Human rights watchdogs highlight abuses

Cameroon's security forces came in for special mention this year in Amnesty International's latest report on human rights violations worldwide. However, local rights advocates say they are also worried by abuses committed by other sectors, including traditional chiefs. "Unbelievable and unacceptable things are happening in the traditional chiefdoms in the north of Cameroon," says Hilaire Kamga, president of the Cameroonian chapter of the France-based NGO, Nouveaux Droits de l’Homme. Cameroun, a country of some 15 million people, sits on the boundary between West and Central Africa. The southern part of the country has much in common with Central African Republic, Equatorial Guinea and Gabon. The north is more akin to Sahelian countries and regions such as Niger, Chad and northern Nigeria. People in the north "live daily with torture, modern slavery and many other human rights violations", Kamga said. "Worse still, in that part of the country there are private prisons in the traditional chiefdoms where detainees have regular brushes with death,” he stated, adding that about 60 people had been killed in such prisons in the past two years. NDH-Cameroun said that since December 2001, it has been waging a campaign against “these abuses, which discredit Cameroon in the eyes of national and international public opinion”. Amnesty's report, issued on 28 May, focuses more on abuses by security forces. These include extrajudicial killings such as the case of nine youths whom members of the Operational Command - a special crime-fighting unit set up in 2000 by President Paul Biya - are suspected of killing last year. Amnesty said national and international pressure led the government to conduct an internal inquiry into the killings, and eight security officials were arrested. However, the findings of the investigation have not been made public. The eight suspects are due to appear before a military court on 18 June. Reports of executions continued this year. Le Messager, a private newpaper published thrice weekly, reported on 12 April 2002 that nine armed robbers had disappeared or were executed by gendarmes at Bafoussam, in the west of the country. This was denied by Communications Minister Jacques Fame Ndongo and the National Committee on Human Rights and Freedoms (CNDHL - French abbreviation). However, the media have continued to report on it. Amnesty also said that steps taken in Belgium by political and civil society groups towards instituting legal proceedings against Biya for crimes against humanity had led to increased repression and harassment against human rights advocates by security forces. In Cameroon’s English-speaking Southwest and Northwest provinces, security forces have continued to use brute force against the population during demonstrations, according to Amnesty. On 1 October 2001, it said, at least three persons were killed and nine others wounded when police and gendarmes used firearms to disperse a peaceful demonstration in Kumbo, Northwest Province. The watchdog also said that 18 members of the South Cameroons National Council (SCNC), which advocates independence for the two English-speaking provinces, were arrested in October 2001 and detained without trial for two months. Six others were released recently after being held without trial for 14 months. Advocates of greater autonomy for the two provinces were also detained while sharing out tracts calling for a return to a federal system on the 30th anniversary of the unitary state, celebrated on 20 May. Cameroon, a former German colony, was a UN trust territory administered by France and Britain prior to independence. The northern part of British-administered Cameroon voted to become part of Nigeria at a UN-supervised plebiscite in 1961, while the southern part opted to join French-speaking Cameroon, which then became a federation. However, in 1972, Cameroon became a unitary state. In recent years, calls for self-government have been fuelled by the feeling among some sectors that the two English-speaking provinces, which have about one-fifth of the population, have been marginalized. Amnesty also expressed concern about the situation of 18 « political prisoners » convicted in 1999 of charges including murder and robbery in connection with armed attacks in Northwest Province in the runup to legislative elections in 1997. “Most suffered from severe health problems as a result of poor prison conditions and prolonged confinement in darkness," and "they continued to be denied access to adequate medical treatment," according to Amnesty, which also said their trial had been unfair. The international watchdog said human rights defenders and journalists who denounced human rights violations by the security forces had been harassed. They include the president of the Mouvement pour la défense des droits de l'homme et des libertés ( MDDHL - Movement for the Defence of Human Rights and Freedoms) Abdoulaye Math, who was arrested and subjected to a body search in August 2001. Documents on human rights violations which were confiscated from him have still not been returned, Amnesty said. Furthermore the office of the MDDHL in the northern town of Maroua was burgled and an attempt was made to burn down that of another rights group, Action des chrétiens pour l'abolition de la torture (ACAT - Action of Christians Against Torture) in the commercial capital, Douala. The international watchdog also complained that numerous applications for visas to enable its delegates to go to Cameroon to do more in-depth investigations on the human rights situation had been denied. There was no immediate official public reaction to the Amnesty report but a source close to the government said it was not credible. The source, who requested anonymity, declined to give any further details.