Southern Cameroons Interim Government

Brutality of Camerounian Gendarmes

Copyright © 2005 This Day.
All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com).

This Day (Lagos)
EDITORIAL

Once more, the Camerounian authorities are dehumanising Nigerians in the name of deportation. Though every country has the right to implement its immigration laws, the brutalisation of immigrants to be deported is certainly not part of that right.

What makes the latest Camerounian outrage all the more worrisome, apart from the dispute over the Bakassi peninsular, is the socio-linguistic colouration it has assumed. The fight for emancipation by Southern Camerounians who are largely English-speaking, like Nigerians, has pitched them against the more formidable French-speaking part. The former have raised alarm at various fora over purported cases of torture and other forms of barbarism unleashed on them by their ruling French compatriots. Now that Nigerians who live in Cameroun have been caught in this hostile internal clash, apathy on the part of the Nigerian government to their plight would mean an invitation to the continued harassment and humiliation of our countrymen.

The Camerounian gendarmes and police who carry out these despicable acts often claim that the victims are those who do not possess the permits required for residence in Nigeria's eastern neighbour. However, the tales of most of the returnees point to a contrary position. Their narrations paint the picture of an offensive akin to a full-blown war, a situation in which Nigerians are severely beaten and treated like slaves. It is said that when demand is made for their immigration documents and they are produced, money would be extorted from the helpless Nigerians all the same. Failure to pay ends in the sort of brutalisation that is often fatal.

UNPO Concerned about Arbitrary Arrests and Ill-treatment of SCNC Representatives

Source: Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization - www.unpo.org

UNPO Concerned about Arbitrary Arrests and Ill-treatment of SCNC Representatives

Following the recent arrest of SCNC representatives, UNPO is organising a Peaceful Manifestation near the Cameroon Embassy in The Hague (Amaliastraat,14), on Thursday 01 December, at 11 AM.

UNPO has sent the following letter of appeal to the Secretary of the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention. Mr. Miguel de la Lama.

 

Working Group on Arbitrary Detention
c/o. Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights
For the kind attention of Mr. Miguel De La Lama

"15th Century African Slaves Bound for the West Indies"

The Franco-Camerounese armed forces and their Southern Cameroonian captives.

Photo source: Post Watch Magazine

Story that touches the heart :— Tales of brutality from Cameroon: We were treated like common criminals, by Nigerian returnees

By George Onah, Calabar. 
Posted to the Web: Saturday, November 19, 2005
Vanguard (Nigeria)

JUST two weeks ago, an e-mail was sent to this correspondent about the brutality of the Cameroonian gendarmes in Cameroon. It came from the government in exile  of the Federal Democratic Republic of Southern Cameroon based in the United States of America. The mail conveyed a vivid evocation of man’s inhumanity to his  fellow being because they seek freedom from torture and deprivation. Even a mere celebration of a cultural event elicits brutality delivered with sacrilegious impunity.

"Quand ca va pourir, on va le sentir!"

By Dr. Gary K. Busch
November 8, 2005

It doesn’t require a delicate nose to smell the decay of French rule in the Ivory Coast. The terminal rot started long before the events of November 8 and 9, 2004 but hadn’t reached its full bouquet until those days of horror and violence. The French rule in Africa has been characterised by brutality and the use of unequal power against those unable to defend themselves; in Rwanda, the Congo, Cameroon, Algeria, Chad; the Ivory Coast; the massacre of the Senegalese riflemen at Thiaroye; the brutal and barbaric repression of the insurrection in Madagascar; the shooting of Dimbokro (to name but a few). Over 800,000 Africans died in Rwanda; 45,000 Africans died in one weekend in Setif, Algeria at the hands of French forces. In almost all these cases these were massacres of unarmed Africans by well-armed and equipped French soldiers and their mercenary allies in the Foreign Legion. The horrors outside the Hotel Ivoire were part of a long tradition of French atrocities in Africa.

One may well ask what allows the French to act without the normal restraints which govern the interaction of civilised people. How can they be so callous, so arrogant and so oblivious to the effects of their actions on the opinion of the world community? The answer doesn’t lie in the economics of the relationship. One can make a case that French commercial interests are threatened by non-French involvement in African economies, but this is no recipe or excuse for the brutality of French military activity. The root and intensity of the reaction can be found in two complementary areas. The first is that France’s role in Africa is bound up in the grandeur of France’s position in the world. France claims to be a world power on the basis of (a) having nuclear weapons; (b) occupying a seat on the UN Security Council; and (c) its continuing presence in sub-Saharan Africa. France has its claque of francophone states who laud it, support it and follow its lead in the UN and regional bodies. The global reach of French military power extends from the Rainbow Warrior in New Zealand to Cocody in Abidjan. The fiction of France’s importance is bound up in its position in Africa. Its economy is smaller than California’s; its military might is only mighty when compared with Niger, Chad or Gabon; its position as a world language has largely dissolved; and its cultural influences are negligible at best. Only its African ‘ex-colonies’ make it important. France’s national myth of world status is intimately tied in with its presence in Africa.

SCNC Youth League Creates Radio Station

Copyright © 2005 The Post. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com).

NEWS
October 30, 2005
Posted to the web October 31, 2005

By Peterkins Manyong

An announcement that a radio station has been created to broadcast Pro-Southern Cameroons information has created panic within the Administration of the Northwest.A press release issued by Peter Tieh Ndeh, Secretary General in the Northwest Governor's office over the weekend, warns the population of the Province and calls for vigilance in the event of a broadcast promised in a press release issued by the Southern Cameroons National Council Youth League that has allegedly set up the clandestine radio.

The release, a copy of which The Post procured, states: "There comes a time in the history of an oppressed people, when they have to stand up and speak out. For close to half a century that right has been denied us. We can no longer afford to remain silent".

It proceeds to announce that on Sunday, October 30, from 7pm to 8 pm, Southern Cameroonians and the rest of the world, are invited to tune in to "Radio Free Southern Cameroons, RFSC", broadcasting from the Southern Cameroons capital of Buea, on the 25 meter band short wave.