Southern Cameroons Interim Government

SCAPO Statement on Purported Registration as a Political Party in Republique du Cameroun

February 12, 2010

It has been drawn onto the attention of the Southern Cameroons Peoples'
Organisation (SCAPO) of a Press Release by a certain Mr/Ms ABAKAR AHAMAT, who
claims to be a Senior Administrative Officer in the Bamenda Region, Southern
Cameroons; and who states that SCAPO has registered as a political party in La
Republique du Cameroun on 23 October 2009. SCAPO can say without reservation
that this is totally false; and that we do not know this person [ABAKAR AHAMAT].

SCAPO declared, in 2006, that we are a political party in Southern Cameroons;
and not a party in La Republique du Cameroun. SCAPO has nothing to do with La
Republique du Cameroun inthis critical moment in our history. We must remind the
people of Southern Cameroons, and those of La Republique du Cameroun, as well as
the international community that SCAPO is fully and unchangeably committed to
the sovereignty of Southern Cameroons. This guiding principle and course will
never be altered. Consequently, we are not in line with any individual who wish
to deviate from this course.

The freedom of association is a universal one. As a result, people are free to
associate with any organisation they deem match their political philosophy.
SCAPO is not a political party in La Republique du Cameroun; and we have never
registered as a political party in La Republique du Cameroun. Any purported
registration of SCAPO with La Republique du Cameroun authorities is a gigantic
fraud; and therefore null and void.

We are fully aware that there are genuine Southern Cameroonians who have
political parties in the Republic of Cameroon. We urge them, in good faithe, to
join the struggle for the self-determination and Independence of Southern
Cameroons.

SCAPO believes that a peacefully negotiated settlement for the sovereignty and
independence of Southern Cameroons is the most amicable solution to this
question; and we call on La Republique du Cameroun and President Paul Biya of
that state to use his good offices to comply with Recommendations by the African
Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights requiring that La Republique du Cameroun
engages in Constructive Dialogue with SCAPO, the SCNC and the Southern Cameroons
people.

We will never surrender our sovereignty; as this is a God-given right. We,
therefore, have to be vigilant against false alarms and malicious rumours
conjured up with a deliberate intent and viciously diabolical agenda aimed at
derailing the freedom of a people who have been subjugated for half a century by
La Republique du Cameroun.

God Bless you all.

Dr. Louis Egbe Mbua
SCAPO Delegate, UK and Northern Ireland.

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

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:

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).

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.

Southern Cameroons Gov't Announcement

Fellow Compatriots,

The African Union (AU) just concluded its 12th Ordinary Summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on 4 February 2009. Although most of our people were unaware of what was going on behind the scenes, this was no ordinary Summit for the people of the Southern Cameroons.

La République du Cameroun, in yet another futile political manoeuvre against the inexorable restoration of the sovereign statehood of the Southern Cameroons, had proposed a calculated agenda item on what it falsely called the “Peaceful settlement of the Bakassi conflict” to be discussed by the organs of the Union. In the proposal, la République du Cameroun invited African leaders to do a number of things, which if done, would have seriously undermined the work of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (an organ of the AU) before which is a complaint from the people of the Southern Cameroons on the violation of their eastern frontier by la République du Cameroun.

La République du Cameroun’s proposals were also framed in such a way as to make it appear as though the African Union was endorsing that country’s annexation and continuing armed colonial occupation of the Southern Cameroons.

What la République du Cameroun was asking the AU to do in effect was for the AU to undercut the work of its own organ.

Thanks to the vigilance of the Southern Cameroons Restoration Government (RG), the Southern Cameroons People’s Organization (SCAPO) and the Southern Cameroons National Council (SCNC), and thanks to the guidance of Divine Providence, and the wisdom of African leaders, this misconceived and duplicitous agenda item never managed to get into the final agenda for the Summit.

TO READ COMPLETE ANNOUNCEMENT & SUBMISSION DOCUMENT:

Download Government Announcement

African Union Rejects La Republique du Cameroun's Bakassi Charade

Southern Cameroons National Council (SCNC) Press Statement

The futile efforts of expansionist la Republique du Cameroun to use a neo-imperial mask and conceal the truth on the ground boomeranged in the face of the Yaounde dictatorship in Addis Ababa as the African Union Summit opened yesterday February 1, 2009.

Its sponsored Agenda Item, "Peaceful Conflict Resolution in Africa: Model of the Bakassi Crisis." (EX CL/495 (XIV) Add6) was rejected and deleted from the Agenda for the AU Summit. Without doubt, this came to the junta as a shocking defeat. We salute the courage and vision of the New Age of the AU.

As stated in the SCNC Press Release of August 16, 2006, Yaounde in dancing lame before the main dance, is using its so called "victory" over Nigeria on the Bakassi conflict to divert both national and international attention from the real problem on the ground, namely, her annexation and colonial occupation of British Southern Cameroons. The Bakassi conflict created and magnified by Yaounde was a mere diversion to garner support against its so-called external enemy, namely, Nigeria.

Amnesty International Exposes the Camerounese Junta

Amnesty International today released a report on the alarming human rights situation in Cameroon , accusing the government of gross violations spanning more than ten years - including killings and torture.

Full report: http://www.amnesty.org.uk/uploads/documents/doc_19130.pdf

Many of the violations detailed in today’s report include heavy-handed tactics to clamp down on any political opposition of the Cameroonian government.

Amnesty International’ s Africa Deputy Programme Director, Tawanda Hondora, said:

‘Political opposition is not tolerated in Cameroon.

Unfair trials, intimidation and harassment, including death threats, are routinely used by the authorities to quash criticism from politicians, human rights defenders and journalists.’

Amnesty International said that Cameroonian security forces habitually use excessive and unnecessary force - and the perpetrators regularly go unpunished.

In late February 2008, security forces killed as many as 100 people during demonstrations against the escalating cost of living. Amnesty International has seen photographs and received testimonies suggesting that some of the victims were shot at point blank range, with no effort made to arrest them instead.

Journalists covering these protests were assaulted by members of the security forces. The victims included a cameraman from Canal 2 International television, who was beaten and arrested and had his camera destroyed. He was only freed after soldiers forced him to pay them.

Tawanda Hondora continued:

‘The silencing of the media is particularly worrying. If a journalist is deemed too critical of the government they are silenced — and radio and TV stations are shut down.’

Journalist Michel Mombio was arrested in September 2008 and spent 10 days in custody. He was then transferred to the central prison in the capital, Yaoundé, and charged with fraud and blackmail. He was still in custody without trial in January 2009.

The report also details dreadful prison conditions, which are characterised by inadequate food and medical care as well as overcrowding. All too often minors are held together with adults and there is inadequate separation of males from females, which has led to sexual and other forms of violence and exploitation.

Prisons are reportedly infested with rats and cockroaches and some inmates have resorted to sleeping in the toilets for lack of another place to rest.