Southern Cameroons Interim Government

The Way Forward Network (WFN) Calls for Ghost Towns During Biya's Trip to Bamenda

The Way Forward Network (WFN)

 

for the emancipation of the Southern Cameroons ( formerly Ambas-Bay Colony).

Communications Committee

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE- January 30, 2010

Washington DC: Tel: +1-240-580-3467

New York

: Tel: +1-646-736-0707       

CALL FOR GHOST TOWNS DURING BIYA'S TRIP TO BAMENDA

The Networking Committee of the Way Forwards Network (WFN) is calling for ghost towns across the Southern Cameroons during the coming trip of Mr. Paul Bartholomew Biya Bi Mvondo to Bamenda.

"We declare the day of Biya's trip a day to mourn and reflect on the lives of all Southern Cameroonians who have been murdered or maimed by Mr. Biya's forces, and we call on Southern Cameroonians to boycott all events related to Mr. Biya's trip to Bamenda. There will be simultaneous ghost towns in Mundemba, Mamfe, Kumba , Victoria and Buea during this trip."

This cold-shoulder for Biya is part of our wider strategy that includes ongoing efforts to get the US Senate to cut Cameroon's access to multilateral funding Institutions like the African Development Bank, the IMF and the World Bank—until Cameroon complies with the judgement of the African Commission on Human and Peoples Rights (ACHPR) requiring Cameroon to pay compensation to the families of the victims of it's armed forces.

When the Biya regime announced plans to commemorate the 50th anniversary of his armed forces in Bamenda, the town most brutalised by these forces since 1990, the irony was not lost on Southern Cameroons activists. A walk through down town Bamenda brings you face to face with some of the children whose limbs were blown to pieces by tear gas canisters booby-trapped with grenades. And at Liberty Square , neighbours will point to the spot where on Saturday May 26, 1990, Biya's forces shot six people dead at a peaceful pro-democracy rally. 

Going forward, will shall challenge every effort by Biya's regime to browbeat our people into accepting the occupation as a fait accompli.

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The Way Forwards Network (WFN) was created in 2007 by organisations involved in the struggle for the emancipation of the former Ambas-bay Colony aka the United Nations Trust Territory of Southern Cameroons under United Kingdom Administration.

For more information, email us at wfn@riseup.net

Visit our website at http://www.wfn. memberlodge. org

Carlson Anyangwe-The Champion Newspaper Interview, January 10, 2010.

January 11, 2010

QUESTIONS FROM THE CHAMPION NEWSPAPER

RESPONDENT: Carlson Anyangwe

1.   Recently, gendarmes from Cameroun invaded homes of Nigerians resident in Bakassi. This is beginning to heighten diplomatic tensions between both countries. How do you view this act of provocation by the Camerounian government?

   

What you call an act of provocation is the stock-in-trade of that country and part of its policy. It is a policy that might well not be too far removed from state sponsored terrorism. The goal of terrorization is to procure submission to colonial occupation. République du Cameroun knows very well that its presence in the Southern Cameroons, including Bakassi of course, is legally untenable. So it seeks to impose a reign of terror in Bakassi in particular, and in the Southern Cameroons in general, in hopes that it can possibly limit the growing widespread and active opposition to the colonial occupation of our homeland. 

Regarding the other aspect of your question, I fear there might be a perception in certain quarters that Nigeria could just be playing to the gallery and deceiving the Nigerians settled in the Bakassi Peninsula. There are two credible, peaceful and meaningful actions Nigeria could take to put an end to République du Cameroun’s continuing armed provocations: set up a committee in parliament to ascertain and report back whether there is any instrument of international law that fixes the boundary of République du Cameroun at the Bakassi Peninsula, and, secondly, execute the Abuja High Court Ruling on the Southern Cameroons. If your paper were to challenge the Federal Government to these specific actions, you may be surprised at the endless excuses it will give.

The only way the government can show seriousness is to address the Bakassi issue from its root cause, which is that République du Cameroun has no boundary with Nigeria at the Bakassi Peninsula. Handing over Bakassi to République du Cameroun was like Mauritania’s purported handing over of the southern part of the Western Sahara to Morocco. In handing over Bakassi Nigeria was in breach of the same international law it claimed to uphold because Nigeria did not only have to respect its boundaries acquired at independence; it is also bound, as a credible member of the international community, to insist on respect of the same principle by République du Cameroun. The principle of international law obliging countries to respect boundaries acquired at independence imposes a concomitant duty on states not to recognize any claim by a state to territory not included in that state’s territory at independence or not acquired by means recognized under international law. Bakassi Peninsula has never been part of the territory of République du Cameroun either before or at its independence, and no new frontier arrangement has ever been made to warrant a change in this territorial state of affairs.

 2.   Will Nigeria be wrong to seek to respond in equal measure against the Camerounian government?

 

Download Nigerian Interview-Published in Sunday Champion, Sunday January 10, 2010-Pages 32-33

Southern Cameroons Youth League (SCYL) 2010 Address

January 04, 2010

EXCERPTS

My fellow compatriots

In the past 5 years, we have been thinking of making this address. It has been a thought locked in the inter-phase of contemplation in which several factors had to be carefully considered. We have weighed the options and decided it was time to speak directly and frankly to our people about the difficulties ahead and the opportunities our resilience can bear for a long time coming.

This message is not impregnated with pleasantries or gloom. It is one from a generation most affected by fifty years of occupation. Fifty years of occupation that has created antipathy, morally bankrupted a huge section of our populace, breadth naivety but has also produce a generation of men and women who have refused to settle for anything less than total victory against the dark forces of occupation.

... As for dialogue or negotiations with Yaounde, the SCYL’s position remains unchanged. We will not talk with butchers who continue to detain, arrest, torture and murder our people. It is not an act of intransigence; but one borne of experience and careful analysis of the regime that has been in Yaoundé for 27 years. Yaoundé does not understand negotiations. It equates it to capitulation and legitimisation.

... We congratulate SCNC and SCAPO for this victory. It couldn’t have been  possible without the brilliance of Prof Carlson Anyangwe. Those who made their widows mite donations were also part of this victory. The SCYL has maintained from the moment we received the verdict that SCAPO and the SCNC alone will decide what to do with the victory. It can learn from the lessons of the Bamenda High Court victory by Ambazonia, the Abuja federal High court victory and the admission of the Southern Camerooninto UNPO. There are valuable lessons it can draw from these victories.But any decision SCAPO, SCNC and its allies take, they should understand  that it will only make sense on the ground and those who will decide how that ground is shaped are the ordinary patriot volunteers.

... As far as the SCYL is concerned, we are bent on victory. Yaoundé must release unconditionally all Southern Cameroonians captives especially; Justice Mbuh, Edwin Jumven, Ngek Simon and all the others in its jails. We will not sit with annexationist under an agenda, the African commission calls constitutional talks and that equates independence to autonomy. We have been treated for fifty years like scams and beggars; we have been disenfranchised and traumatised that sharing a common territorial area with these butchers is a source of unending conflict.

Fellow compatriots,

The SCYL has declared that Paul Biya should be charged for Crimes against humanity for ordering, condoning, abetteing and aiding the commission of systemic torture in our land and in advancing its policy of territorial aggrandisement.

 

Download Southern Cameroons Youth League (SCYL) 2010 Address

Press Release and Christmas Message from SCAPO to the People of the Southern Cameroons

December 4, 2009

 

My dear brothers and sisters,

 

On behalf of the Southern Cameroons Peoples Organization (SCAPO), it is my pleasure to send you the seasonal greetings of Christmas 2009 and to wish you a Happy New Year in 2010.  This year 2009 has been a very eventful year for the people of the former UN Trust Territory of Southern Cameroons because I can finally report to you that our struggle for the self-determination of the Southern Cameroons has achieved a very significant milestone at the African Commission for Human and Peoples Rights.

 

You will all recall that in 2002, SCAPO and a group of other Southern Cameroonians filed a lawsuit at the Abuja Federal High Court against the Attorney General and the Government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.  In this lawsuit we prayed the court to compel the Attorney General and the Government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to honor its treaty obligations under African Charter for Human and Peoples Rights by taking the case of the self-determination of the Southern Cameroons to the United Nations, to the International Court of Justice and to the African Union and to ensure diligent prosecution of the case until a final determination is made by all these international bodies.  This lawsuit was based on Article 20(3) of the African Charter for Human and Peoples Rights which states that “All peoples shall have the right to the assistance of the States parties to the present Charter in their liberation struggle against foreign domination, be it political, economic or cultural.”

Southern Cameroons Grassroots Action Day, November 28, 2009

November 9, 2009

THE KUMBA DECLARATION

“Southern Cameroons’ Grassroots Action Day”

Whereas, the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR), in its rather controversial ‘verdict’ on Communication 266/2003, acknowledges the historical, legitimate and legal fact that “Southern Cameroonians are a People”.

Whereas, the African Charter states in Article 19 that “All peoples shall enjoy the same respect and shall have the same rights. Nothing shall justify the domination of a people by another; Whereas Article 20 of the same African Charter states:

“[1] All peoples shall have the right to existence. They shall have the unquestionable and inalienable right to self-determination. They shall freely determine their political status…

[2] Colonized or oppressed people shall have the right to free themselves from the bonds of domination by resorting to any means recognized by the international community…”

Considering the request by the ACHPR for Southern Cameroonians and the Respondent State in that Communication to report its position to the Commission within 180 days;

Mindful of the indisputable fact that the ‘People’ are sovereign and have the last says in any decision concerning them; And finally, in view of the fact that Southern Cameroonians, and NOT the leaders of the liberation movements, SCNC, SCAPO, Ambazonia, SCARM, SCYL etc., have the final say on their plight as a people: The people of British Southern Cameroons, on whose behalf the plaintiffs filed Communication 266/2003, meeting in Bamenda on October 24, 2009, and in Kumba this day, November 8, 2009 resolve as follows:

SCAPO Official Statement

November 3, 2009

This statement is about the knee-jerk reaction of the Minister of Communication in la République du Cameroun [aka the Republic of Cameroon] on the recommendations of the African Commission of Human and Peoples Rights (ACHPR) in Banjul on the Southern Cameroons case instituted by Kevin Ngwang Gumne and others against the Republic of Cameroon, and the rumours that the Southern Cameroons’ Peoples Organisation (SCAPO) is a political party in la République du Cameroun (LRC).

The ACHPR recommendations included the reform of the Higher Judicial Council with purely Law Persons of the Judiciary. Has the government allowed the reform which will give meaning to independence of the Judiciary duly won for Cameroon by SCAPO and their team? The minister paraded the image of Gumne on CRTV and invited SCAPO and the Southern Cameroons National Council (SCNC) to transform into political parties in LRC.

Communication 266/2003: Southern Cameroons vs. République du Cameroun

October 12, 2009

The extra-judicial killings of Southern Cameroons' nationals, the jailing of Southern Cameroonian infants, the repeated beatings and humiliation of the Southern Cameroonian elderly population have become routine and banalized.

Policies of the deliberate spread of HIV/AIDS in the Southern Cameroons territory, expropriation of Southern Cameroonian wealth, sabotage of Southern Cameroonian business initiatives, sabotage of Southern Cameroons' legal and educational structures and legacies, and other crimes being committed in the occupied Southern Cameroons by French Cameroun aka République du Cameroun under the tutelage of Paris, can only be brought to an end by the termination of France masquerading as République du Cameroun colonial occupation of the Southern Cameroons.

That these perpatrators of some of the worst crimes in the world are being supported and comforted in this inhuman enterprise by countries like Britain and the United States, does not quench one bit, the desire and will of the Southern Cameroons nation to become free and for her people to avail themselves to what the Almighty and even Charter of the UN ordains.

Paris, that ogre of a conductor in this macabre orchestra of death in the Southern Cameroons, her cousins in Washington and London and elsewhere in the European Union, must know, despite or inspite of themselves and their current interest in exploiting the resources of our homeland, that freedom will be ours.

Freedom will be ours, no matter what. No matter how many weapons Paris sells to Yaoundé. No matter how much training American GIs give Paul Biya's thugs of the BIR. No matter what British representatives in the most corrupt capital in the world, Yaoundé, parrot.

The moral gravity of the truth, justice and basic humanity can be seen bearing heavily on the African Commission of Human and Peoples Right (ACHPR) compromised Ruling on Communication 266/2003.

Despite the politics of the moment, the back room deals directed by Paris and Yaoundé at the African Union Commissioners; a sense for the basic humanity for the African population of the Southern Cameroons, a distinct people from that of République du Cameroun, triumphed just enough in the Commission's Ruling.

Read the Ruling on Communication 266/2003 here:
Download ACHPR Comm 266-2003

Southern Cameroons' Liberation Movement Joint Communiqué

We, the Representatives of the Southern Cameroons National Council (SCNC); Southern Cameroons Peoples’ Organisation (SCAPO); the British Southern Cameroons Restoration Government (in Exile) RG, held a synergic meeting in Buea on the 9th of August 2009 and arrived at the following resolutions which we hereby communicate to all Southern Cameroonians and the world at large:

1. That we commit ourselves and our organisations to a renewed and strengthened Unity of Purpose regarding all endeavours geared towards the restoration of the statehood and independence of British Southern Cameroons.

2. That we shall henceforth and on a regular basis concert on all projects and methods of executing them as a means of moving forward with the struggle for the restoration of our beloved fatherland.

3. We call on all other groups in the liberation struggle to close rungs and join the Unity train for the fast and definitive restoration of British Southern Cameroons.

DONE IN BUEA THIS 9th DAY OF AUGUST 2009.

Signed: Chief Ayamba Ette Otun ( Nationl Chairman,SCNC)

Augustine F. Ndangam (Vice Chairman, SCAPO)

Mola Njoh Litumbe (On behalf of the RG)

Fidelis Chinkwo S(ecretary General, SCNC)

Martin F. Yembe (Secretary General, SCAPO)

Barrister Harmony Bobga Mbuton, Counsel

Others Present in the meeting: Nfor N. Nfor( Vice Chair, SCNC); Ngiewih Asunkwain (Communication Sec., SCNC); Besong M. Arrey ( SCNC); Taku Sylvester (SCNC Zonal Chair, Southern Zone); Madam Francisca Keffie (SCNC); James Sabum (SCNC); Njonhuo Vincent (Financial Secretary, SCNC); Barrister Ajong Stanislau( Lawyer/ Counsel).

Understanding the Southern Cameroons Question - Fact Sheet

1. The Southern Cameroons was part of the United Nations Trust Territory of the  Cameroons under United Kingdom’s Administration. The Trusteeship Agreement between the United Nations and the United Kindgom was signed on 13 December 1946.

2. The name, Southern Cameroons, comes from the fact that the British Administering Authority had divided the Trust Territory into a Southern and Northern part, even while the territory was still a League of Nations mandated territory. British Southern Cameroons was created by the British Order in Council of June 26, 1923. By this act of the colonial authority, the British Southern Cameroons became a distinct territory from British Northern Cameroons within the international system, and a unit of self-determination.

3. The Southern Cameroons therefore does not refer to the Southern part of the Republic of Cameroon, but the Southern part of the British Cameroons.

4. French Cameroon was a United Nations Trust Territory under France.

5. French Cameroons and British Cameroons were separate UN Trust Territories with separate agreements, and each governed separately by Article 76(b) of the United Nations Charter. Apart from the fact that they were former parts of an ephemeral German Kamerun that lasted just 30 years and which was formally dismembered by the Versailles Treaty of 1919, there was no other link between them, either in language, administration, culture, politically or otherwise. Each was being prepared for its own self-determination as per Article 76(b) of the UN Charter.

6. British Cameroons was ruled from Nigeria until 1954, when members of the Southern Cameroons in the Nigerian Eastern House of Assembly walked out and returned to Buea, capital of Southern Cameroons, where they formed a thriving parliamentary democracy which lasted until 1961. From 1954 then, the Southern Cameroons was self-governing, with its government, Prime Minister, parliament, judiciary and House of Chiefs. It conducted its first free and fair election in which power changed hands peacefully in 1959.

 7. On 1 January 1960, in application of Article 76(b) of the UN Charter, French Cameroons gained independence from France and became known as La République du Cameroun, or in English, the Republic of Cameroon.

Download FACT SHEET ON THE SOUTHERN CAMEROONS QUESTION-SUMMARY FOR DIPLOMATIC USE

African Union Border Programme Statement

The International Community, and the People of the Southern Cameroons in particular, are informed that the Southern Cameroons Restoration Government (in exile) has served Notice to the African Union Border Programme, its Director, Partners, Academics, Facilitators and all stakeholders.

The Notice calls the AU Border Programme’s attention to the fact that there is an international boundary between the former UN trust territory of French Cameroon that attained independence on 1 January, 1960 as la République du Cameroun, and the former UN trust territory of Southern Cameroons, presently under colonial occupation by la République du Cameroun.

The Notice in question was served on 12 February 2009 (reference African Union Registry: No. 533 of 12 February 2009), and copies sent to the United Nations, the Peace and Security Council of the AU, the Conflict Management Department of the AU, as well as to Embassies of African countries accredited to the AU in Addis Ababa.