“The Penal Code of Oppression”

From let to right Pride Mbi Agbor,Alain Bougan SCNC activist demonstrating at the Cameroonian high commissioner in London on the 25 Nov 2016
From let to right Pride Mbi Agbor,Alain Bougan SCNC activist demonstrating at the Cameroonian high commissioner in London on the 25 Nov 2016

Cameroon, known by many as Africa in miniature, is a product of its colonial masters the English and the French country with a rich ethnic diversity of over 300 different ethnic languages and some of which are spoken and prevalent in other parts of the African continent. With such a diversity with living in close proximity with each other and only been separated by geographical boundaries, Cameroon lives up to its true identity as Africa in miniature. Apart from the myriad tribal languages, English and French remain the two official languages in Cameroon.  However, the contemporary challenge, difficulty, problem or in many ways the dilemma we (Cameroonians) face in Cameroon is not as a result of the 300 different tribes living in close proximity but a problem of marginalisation, suppression and oppression of English-speaking Cameroon especially being the minority.

 

The Cameroon judicial system also varies depending on the area or region where one finds him or herself – if you are in the English part of Cameroon, the Common Law is in practise whilst in French Cameroon, the civil or criminal law – this is a direct effect of both English and French Cameroon previously having two different colonial masters and as a result, these laws have been passed down to the people of Cameroon even after the many years of colonialization.

The Common Law which is practised in English Cameroon is generally uncodified. This means that there is no comprehensive compilation of legal rules and statutes. While Common Law does rely on some inefficient statutes, which are legislative decisions, it is largely dependent on precedence – meaning that the judicial decisions that have already been made in similar cases. These precedents are maintained over time through the records of the courts as well as historically documented case laws known as “yearbooks and reports”. The precedents to be applied in the decision of each new case are determined by the presiding judge. Common law functions as an adversarial system, a contest between two opposing parties before a judge who moderates, with a jury of ordinary people without legal training decides on the facts of the case. The judge then determines the appropriate sentence based on the jury’s verdict.




Civil Law, which is practised in French Cameroon in contrast, is codified. Countries with civil law systems have comprehensive, continuously updated legal codes that specify all matters capable of being brought before a court, the applicable procedure, and the appropriate punishment for each offence. Such codes presents a clear-cut dichotomy between different categories of law: substantive law establishes which acts are subject to criminal or civil prosecution, procedural law establishes how to determine whether a particular action constitutes a criminal act, and penal law establishes the appropriate penalty. In a civil law system, the judge’s role is to establish the facts of the case and to apply the provisions of the applicable code. Though the judge often brings the formal charges, investigates the matter, and decides on the case, he or she works within a framework established by a comprehensive, codified set of laws. The judge’s decision is consequently less crucial in shaping civil law than the decisions of legislators and legal scholars who draft and interpret the codes.

These two legal systems are not mixed in any court sessions and the system of education is set up for English Cameroon to study common law and the French civil law in their various schools of law found in the different parts of Cameroon.

In recent past, we have seen the French domination in English courts by French lawyers who are trained in civil law and have no idea little or no conceptualisation of the common law, sent to work or represent English people in English courts in Cameroon or English people transferred to a French Cameroon and tried for their actions (crime). Although these acts were committed in English Cameroon (i.e. Northwest and Southwest provinces of Cameroon) culprits were tried using civil law in their court proceedings, and on numerous occasions, these have been the case of SCNC activist who have been tried in French courts using civil law while their acts were committed in English Cameroon!

Finally, the penal code enacted on July12, 2016, completely eliminated, erase or better-still wiped out the common law in Cameroon, with section 1-1 stating “All persons shall be subject to criminal law ”, I can begin to describe the frustration of the English Cameroonians or the common law lawyers who have studied all their lives suddenly becoming jobless and having to go back to university to study civil law with a clear and succinct message that Common law has been scrapped out of the English educational system in Cameroon – this is text book definition of marginalisation, oppression, and discrimination.

That was just a section of the so-called Penal code. Other parts include:

Section 102: Hostilities against the Fatherland; any citizen taking part in hostilities against the state is committing treason punishable by death.

Yet hostility means unfriendliness or opposition. Being a member of SCNC will be classified as being hostile against “the fatherland” as they seek to secede from French Cameroon.

Section 111: Secession; whoever undertakes in whatever manner in infringe the territorial integrity shall be punish with imprisonment for life. The SCNC members again will fall prey to this too especially we also know that self-determination is a fundamental right for all.

Other sections include, Section 152: Contempt

Section 153: Contempt of President, Section 158: Collective resistance

Section 231: Unlawful public meetings and processions, the SCNC has been banned and all its meetings have been deemed unlawful, because SCNC is a secessionist activist group and sufficient enough to ban any of such groups from existing.

After several attempts by proponents of the common law to bring the government’s attention to these issues (jobless due to the potential eradication of the common law) to no avail, protagonist of the common law (i.e. lawyers) decided to take to the streets in a peaceful demonstration, that resulted in the government’s response that wasn’t that of dialogue but police harassment and brutality that left many lawyers injured and running for their lives. That notwithstanding, a general strike action was call by the lawyers to force the government to consider the common law of the English Cameroon, that took place on Monday 21 November 2016 and after two days at least 5 civilians were killed by the militia. This has caused not only Common Law lawyers to go on strike, but  English speaking Cameroonians worldwide to take to the streets to demonstrate and show their support and solidarity to these lawyers against police brutality vis-à-vis civilians.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-38078238




In the UK, English Cameroonians demonstrated at the Cameroon High Commissioner at Holland Park in London on the 25 of november 2016  and as usual, instead of a peaceful dialogue, a Cameroonian spy came out of the consulate taking pictures of those demonstrating without their permission: consequentially, all who were there for the demonstration have become potential targets of the Cameroon government but that will not stop us the English speaking Cameroonians! We will die trying to make our voices heard!

SPY IN BLACK LEATHER JACKET AND DROWN TROUSER AT THE DEMONSTRATION AT HOLLAND PARK LONDON
SPY IN BLACK LEATHER JACKET AND BROWN TROUSER AT THE DEMONSTRATION AT HOLLAND PARK LONDON TAKING PHOTOS WITHOUT PERMISSION
SPY IN BLACK LEATHER JACKET AND DROWN TROUSER AT THE DEMONSTRATION AT HOLLAND PARK LONDON
SPY IN BLACK LEATHER JACKET AND BROWN TROUSER AT THE DEMONSTRATION AT HOLLAND PARK LONDON

SPY COUGH IN CAMERA GOING INTO THE CAMEROON HIGH  BUILDING AFTER TAKING PHOTO OF ACTIVIST DEMONSTRATING AT CAMEROON HIGH COMMISSIONER IN LONDON

The demands of the English Cameroonians is simple: to be able to practice common law in English Cameroon and to have a two state federation as it was in the days of late President Ahmadou Ahidjo. But being an SCNC activist, the independence of English Cameroon is what I demand: for the right of self-determination is a fundamental right and I strongly believe Cameroon is a signatory of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights or maybe I am simply hallucinating! #just saying

Please see below a copy of the Penal Code

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-38078238

http://edition.cnn.com/2016/12/15/world/cameroon-protesters-deaths/

By Pride Mbi Agbor.

PRESS RELEASE DEMILITARISE BRITISH SOUTHERN CAMEROONS FOR PEACEFUL RESOLUTION OF POLITICAL CONFLICT

pic5-bdaWe hail and salute the nationalistic consciousness and patriotism demonstrated by all the people – men, women, youths and students – of British Southern Cameroons in solidarity with the Common Law Lawyers and the ongoing strike declared by the Teachers Trade Unions.

We whole heartedly salute the Common Law Lawyers and the Teachers who as custodians respectively of the Common Law heritage and the Anglo-Saxon Educational system have dutifully risen to combat assimilation and the annihilation of our core values and identity by the neo coloniser la Republique du Cameroun. But the problem is far larger than meets the bird’s eye view.

We must get rid of this tripod evil – ANNEXATION, ASSIMILATION and INSTITUTIONALISED VIOLENCE. These three evils are imposed on us by la Republique du Cameroun. To get rid of them we must first get rid of la Republique du Cameroun, the incarnation of the evil tripod.

The ongoing strike by the Common Law Lawyers and the Teachers Trade Unions is consequent upon the intransigence and the devil-inspired insensitivity of the Yaoundé dictatorship. Had President Paul Biya harkened and respected the Banjul Ruling on Communication 266/2003 endorsed by the AU Summit in July 2009, Libya, and had the approved Constructive Dialogue taken place and agreed terms implemented, things would not have degenerated to this painful point of anger and hatred.

One of the strong points in the Ruling is the call for an end to arrest, transfer, detention and trial of Southern Cameroonians for crimes allegedly committed in British Southern Cameroons by Civil Law judges in French in la Republique du Cameroun courts and military tribunals.

In addition to flouting the ruling with impunity, the worst has been visited on the people. Firstly, while arbitrary arrests, kidnapping to la Republique du Cameroun for kangaroo trials in French is still on, e.g. the Wum Saga, Southern Cameroons Courts and judiciary are now flooded with magistrates steeped in Napoleonic code, among other measures aimed at annihilating the Common Law completely. The Common Law Lawyers have thus seen silence as collaboration for self-destruction and extinction of British Southern Cameroons identity.




At the level of education harmonization was tailored to expedite assimilation and consolidate annexation for the prestige and grandeur of la Republique du Cameroun. Proud of the inherited Anglo Saxon educational system and core values which has given us self-esteem, community spirit, sense of commonweal as opposed to la Republique du Cameroun spirit of individualism, grabbing and corrupt culture, the Teachers Trade Unions and other stakeholders of the British Southern Cameroons educational system have out rightly rejected harmonisation, euphemism for assimilation and dehumanisation of the British Southern Cameroons.

The peaceful strike has swept across from north to south and east to west for Southern Cameroonians after more than half a century of la Republique du Cameroun barbaric domination and alien rule have come to the end of the road and can bear it no more. But why use of live bullets by occupation forces?

pic-1-bda pic2-bda pic3-bda pic4-bda pic5-bdapic6-bda

THE PEOPLE’S CALL OF HISTORY AND POSITION;

  1. No Southern Cameroonian should allow himself/herself to be used against his people. Enough of treachery by fortune seekers.
  2. No more dialogue with the coloniser and annexationist. The colonial occupier knows only the dialogue of the grave yard. The only acceptable thing and that which the people want is negotiation for peaceful separation under the UN as the umpire. Peaceful separation will enable the two nations and peoples live as good neighbours as before 1961.
  3. The official language of British Southern Cameroons, in addition to the languages of nationalities, is English. Not banning the teaching of other foreign languages, English is the language of instruction in school, the language of use in offices, churches and other official transactions.
  4. For peaceful resolution of the political conflict between British Southern Cameroons and la Republique du Cameroun;
  5. We call on all Southern Cameroonians in Parliament of la Republique du Cameroun to learn from the lessons of 1953 and as representatives of the people dutifully COME BACK HOME for necessary consultation and positive action in the supreme interest of their people. Makers of progressive history are not those who have never erred, they are people who learn from their mistakes and for the common good rise to the challenge of their time. History is watching!
  6. We call on all The Natural Rulers, the fathers of the original nations amalgamated to create British Southern Cameroons, the political leaders and Religious Authorities, to take judicious notice of the plight of our people and speak out in defense of TRUTH, FREEDOM and JUSTICE and inherent right to self-determination and SOVEREIGN INDEPENDENCE, for to pretentiously be indifferent is treachery.
  7. We call on Yaoundé to demilitarise the British Southern Cameroons to create an enabling environment for necessary negotiation for peaceful separation. The current military reinforcement with troops armed to the teeth, arbitrary arrests, torture, detentions, is provocation too much for a people subjected to a constant reign of terror.
  8. We call on the UN to learn from its past mistakes and not play the ostrich and allow la Republique du Cameroun “agents provocateurs” sent into this former UN Trust Territory ignite an unrest whose consequences will leave a dark scar on the conscience of the UN.

Done in Buea this 22nd Day of November, 2016

For the SCNC and in the name of the people of British Southern Cameroons.

 

 

 

 

NFOR, N. NFOR

National Chairman, (SCNC)

 

Cc;

Common Law Lawyers

Teachers Trade Unions

Religious Authorities

Diplomatic Missions in Yaoundé,

ACHPR, Banjul, The Gambia

Pan African Parliament, Midrand 1685, Gauteng Province, South Africa

Commonwealth Parliamentary Association, London

AU Commission Chairman, Addis Ababa

Commonwealth SG, London

UN SG, New York, USA

The Press

Archives

12 FACTS ABOUT THE TERRITORY OF THE SOUTHERN CAMEROONS

scn1. The Southern Cameroons has a surface area of 43,000 sq. km and a current population of about 6 million people. It is thus demographically bigger than at least 60 UN and 18 AU Member States, and spatially bigger than at least 30 UN and 12 AU Member States. Located in the ‘armpit’ of Africa, it is sandwiched between Nigeria and Republique du Cameroun like a wedge between West Africa and what in effect is still French Equatorial Africa. It has frontiers to the west and north with Nigeria, to the east with Republique du Cameroun, and to the south with the Equatoria Guinean Island of Bioko. The borders are well attested by international boundary treaties.

2. The natural resources of the Southern Cameroons include oil, gas, timber, coffee, cocoa, tea, bananas, oil palm, rubber, wildlife, fish, medicinal plants, waterfalls and a wide variety of fruit and agricultural produce.
3. The territory later identified as the Southern Cameroons was originally British from 1858-1887. It was ceded to Germany and subsequently incorporated into the contiguous German protectorate of Kamerun, which had been acquired earlier in 1884.

4. A 1913 Anglo-German Treaty respecting the settlement of the frontier between the British territory of Nigeria and the German territory of Kamerun from Lake Chad to the sea. That territorially grounded treaty has remained the instrument defining the international boundary between Nigeria and the Southern Cameroons. Moreover, a 1954 British Order in Council (Definition of Boundaries Proclamation) defined the boundary between the Eastern Region of Nigeria and the Southern Cameroons.

5. The same territory that had been ceded in 1887 by Britain to Germany was captured by British forces in September 1914 soon after the outbreak of World War I. It later became known as the British Cameroons, consisting of two separate parts, the Southern Cameroons and the Northern Cameroons.

6. Germany held on to its original Kamerun protectorate until 1916 when Anglo-French forces captured it. France took possession of the territory and it became known as French Cameroun. In 1916 therefore, Germany ceased to exercise any territorial authority (sovereignty) over Kamerun. The utter defeat of Germany entailed the loss of its colonial territory. Under Articles 118 and 119 of the 1919 Versailles Treaties Germany renounced and relinquished all rights in and title to all its overseas possessions, including her Kamerun territory.




7. An Anglo-French treaty of 1916 (the Milner-Simon Declaration) defined the international boundary between the British Cameroons and French Cameroun. This territorial delimitation was confirmed by the League of Nations in 1922 when the two territories were separately placed under the Mandates System. The territorial alignment was further confirmed by the Anglo-French Treaty of 9 January 1931, signed by the Governor-General of Nigeria and the Governor of French Cameroun.

8. The Southern Cameroons was thus under British rule from 1858 to 1887, and then from 1915 to 1961, a total period of nearly 80 years. That long British connection left an indelible mark on the territory, bequeathing to it an Anglo-Saxon heritage. The territory’s official language is English. Its educational, legal, administrative, political, governance and institutional culture and value systems are all English-derived.

9. The Southern Cameroons was under international tutelage with the status of a class ‘B’ territory, first as a British-Mandated Territory of the League of Nations from 1922-1945, and then as a British-administered United Nations Trust Territory from 1946 to 1961.

10. Under Article 22 of the Treaties of Versailles the Mandatory Power accepted and undertook to apply “the principle that the well-being and development of [the inhabitants of the territories concerned] form a sacred trust of civilization.” At the end of World War II the international mandates system was transmuted to the international trusteeship system under chapters XII and XIII of the UN Charter.

11. By Article 73 of that Charter the Administering Power “recognize the principle that the interests of the inhabitants of [territories whose peoples have not yet attained a measure of self-government] are paramount, and accept as a sacred trust the obligation to promote to the utmost, within the system of international peace and security established by the present Charter, the well-being of the inhabitants of those territories.” One of the basic objectives of the international trusteeship system, as stated in Article 76 b of the Charter, is “to promote the political, economic, social, and educational advancement of the inhabitants of the trust territories, and their progressive development towards self-government or independence as may be appropriate to the particular circumstances of each territory and its peoples and the freely expressed wishes of the peoples concerned, and as may be provided by the terms of each trusteeship agreement.”

12. Up to 1960, the Southern Cameroons though under international tutelage was administered by Britain as part of her contiguous colonial territory of Nigeria. But its distinct identity and personality, separate from Nigeria, remained unassailable. UN Resolution 224 (III) of 18 November 1948 protected the Trust Territory from annexation by any colonial-minded neighbour. While acknowledging that the Trusteeship Agreement makes allowance for ‘administrative union’, the Resolution provides that “Such a union must remain strictly administrative in its nature and scope, and its operation must not have the effect of creating any conditions which will obstruct the separate development of the Trust Territory, in the fields of political, economic, social and educational advancement, as a distinct entity.”

As published by the THE AFRICAN COMMISSION ON HUMAN AND PEOPLES’ RIGHTS- Banjul.

MR PAUL BIYA ENOUGH is Enough

Catherine Yomber SCNC activist UK
Catherine Yombo SCNC activist UK

For how long must we suffer from all forms of human rights violations, poverty,
underdevelopment not to mention the unmentionable which is the killing of innocent people day-in-day-out. Southern Cameroonians (SC) have been reduced to the level of slaves in their motherland. The uniform men (gendarmes) of La Republic take pleasure in inflicting pain and misery to Southern Cameroonians and in exchange receive promotions at work. I must say this again and again; there has never been a union between Southern Cameroon and La Republic du Cameroun (LR). LR was already an independent country in 1960 long before SC got its independent in 1961.
Our independence is as such inevitable and we want total restoration of our statehood. It is our fundamental human rights and nothing will stop us from fighting for our freedom. We have seen, heard and have undergone all forms of inhuman treatment and enough is enough?
Democracy is a big joke and amongst other theories in Cameroon with not the least in practice. No doubt SC are detained and beaten to death for expressing their political opinions. It is also no wander that the Anglo-Saxon System of Law- the Common Law which is the law common to us is being tampered with and gradual introduction of the Civil Law (Codified law/barbaric French System). This is taking things too far and above the law.




This has taken the Common Law lawyers on the streets of all main cities in Southern Cameroons. These lawyers have been on strike for nearly a month now which is for a just course but what has Mr Paul Biya done? As usual his humble servants the uniform men are spotted everywhere in SC doing what they are paid for and what they best know; agents of massive destruction. Enough is enough give peace a chance by doing the right thing for once in your lifetime which is all we want for over 30yrs.
The “Francophonisation” of our legal system is the highest degree of abuse to us and to anyone of good conscience. This cannot be accepted hands down, never in the history of mankind in addition to all the other injustices. We are all behind the Common Law Lawyers for as we all know “forward ever backward never”. We want our independence and take back control of our land. It is imperative to bring to lime light just the tip of the iceberg as to what necessitated this strike action.
Majority of judges and magistrates in our courts are Francophone passing judgment in French. How can there be a fair hearing when there is a language barrier? Moreover, why are our key jurisdictions dominated by Francophones? Assuming that it is for the purported blending of both systems; why are our Anglophone magistrates marginalized? We can go on and on to ask these questions which just go to show the extent to which fundamental human rights are being violated by LR.
We have shed enough blood and innocent souls loss, enough is enough Mr Paul Biya. The change we need at last, rise and shine fellow Southern Cameroonians.
CATHERINE MURING YOMBO Activists SCNCUK.

THE ANNEXATION AND ASSIMILATION OF ANGLOPHONE EDUCATION

Nursery, Primary, Secondary, and High School Teachers including the University of Buea and Bamenda lecturers have called for an industrial strike on November 21st for a number of reasons. They are joining the Common Law Lawyers who have been protesting now for over a month.

In a communiqué that was released on October 26th, 2016 by All Teachers Trade Unions and Associations of Anglophone Extraction, they listed a number of worries.

  • The withdrawal and re-posting of all French-speaking teachers from Anglophone classrooms with the exception of bilingual teachers.
  • The withdrawal of francophone lecturers and administrators from Anglo-Saxon universities of Bamenda and Buea and their colleges of education.
  • The recruitment of competent Anglophones to teach in various departments of colleges and faculties of the university of Bamenda.
  • The withdrawal and re-orientation of all francophones reading English modern letters in Higher Teachers training college Bambili and other schools of education in Cameroon to departments where they have an academic background.

on these grounds the teachers are demanding:

– The deployment of Anglophone teachers sent to francophone colleges

– The immediate halt of the practice of sending francophone student teachers to practice on Anglophone students.

–  The immediate stoppage of CAP, PROBATOIRE TECHNIQUE and BACCALAUREAT TECHNIQUE from the English sub-system.

– The creation of the Cameroon National council and Le ConseilNational de L’education du Cameroun (CNC/CNEC)
–  The institution of a mandatory one-year industrial attachment program for trainees of the Higher Technical Teacher’s Training College Bambili and Kumba.

It should be noted that these complaints have been submitted to government 10 months ago and none of their demands have been met, rather there is an overtly intensified devious machination to wreak havoc on Anglophones and their sub-system of education thereby pushing them to the fringes of social and educational advancement.




In light of this lamentable situation whereby Anglophones are continuously denigrated, subjugated and treated as a colonised people while children are groomed for slavery, these associations have together declared an indefinite strike action while urging the government NOT to use their machinery of force to provoke any stakeholder or carry out any action that might lead to loss of life and/or property.

“..Just take a look at the faculty of engineering, University of Buea. Anglophones have no place there. Over 85% of the first and second-year students are Francophones. Most Anglophones who did very well at the GCE did not succeed in getting into the school. I think we also have to talk to the VCs and Deans of all Anglophone Universities, to make sure Anglophone children are given priority. Francophones have engineering schools in Yaounde, Douala, yet want to deprive Anglophones from Buea. It is also necessary to take a look at the entrance exams into ENSET Kumba/Bambili and also ENS. Over 90% of the intakes are Francophones. This explains why Anglophone Universities are littered with the French language everywhere. It is indeed, not only outright marginalization but an educational genocide. It should be recalled that the moral standards in most of our mission schools have dropped because of the infiltration of francophone children…”

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