but you see people were true professionals during that time I sent and the one starts again hakuna from latin any time we went there in the money's as OJ's to he expected us to clean on our own tidy up your place and we were three suggests that reduces after after knowing of the officers Corps no no no before okay before and he was predicting one day he called the three of us and he said you see this one he will go to places he was referring to me hey because it's between this clinic all by himself the two of you always want somebody to force you but this one he'll go to places used to say something like that yeah and you were still stops again when I got commissioned you were so glad to pay compliment to me Wow all humility I accepted it and Wow steady with them so what it means is that when you went back to this unit I was accepted as an officer he recognized you with all the turbulence it means that when he sees you he was saluting exactly how did that feel when in the military is simple you salute to your senior so we are talking to general Henry I need oh ho now look this man is a whole compendium of experiences and valuable and a wealth of experiences that you know we need to create a moon of a monument for and that's why we are speaking with him but we'll just take a short break when we come back we'll be looking at his trajectory within the military in Ghana outside of Ghana and all the various places that he has shown the light we'll be right back welcome back this is footprints my name is Samuel Athamas and today i'm here with general and you do who now the name that i I am proud to be mentioned because of what he has done for himself I his family and also for this country Ghana see this man is on record has been one of the major reasons why tens of thousands of Tutsis were saved and not annihilated as was purposed and even moderate Hutus so now you're an officer with signals I'd like us to to walk through your you know the trajectory of your military career which year would this be 1955 may I join her return to signals and officer good in Accra in Accra okay and how do you make progress from there well as young officer you are given variety of jobs depending upon what was available and what was important the importance of a particular piece of job for example as an officer could be in charge of the unit vehicles it will be an adjutant to the commanding officer you look Amanda troop in the battle on is called your command a platoon yeah in the trade units recordin troops so somewhere down the way i was picked by left regina alice askin to be his adjutant the practice at a time in the color signal was that every new commanding officer picked a young officer as his adjutant somebody he believed would help him administer the unity so he picked me as a this is the same general asking who later on went to the commander of the middle east see that exactly that's how our okay so pinterest our you know paths crossed good he must have influenced you real good yes he was good commander so as they're not asking I served you know ask him as his adjutant and lend a lot from him this is 65 yes going on and as 66 something happened the pool yes when that coup happened I was still here in Accra and NASA no Masada task you on variety of duties yeah they may send you to go somewhere where they thought there was a need for maintenance of peace and you have to go there and I remember they sent me to produce a launch and replaces to inspect the communication equipments that were there and that you will go signal elements because if you needed to somebody to man the place you had the expertise to do it if you had to disconnect than you did so you were given variety of a job so I was in the army very new left an odd when our first president was so much wrong he that's how I believe polity started and trained so I've lived through all these yeah but so so where you had that the author Jericho car did you know general to come before yes how did you but I wasn't close yeah to him because as in love and way he was Thomas a brigade commander but were you surprised that time I I wasn't in a position to have assessment of our seniors as to what they could do so you are yes mine do oh yeah you think you attached to go into a piece of job you did it okay so so we are looking at so general talk--i comes in and then the new appointments with any appointments that that excited you still at the lower level I think it was when he was in charge that I was posted again back to Kumasi as a troop commander so I was actually in Kumasi when the installation of April got kukukaka killed oh wow yes I went back to my squadron where I was as a soldier when I heard that in Qatar jennife re I told you that's true I was posted back to the similar contest now as a troop commander yes Wow and this will be 6767 about this Wow he was too young really young still a lieutenant okay so so from leftenant you were given your promotion to captain yes you had to pass left or not - captain promotion examination which it was that what as soon as you made the rank lieutenant you were qualified to take the exam from 1960 ours Commission 65 66 67 I studied the exams you did a Briton and anyone for the no protocol first followed by the written if you pass you waited oh yeah to beat I'm qualified before you only promoted Wow is this true the same yes it was when I left okay some what was 20 years ago the same way if you are going to climb from Captain to major will go through examination and so at which point did you realize that you were on a path to greatness in the military did it did it dawn on you at any point yes if excellence was being rewarded as it used to be Denis our time is he going through the signal system itself after her plasma cutting to measure and I was promoted a major I served briefly at the communication their rhetoric I wasn't in a veggie meat anymore but I'd gone to the policy making oh yeah and then from there you had to be selected to go to stuff college we didn't have stopped college in Ghana then but when I was a major they had just established one or what so we had then one was called the overseas list depending upon your performance during the promotion in some niches and your confidential reports so I was lucky I was on the overseas list right so I went to the US Marine Marine Staff College again and cut Quantico Virginia mm-hmm so you have a second time and also will be sent to that institution I followed general Smith you know general Smith Harry Smith was advise to go to the continent Marine Staff College and I followed it where the other Africans there during my time we had a Nigerian he was already left on a canal okay and now we had an Egyptian okay if I remember we were the only three Africans that go US Marines stop College who every few he's not a large class like what Leavenworth and how's the experience they're very good because the Marines are very friendly oh okay I had attended army schools before and if I compare that with the way the Marines huddled me and my family our so blind so after the stopcock was marked difference between the marine experience and and the army experience up in the army for us it's a large organization so we don't feel attached to each other by the Marines they are always together yeah you know very well that allegiance driven yes and they deploy them face two very dangerous places dry areas so they do you have to be together okay very very friendly very orderly mm-hmm and I meant a lot from them Wow yes they came back to Ghana then I came back to Ghana right and was tasked to establish the face of a peacekeeping office and the missile defense which is this 1980 Oh 80 yes I had gone to the table 79 Oh 79 80 but between that time I was Reaver ayah T of jobs okay so undocked watch Hong Kong's regime yes you didn't you didn't take on any appointments oh there were several appointments I was for example the an instructor okay at the stuff College I commanded the signal school when number of years okay if I had did majority of my service was in three institutions Wow so I was in signals training school for till I remember one didn't ask him came they said today I am still in this school is as a no no no you have to live here but at time he had become the a me commander mm-hmm and he made sure I was posted away because people were to see me they said a Dean of the school of Sigma and he thought I could do something else here so had that done series of other jobs before okay going to the Staff College itself right but upon graduation when I came back I was asked to establish this peacekeeping office this in 1988 II so a tool veeraiah presently month under President Lee month yes okay I was at General Headquarters then okay and you set it up yes I set up the office that could coordinate Donna always operations with Minister of Foreign Affairs and Minister of Defense but these two ministries were handling the the operation but communication between them wasn't going very smoothly but at this time you hadn't had any experience with peacekeeping no I had been on a staff visit okay but it was from that office that I was going to have my own face shot at the peacekeeping were in Lebanon when I was made the chief military press and information officer general Callahan doesn't live in Lebanon Lebanon which year so means you went on a peacekeeping oh yeah the first one for one year in Lebanon which is it should be 1982-83 it's true when I asked him had been left for Jerusalem to be in charge of even troops provision organization but general asked him did Lebanon Fest right yes establish anything uh-huh and then before I go there is a left therefore unto yeah okay we'll be talking about general you know okay so so your first experience Lebanon how was it life I had a difficult job to do chief military press an information officer signal spessard outdo impressive and without any training in journalism Wow so it was not all that easy yeah but I had to really make it happen make it happen Ravan top two I remember that was when I went to speak to your uncle for example oh yeah we were we to play some games together sooo so the people gave you advice as what is you do but then I went with a very seasoned reporter from Steven oh okay wo from public relations directory it was very well trained and I was glad last time when he spoke to me that the team of officers that came to me here his daughter was one of them a major he retired as a Warrant Officer his daughter is a major in the unlovely when he said daughter came back to brief him how I received them and I said his mom has not changed so he then started teaching me the rudiments of general journalism as his boss then my problem was I didn't speak any French nodded wisely French to be while we had French contingents the mission areas so what did gonna do were you sorry were you the press person for the gamut team no for the whole of the mission chief military press I was coordinating the press offices of all the contingents what is a Dutch was sending a leaves or whatever so I was given a Warrant Officer gadgety very fluent in French French so he covered up for me dead so gradually I started learning from these two individuals and I went if also a trained photographer so this was how I started and unknown to me it was quite a challenge I got to know later on because before I went those officers that were win they were either from the education call or from the legal director it the one I changed for example Rory Johnson and Jenna Quinn who was then the the first command at that time and he said I got a notice later on that he had such a good report from Star College that's why he wanted me to go there hmm and if I should not do the work where I knew what will happen to me for everything [Laughter] fortunately when I got there the first application I released he was the one who said a congratulatory message Wow he said he had noticed a change in the job I did and the previous person done I want to change so then I started learning it and having a great deal of respect for even a piece of newspaper yeah I had seen then not played with any page in any newspaper I knew how difficult it was together yes so from you were there for how many a year a year then came back to Ghana yes and from Ghana which areas were you when I return to Ghana and I went back to the stock college to teach ok for some time then they brought me from the staff college now to be the director of public relations because when I went to stop college I complicatedly about the ecology no Xavier magazine oh so the Commandant just got fed up with me one day and say Henry you will make sure that we get this magazine at the end of this year's Grammy she Wow so I put her to put up my own team together so I picked the students as I knew them thank God some of them even left us Chiefs of Defense stuff in Italy for example so I made my own team and with the help of many others we were able to release the magazine on the graduation day Wow so that sort of college that I have in the magazine it's my annual magazine so the interest continue from there mhm but they brought me from there it was from Dadar actually I came to the public relations the improbability sent me now back to Ghana military academy as the commanding officer ok so one of my friend said Henry what's a political profession signals you two signals are dying it took to communicate the Directorate as director of public relations which was a full rank appointment now you are going back to Ghana military academy as a commanding officer at the rank of a Leatherneck and so which is which a close friend of mine asked me I look at him and I said you know I am sure nobody will send any office at miniature Academy that is not sure of I had always anticipated that one day I would command military academy so there are trained my own offices the way I would want them to behave so for me it was a welcome idea so what year would this be now it is right yes and it is I think a t56 yes there about okay so I went gladly the appointment of the commanders of the media car was upgraded so I was the first president to wear the rank of a full colonel Wow as a commandos by the time you are pregnant Kim you have been exactly and the officers I trained God being so good are doing so well because almost all of them have attained the rank of Brigadier General now Oh lovely Wow so that that also so it was from the Military Academy as a commanding officer that I came to General Quarters yeah to confess the Reta general logistics which completely out of my way as a signal officer but the discipline was there then I was moved from there to operations and plans it was when I was at operations and plans that we mounted know when I was logistic we motored ecomo yeah operations and plans they remoted cambodia and from there I went to Randa this one that me okay so let me come back yeah you you know we'll take it one after the other and this time you are talking about 88 89 there abouts as other 90s so people you are watching a footprint and this is general and you know we'll be right back welcome back to the program it's footprints on City TV and my guest today is general and you do who you know I like to mention the name with him because he was a strong soldier and so now we are talking about the whole sounds of ECOMOG now so tell us your own recollections of what brought the need for a comic okay I had gone on management course in America the day I came back I went to report within a Mesa wood who was then the General Officer Commanding so I was one of his principal and staff offices and it's a hundred you know welcome back but you know the amount in an operation we have winter Liberia so I'm sorry you will not have any days off so you just get back to office tomorrow money we are going to hold a facility that was it that was it so no different machine leave for ammonia I went to his office with two adapted from staff offices my colleague Regina who passed away and major-general just so kind unfortunately he's also passed away and he told us this was the way he put it gentlemen we are great amount and life operation of our time whoa and I want you to go and prepare instructions for me to issue out to the tree services it was the boss so when it was that was it it was as simple as that we are mounting an operation of course it all's that is easy that they had taken so the three of us went back a route in searching for him so this is instruction meaning that the modest yes he is going to task the Army Air Force and Navy to go and do a piece of job some ways and operationally okay at this time did you know that it was to do it Liberia oh yes Oh give us the background the news was in the air yeah that was a civil exactly so we went and prepared resources for him you went to and felt satisfied with what we wrote it was somebody who didn't like complicated writing something very simple simple straight people were able to operate so that was issued to the Army Air Force and Navy any of course be playing the lead role animosity that is the only operation it was the whole operation during my service time in which the three services went into action to get the same time and I've been encouraging people to write about this because I think it's an important part of our our history inaudible has a camera body did some writing on it but that was much later but a 1982 operation which we carried out so having written doubt that is rushing to the army commander and at this point we had not started no no intervention okay so we were now going to prepay let me come and I was told that you have a piece of job to do he will then pick the unit that is going to go in this case he picked second battalion of infantry from a primitive mean what is that second integral d not worry meanwhile we the priest first officers had to start preparing to support the operation so I in charge of logistics at that time hard to make sure that our troops were not going to go hungry in Liberia they were going to have enough clothes they were great we look after medically if this is a strain injury which was always the possibility and they feel logistically to support them we didn't have any reserve of anything to reveal of reserve uniforms no so what did I do I want to fool disagrees in cooperation anything I could see so to say actually we were still in a military regime did so another driver as that lead so if they had corned beef we place our hands on Duga so then I went to a water company gaudiya water tankers got them sprayed into military college with the promise from the minister that will be painful so this was how we picked detail because our officers that went on recognizance which is the first thing we do before we go into prison did he even get to Monrovia they stopped in Freetown Sierra Leone that's where they gathered the information from that there was nothing in Liberia so we had to carry everything you have to carry firewood you had chosen not to cut everything that was a brief ending it was him so I was no way to take any chances so this was how we made the preparation taking bits and pieces over here we really have at this point it had escalated into they were fighting they were killing people yeah and grenades were there Nigerians were there but Nigeria reading also have a large container what you call of for naval vessel oh okay we didn't have so what the two countries which were playing the lead role we did was we put our troops on commercial vessels Black Star Line was still there then and this was coated by the naval gun boats into morovia and when our troops will money in Monrovia they had what we call him little terms opposed manly opposed the money means they were shooting at them when they were trying to establish a beachhead when they were coming off the ship they were shooting on them this was just Ellis forces mm-hmm fortunately we had a Nigerian Air Force and they gonna Air Force ok they came in with their ground attack aircraft and they actually bit off this as well as forces such hostility do you want in interventional no it came close to somewhere they call is the getting man she knows yeah there's a gazebo he was almost going to take over the whole of morovia but that was why he halted and our troops after they establish the beachhead our troops then could enter assembly would enter you know that some of our ships data and one of other cities were destroyed yes yes became casualties so this this was what happened what because we had repaired them at least what they carried could take them Serbians ok Thome at this time was the makeup of the ECOMOG so he had ghanians you had Nigerians playing the major rule dress way more in numbers followed by us because after they took the decision at in in Gambia or Liu Bei some way I died but one was the knew who was meeting Erik was meeting some of the countries in the drew when I went battle they were not going to participate of course your Leone Guinea were to troll but Guinea was with us ok giddy was with us but the others didn't release you too much our colleagues the francophone West African countries as if they started withdrawing could the water didn't come on no they were not there they were not there and this is a sensitive yeah international issue so you should be mindful of it you know so we thought somebody was pulling strings from somewhere from Paris or some way but we could not afford when I say we am referring to Ghana and Nigeria when our Nationals were there and were being killed so we were going to go in anyway so we went in had we not gone in they would have killed all those people and I keep on saying that echo was which was set up purely not for military military the type of duties economic economic yes economic organization had to go for operations that's what they call it at home work echo was monitoring group and I'm glad we did well general Queen was who was it a fast you wanna that's the overall commander overall commander of a common between the canyons and everybody who was they had to take and we all this time we were learning our peacekeeping efforts we still I need to get Putin's together yeah looking back I think we should have stuffed general quait News headquarters with enough see resources ganyan offices because stuff of this mean a lot yeah those who will really make things happen happen yeah because the commander is engaged with a lot of thinking negotiations and requires a drop in fighting is ongoing some people should be doing you know thinking putting things together but he was and I think do GUI are also from him a Nigerian to go yeah so so Tommy so what was your first official reports that you received back here in Ghana from a comic that they were shooting at them our ship had become a casualty and I I went to the Abbey commander's office and our troops were really in danger and we had to put our heads together as well the teaching is that if the troops come and attack we send them reinforcements that was our suggestion let's prepare a second battalion to reinforce the first one that go so that was our dead battalion of infantry from soon eonni went to Liberia mm-hmm fortunately for us the 1st battalion commander was ji qu the second one was Dunkwa JD danke JB not opposed to the car CBS CBS are you also go to major-general they told them happen to be mates in the military academy I was told they went after us so the two of them were then the lead battalions and I remember I was I led the first group of a team to visit them in January 1991 does a star visit stopped visit to see what was happening to them and I told them did you write this down I thought it to be very useful because they saw it all nobody else will be able to describe it better than they could and they agreed as I said I've left the army almost it is nobody unfortunately we lost him yeah so it took I think four years five years yes initially mm-hmm but a coke operation which we talked we went to go for very short period lasted for about that when Chaz Stella came into office and I've always said that if he had done the right thing there would have been no need for what I call Liberia - yeah yeah it would have been done by West Africa completely now Tommy in military terms would you consider that first effort at our intervention in Liberia a success yes success for me I think it was because it was something we tried like the general said this is the first life operation we are will be Martine by ourselves so if in fact what he did was he called a walk and a WA if you heard of canal ever before you know L one very one of the old or the end Sonny Thomas and others where they very very senior ones we are rid of us oh and wah everyone Hawaii waa he said at president Raleigh's is some commissions yeah what is a one a walkie no not that name equivalent to come and brief us what they did when they were preparing to go to the Congo Congo alright so after he finished talking to they stopped offices and then the media movement so okay yes I would say ah gentlemen I think we had be even better the preparation is better than what they did so let's just want it give us that encouragement I think it was a success because with all the difficulties logistically particular you know Jesus is the prime mover of a group regime if you don't have it you are dead okay and we didn't have it so at the time who were the protagonists who who are you dealing with trust Allah so I still have been the principle one but he had all the rogue elements of you know at the time Costello and Johnson were together split but but there was a split yes there were other renegade elements of the Alpha system you remember when even the president was killed suddenly key Samuel do someone to hear yeah so his own forces also were not all that loyal to him so there were too many forces are but I was not there yeah of course yeah we after we mounted the force he left we were back here monitoring what was happening in Liberia well so in the words of general and you know it he considers the ahkamaat efforts in Liberia are fairly successful given what they knew and the complexities of the issues that played out in Liberia you know I think from from from a layman's view the management of the issue that case kept on changing its form you know first was char syllabuses some Waldo and then he kills someone too and then and then it splits up into something Prince Tommy Johnson also goes on the street and then later you had all sorts of people coming in for normal it happens in conflict zones hmm yeah they break into various factions everybody trying to assert its own authority and total chaos that's what the situation or - I'd say that I think we did well because that's what are the casualties casualties on part of China I think in our books we did suffer some if I die the initial heat of ownership we lost four how many four for two offices - ratings Wow even before they got on oh yes that was the approach Liberia and subsequently we lost quite a few records are there in the military books whoa let me know Graham we remember dad is in a coma move - yes yes yes yes yes yeah the slit on now we'll be talking about this is where we bring close to this conversation for this episode we'll be spending time with general and you know who again another time but thank you for watching footprints my name is Samuel Ottoman sir have a good day [Music]

Channel: CitiTube

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Length: 56min 36sec (3396 seconds)

Published: Sat Jun 06 2020