Africasiaeuro - The
Coup
Posted
by
Heinz
Rainer February 06 th, 2009 at
11:12 AM, in
Accra
December
31st., lest we forget ...
First a
distant, dull explosion, it seems from another world, I try to
shrug it off.
It is midnight and I am
half asleep by the time the next thundering
sound tells me of something unusual. My senses sharpen and I lay awake,
tense, listening. By the time the rapid exchange from a submachine gun
echoes through the night, I know that trouble is on its way.
Looking
from our windows does not reveal
anything unusual, still I continue to count the number of heavy
artillery rounds that go down in direction of the Flagstaff house. No
one has expected this to come, everyone is surprised.
The
night continues
with the same sounds of heavy
gun fire, not close, yet clearly audible. Nobody can find sleep by now,
and is trying to receive information through the poor telephone system.
Frantic calls are made from residence to residence, to no avail, nobody
knows what is going on.
The
morning brings the first news, house staff
coming from their various locations have heard that a Coup d' Etat
against the civilian government is imminent.
In
memory to those who lost their lives
The
same Flight Lieutenant who has handed over to a Civilian
government before, is the Coup plotter.
The fighting raging between the
various factions is tough., many lose their lives again.
People
are cheering the return of the Flight
Lieutenant, he still is the hero of the people, the defender of truth,
the protector of the poor.
Soon the radio broadcasts
the first news and by now the last doubt is
laid aside, we are in the middle of a Coup d'Etat.
On
the second day all is over, the last Ministers have been arrested by
the Military and the President has been advised to turn himself in
police custody for his personal safety. The constitution is abandoned,
once again, and civil rights are non-existent.
The
second time in
two years, a powerful wind
blows through the African Nation. Amidst widespread corruption in the
government, the voice of justice has spoken. No one can escape the
swift spread of retaliation that follows the next days.
All
party functionaries who have not managed to escape, are being
rounded up and sent to military facilities. Detention, interrogation,
sentencing is all done in military style, military courts are set up in
hastiness.
The Army is in
control, and, will apply their own justice, with the masses
jubilating.
For a few years
the party has once again ruled according to their own
rules, nepotism, favoritism, hypocrisy and corruption the guiding
principle.
The
night before, I have a visitor, Richard, Rich. He
always stops by, for a drink or a meal, and he is what one calls a
'facilitator', he helps when one needs to go through bureaucratic
hurdles, or other problems. He has contacts everywhere and he earns his
money this way.
He
leaves at around 20 hours, no one guesses that he will never come
back again. His old VW beetle is leaking from the exhaust, causing a
rattling noise.
Driving though a
dangerous city, rebel factions and military
still shooting at each other, and runs into a checkpoint , set
up half a mile down the road from where I reside.
He
does not hear the STOP shouts, his muffler is
louder than the voices. A fatal error, the salves of machine gun fire
that erupt from behind take their toll, the car losing direction,
running into a ditch.
The military
follows, pulls out his lifeless body. A common
occurrence during such days. Rich is no longer, he has become a victim
of circumstance, killed by trigger happy soldiers. For in such times,
the venturing out on the roads is almost suicidal.
