Justice for Mining Affected Communities (MAC), a coalition of Civil Society Organizations, has condemned the killings of nine suspected illegal miners at the AngloGold Ashanti Mining concession.

The deceased were gunned down by the military during an alleged exchange of bullets at the company's mining site at Obuasi in the Ashanti Region

In a statement issued and signed by Raphael Godlove Ahens, the founder and Chief Executive Officer of the Global Media Foundation and the lead organisations of the JMAC comprising 15 CSOs described the incident as a "gross violation of human rights".

Accusing the military and the authorities of the mine of using "excessive force", the statement said it was also unfortunate that the deceased were labelled as illegal miners

"That was a tragic and unnecessary loss of lives", a copy of the statement made available to Sompa FM in Sunyani on Wednesday indicated, saying "it is unacceptable that the precious lives of Ghanaians, many of whom are from impoverished mining communities, continue to be treated with such disdain".

"The militarization of mining security must stop now", it said, saying preliminary investigations conducted by the JMAC in the mining community revealed that "some of the people killed are not illegal miners". "In fact the community members claimed that some of the people killed were not illegal miners but locals attempting to eke out a living in an already resource-deprived region", it added.

Sompaonline.com