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YAOUNDE — 

The government of Cameroon says its security forces did not abuse protesters during clashes in two regions last month. Students and professionals in English-speaking parts of Cameroon were denouncing what they call the overbearing influence of the French language in the bilingual country. The United States has expressed deep concern about the situation.

Government spokesman Issa Tchiroma says contrary to widespread media reports, the military did not abuse the rights of protesting teachers and lawyers in the English-speaking regions of the central African state.

“The law enforcement officers [military] handled demonstrations in Bamenda and Buea with respect and professionalism, in strict compliance with international norms and commitments of Cameroon in matters of human rights. Investigations are under way and in the event of proven misconduct, the government will take some corrective and disciplinary measures in compliance with the provisions laid down by the law,” he said.

Tchiroma said Cameroon will not tolerate any attempts to disrupt the country’s hard-earned national unity, insisting that requests for Cameroon to return to a federal state, a political system scrapped in a 1972 referendum, can not be granted.

The spokesman said he was reacting to a statement issued November 28 by the U.S. State Department. That release expressed concern about the deaths, injuries and damage that resulted from protests which turned violent in Bamenda and Buea, the respective capitals of Cameroon’s Northwestern and Southwestern regions.

U.S. ambassador to Cameroon Michael Hoza has also expressed concerns over the violence. He met with Cameroon’s president Paul Biya and explained his country’s position on the protests that turned violent.

“It is the American government’s position that Cameroon has great strength and diversity, Cameroon has a wonderful history of tolerance and both President Biya and I agreed that dialogue is the future for Cameroon. We know that there are many discussions and we are certain that Cameroon’s people will find solutions and they have to live together in tolerance as they have for many, many years,” he said.

The ongoing protests were called by English-speaking lawyers, followed by teachers and then university students protesting the dominance of French in Cameroon. The lawyers have complained that some judges posted to English-speaking areas are not fluent in the language.

The U.S. has extended its deferral of all non-essential travel for U.S. embassy personnel to the Northwestern and Southwestern regions until December 6 due to the unrest.

Anti-government demonstrators block a road in Bamenda, Cameroon, December 8, 2016.
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YAOUNDE, CAMEROON —
Several people were killed and hundreds more were arrested or are missing Thursday in northwest Cameroon in violence that followed rallies by the country’s English-speaking minority. They were protesting what they call the overbearing influence of French in the bilingual country. Some are demanding a return to federalism while others are asking for secession from the Republic of Cameroon.

Protesters in Bamenda, the capital of the northwest region of Cameroon, came out to stop the ruling CPDM party and the prime minister of Cameroon, Philemon Yang, from organizing a so-called “Peace rally,” intended to halt Anglophone protests that started last month.

Yewong Petra, a resident of Bamenda, says the military shot at protesters who were hoisting blue and white flags that are an symbols of the English speaking regions that want to separate from the French speaking parts of Cameroon.

“The people of Bamenda are hoisting a flag that is not recognized,” Petra said. “You cannot, in a nation, hoist a flag that is not recognized by the people. If it was a white flag, I would understand it is for peace. Hoisting a flag that symbolizes something like a secessionist attitude is going to provoke the military.”

The government said two people were killed, but some residents and media outlets reported there were at least seven deaths.

Soldiers clear a road in Bamenda, Cameroon, December 8, 2016.
Soldiers clear a road in Bamenda, Cameroon, December 8, 2016.
In 1961, a vote was held in what are today’s northwest and southwest English speaking regions of Cameroon. The referendum was over whether to join Nigeria, which had already obtained independence from Britain, or the Republic of Cameroon, which had obtained independence from France. Voters elected to become part of French speaking Cameroon, and the country practiced a federal system of government. English and French became the official languages of Cameroon.

Ebune Charles, historian at the University of Yaounde, says since 1972, when a new constitution was adopted replacing a federal state with a unitary state, French speaking Cameroonians have failed to respect the linguistic and cultural nature of the minority English speaking Cameroonians.

“We were supposed to have predominantly English speaking administrators in the predominantly English speaking regions of the northwest and the southwest, and that is not the case,” Ebune said. “We were expecting official documents signed in both languages; that is not the case. Presidential decrees come only in one language. If you look at the level of the military, that is where it is so scandalous. It is just in one language but we are in a bilingual country.”

Charles also pointed out that the country’s currency is printed only in French, notice boards even in the English speaking regions are mostly in French, and more than 70 percent of radio and TV programs in the state media are in French.

The ongoing protests started when lawyers in the English speaking regions asked for French speaking judges who are not of the common law system to be transferred out of courts in those regions. They declared that justice can’t be rendered when the judge, the advocate and the suspect can’t communicate.

They also asked that the OHADA business law used by French African countries be translated into English.

When those requests were not granted, they refused to defend clients in court.

Teachers also went on strike to protest what they said was an overbearing influence of French in schools.

Professor George Dopgima Nyamdi, politician and former presidential aspirant, says the situation degenerated because the government has refused to listen to the cries of English speaking Cameroonians.

“If things like this happen to a country, it means there is something fundamentally wrong that must be addressed,” Nyamdi said.

As the strikes continue, with violence closing schools, universities and markets, the Catholic Church has been calling for dialogue.

“The prime minister … is setting up a committee, he has appointed the chairperson of the committee so why not give him a chance,” Cornelius Esua Fontem, the archbiship of Bamenda said. “There is a move of dialogue and we should not refuse that move. We want the government to prove that they too are coherent.”

It is not the first time English speaking Cameroonians have protested. In 1984, they created the “Cameroon Anglophone Movement” to press for a return to the federal system, which eventually started calling for independence.

Recall that though both Nigeria and “La Repubique du Cameroun” promised a Federal Union with The Southern Cameroons, “La Republique du Cameroun”, being smaller than Nigeria, agreed on a FEDERAL union with The Southern Cameroons as two equal states of the Federation. “La Republique du Cameroun” pledged never to use its larger population and annex The Southern Cameroons.

Two things happened:

1) The whip-wielding French comrades of the Federation manifested domestic truancy which led to the total destruction and subsequent dissolution of the foundation on which the Union rested and a complete repudiation of the very idea of The Southern Cameroons and “La Republique du Cameroun”.

2) Following this, was colonial imperialism, the annexation and armed occupation of The Southern Cameroons.

These two moves (overthrow of The Federal Constitution Order and the revival of “La Repubique du Cameroun”) meant the status of The Southern Cameroons have been degraded from that of a self-government of an independent state to that of a dependent territory, thus The Southern Cameroonians have become a colonised people under alien subjugation.

The May 20, 1972 Referendum was firstly UNCONSTITUTIONAL in that, it violated Article 47 of the Federal Constitution which stipulated the method of amending it. It stated that:

Any proposal for the revision of the present constitution which impair the unity and integrity of the Federation shall be inadmissible” (Federal Constitution of 1961)

Ahidjo’s hidden agenda, which was the destruction of the Federation and the subsequent assimilation of The Southern Cameroonians was revealed in the Referendum of May 20, 1972.

Since the 1972 Referendum, relationship between the Francophone and the Anglophones have never been the same. Dr John Ngu Foncha in his letter of resignation from the ruling C.P.D.M. party stated that:

“The constitution that I have held and preached as the supreme law of the land is in many respect being ignored or manipulated. People are encouraged to support a flagrant violation of the constitution by going out on marches against the existence of multiple parties”
(Foncha 1990)




The rational behind the Referendum was to destroy the culture of The Southern Cameroons and dismantle its institutions especially in the spheres of legislative government, House of Chiefs, Judiciary, Police force, economic development etc, this was in a bit to accelerate the exploitation with impunity of The Southern Cameroons.

Mr Paul Biya, placed the last nail on The Southern Cameroons casket and being Ahidjo’s well groomed and hand-picked successor, finalised Ahidjo’s diabolic agenda by unilaterally and by a mere Presidential decree promulgated law No. 80.001 of February 4, 1984 abolishing The United Republic of Cameroon and resuscitating in its place “La Republique du Cameroun”.

This unconstitutional change of the country’s name was an ACT OF SECESSION by “La Republique du Cameroun” from the original Union. Remember that the name “La Republique du Cameroun” is the name French “Cameroun” assumed when it became independent on January 1, 1960, without The Southern Cameroons, and became admitted into membership of the United Nations. It equally gained international recognised boundaries.

If this be the case, where is the identity of The Southern Cameroons?

Fon Gordi Dinka, the first President of The United Republic of Cameroon Bar Association, in reaction to this unconstitutional behaviour and in a bit to salvage the situation, bearing in mind, other accumulated grievances, addressed a petition to President Paul Biya. In the protest letter entitled THE NEW SOCIAL ORDER, Dinka accused Biya SECESSION AND ANNEXATION. He argued that by reviving the old name “La Republique du Cameroun”, which was submerged at the Foumban Conference to create a Federation with The Southern Cameroon, this means “La Republique du Cameroun” has seceded from the Union and any claim by la Republique du Cameroun to govern The Southern Cameroons means pure annexation.

Mockery and stereotyping are unavoidable features that have dug rifts between Anglophones and Francophones. This include discrimination in public services, promotions, examinations, admission into schools, mockery references and even psycho-social issues. J.N. Foncha in his resignation letter from the C.P.D.M. emphasized that:

“…the Anglophone whom I brought into the Union have been ridiculed and referred to as ‘les ennemis dans la maison’, ‘les biafrans’, ‘les tritres’… ”

In recent times, what is prevalent is “les sécessionnistes”. Such appellations are derogatory and meant to dehumanise or disenfranchise Anglophones. When Ni John Fru Ndi, an Anglophone, forcefully launched the Social Democratic Fund (S.D.F.) on May 24, 1990, the Anglophones were referred to as ‘traitors’. Also, when continuous Anglophone pressure for democracy forced The National Assembly to adopt in November the Multipartism law and Biya promulgating it into law on December 19, 1990, the Anglophones were referred to as ‘les ennemis dans la maison”.

These derogatory words on Anglophones dismiss the fact that the Anglophone problem is elitist but an issue which has eaten deep into the fabrics of the country’s grassroots.

The UN Sponsored plebiscite of February 11, 1961, is the hardcore of The Southern Cameroon question today. The plebiscite mortgaged The Southern Cameroons’ independence and reunification with “La Republique du Cameroun” that is in violation of UN Resolution 1514 if 1960 on the granting of independence to all colonial and trust territories.

The plebiscite was based on two obnoxious clauses that denied The Southern Cameroons of its right to sovereign independence. The two alternatives were:

a) Do you wish to achieve independence by joining the independent “La Republique du Cameroun?”
or
b) Do you wish to achieve independence by joining The Federal Republic of Nigeria?

Reactions from The Southern Cameroons had advocated a third option which was that of total independence. Unfortunately, the UN rejected the third option.

The UN had pushed The Southern Cameroons into this mess by limiting her options for Independence and failing to respect its own UN Resolution 1514 of 1960. The funny UN proceedings and non-implementations of the UN Resolution 1608 approving a post plebiscite conference had frustrated The Southern Cameroons’ right to self-determination.

The said UN Resolution appointed a commission of three constitutional experts to be nominated one from “La Republique du Cameroun”, another from The Southern Cameroons, enabling then to form a Federal United Republique as contained in the UN Resolution 1608(XV) of 1961.

At this time, “La Republique du Cameroun” was already independent while The Southern Cameroons was enjoying regional status in Nigeria. Their reasons for this committee of experts on constitutional matters was to mediate between “La Republique du Cameroun” and The Southern Cameroons whose independence was to be assumed at the unification, thus the UN intervention was to assure the balance of power.

Unfortunately, the UN and Britain, the administering powers failed to attend the conference while the French supported and advised the Francophone Republic. The UN and British absence was a betrayal of The Southern Cameroonian.

The two questions were against the spirit of the Mamfe Conference which resolved that The Southern Cameroons should first be independent before thinking of re-unification. The resolution of The Mamfe Conference was effectively placed before the UN but was ignored. The plebiscite was therefore something that was forced down the throat of The Southern Cameroonians and is still hunting them today.

Dr J.N. Foncha, The Southern Cameroons Prime Minister who led The Southern Cameroons to independence in his letter to the British, the UN and member countries titled “Startling Revelation from British Declassified documents on The Southern Cameroons” revealed that:

“There is an increasing movement in The Southern Cameroons in favour of a third choice in plebiscite-total independence with United Kingdom Aid. We have not supported this proposition when I wrote my letter 1519/1/60 of June 7, about Cameroons, I had not seen Hell’s letter 1847/11230 of May 25 to Kale about the third question… The terms of the last sentence of that letter cause me concern…”(Declassified UK document).

There is no legal union of the Cameroons, Yaounde seceded since 1984. This means, the territory of the Southern Cameroons is occupied, its citizens annexed and its resources plundered. Only a return to the Pre-1972 status (Federation) can salvage this problem, failure of which will lead to Independence of the Southern Cameroons as Ambazonia Republic.

By Dr.Tee Ebogo-Ngwa
Yaounde

We 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?

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 22^nd 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

1. 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.