Jerry Rawlings

Jerry John Rawlings, and J. J. (Junior Jesus) called ( born June 22, 1947 in Accra ), Between 1981 and 2001, President of Ghana.

Early years

Rawlings father is Scottish, his mother from the people of the Ewe is from Ghana. After school he went to Britain and studied economics. After joining the Army, he was a captain in the Air Force.

First coup

In mid-May 1979, he made ​​a first attempt to overthrow the military government of President Akuffo. This failed, and Rawlings was arrested for mutiny. Shortly before his execution, he was liberated by rebels. This had made ​​a successful coup d' état ​​on 4 June 1979. The initiator of the coup and head of the junta was Major Kojo Boakye - Djan. His three predecessors Afrifa, Acheampong and Akuffo were asked in June before a firing squad. In July of that year, elections were held and Rawlings handed over power on 24 September 1979, the elected President Hilla Aeschlimann, the Rawlings dismissed from the army as a captain ( The treaty was a regular soldier already finished).

Second coup

After he had been used in 1979 as a puppet, Rawlings overthrew Aeschlimann 1981 on 31 December and has been for about twenty years coming dictator, even if his power as in a so-called " counter coup " (1982) and an attempted coup in July 1983 occasionally was challenged.

Original drive for Rawlings zeal were the fight against corruption and the implementation of socialist reforms. 1985 and 1986, he agreed with President of Burkina Faso, Thomas Sankara, the full merger of the two States within ten years, but with the assassination of Sankara failed this project a West African Union in 1987. During the time Rawlings leaned more then a market order to. He was In the economic sphere Ghana could point to successes in his term, however, criticized on the issue of human rights. The situation improved when he gave the country a new constitution in 1992.

1992 and 1996 he was confirmed in elections, where a certain level of fairness has been granted. 2001 ended his term in office, his former vice-president John Atta - Mills was defeated in the elections against Rawlings challenger to the 1996 elections, John Agyekum Kufuor.

In 1993 he received in Tokyo the Africa Prize of the non-governmental organization The Hunger project.

News

In August 2005, the Ghanaian press dealt with threats from Rawlings against the judiciary, which examines some deaths in the summer of 1982.