Cameroon detention centers overflowing with suspects

Courtesy - Harry Ndienla Yemti

Over 1600 suspects were arrested by government forces after the recent strike action which paralyzed part of the country

Police and Gendarmerie cells around the country are crammed with detainees, most of them youths arrested during the recent four – day strike action that paralyzed some parts of the country.
According to official figures from the country’s ministry of justice, a total of 1.671 people were
arrested around the country after the violent strike which claimed lives and the destruction of both
private and state properties amounting to several billion CFA. They include; 671, from littoral, 400, from the Centre, 100, from Southwest, 280, from West and 220, from the Northwest Provinces. It must be noted that these figures have not been independently confirmed.

From the number provided by the minister, only about 58 have been freed and 38 others sentenced to either a jail term or fine.

The young boys and girls, generally aged between 13 and 23, have been spending nights on corridors and halls after they were arrested for allegedly participating in the four days of rioting which rocked five out of the country’s ten provinces including; Littoral, West, Northwest, Southwest, and Centre (The nation’s capital), provinces.

Consequently the hygienic condition of the detention centres is increasingly becoming unbearable as the number of detainees largely exceed the holding capacities In some areas Gendarmes were forced to use a hall in a neighboring primary school to detain close to 200 youths.

In the meantime a few of the detained youths who were transported to the office of the prosecutors at various courts in the country for questioning recently, were released , while others have been taken to court for trial.

While at the prosecutor’s office, the youths were questioned as to whether they were paid to take part in the strike or brought in from other parts of the country. But most of them pleaded virtuousness and said they were ready to prove that in court even though many fear they might not be given fair trial given the circumstances of the strike

In effect, a host of them who were summarily sentenced last week to various jail terms and fines of hundred of thousands CFA are currently serving their jail terms at the different prisons while others are still being tried

Most of the over 1600 detainees around the country said they were rounded up by security forces in their quarters, not even near the sites of rioting. Others said they were picked up in the street as they were returning home from work while others said security forces forced their way into their homes to bring then out

Meantime, Lawyers of the Cameroon Bar Association have mobilized to guarantee that the detainees receive fair and transparent trial despite the odds. Little wonder why during one of the hearings, a battery of lawyers in Fako Division, lead by Eta-Bisong Junior, stormed
the Buea magistrates’ court, and raised an objection to attempts by the bench to charge, try and sentence same day, some of the suspects.

The lawyers learnt about the matter which the state council for Buea wanted heard that day, after the courts had risen and lawyers retired for the day. When they got wind of the matter, all of them rallied and converged on the court premises for a legal show-off.

When they expressed their desire to appear for defense, the judges reportedly appealed that the
matter be heard in chambers. But one of the Lawyers Blaise Berinyuy argued that the matter, which has been branded criminal, could not be heard in chambers but in the open court.

Then the bench went into a conclave from which it filtered that they decided that, since they were 16 out of the 40 accused youths present, each magistrate should be assigned three or four youths so as to thrash the matter fast.

“A sitting judge does not receive instructions; it is either Cameroon is a state of law as the Head of State stated the other day, or it is not,” Lawyer Julius Oben argued.

After the meeting, which held for over one and a half hours, the state Council came into the court-room and asked that the accused youths should answer their names as the court clerk called them out, so as to spilt them up into groups to be heard in different court rooms and by different judges. But the youths did not heed.

It was then the lead counsel, Eta-Bisong argued that the youths were arrested and charged with the same offence in the same jurisdiction. “When the offence is indivisible, the accused persons must be tried together,” Eta-Bisong charged.

Apparently, in anger, the State Counsel Suh ordered the youths to be remanded into custody.

“The law says the accused must be given three days to prepare his or her defense. How can they want to charge them here and now and hear the matter here and now?” Barrister Berinyuy quipped.

The Secretary General of the National Human Rights and Freedoms Commission for the South West Province, Christopher Tambe Tiku, held that: “if that is done it will ruin the reputation of the judges and the judiciary. The rule of the law must be respected.”

At the instructions of the State Counsel, the court wardens and police ordered the youths into a waiting police station wagon and it zoomed off.

“A country that prides itself as a state of law must be seen as respecting the law. The youths have a vibrant advocacy. The fight for human rights must prevail and I am going to champion that fight,” swore Eta-Bisong.

Members of the bar have revealed that they would be vigilant to see to it that the rule of law prevails

In effect, Ahmadou Ali, the country’s vice prime minister, in charge of justice, has intimated that the ongoing trial is fair and transparent. He made the statement during a press conference which took place last 6 March, 2008, at the nation’s capital of Yaounde. Though the press conference was called to enable government offer clarification on the proceedings on how the trial is being handled, the minister failed to address the issue of deaths casualty which human rights groups have estimated at over a thousand but which the country’s minister of communication puts at 24.
Like the president of the republic in a statement to all Cameroonians during the strike, Ahmadou Ali, however, believes strongly that the strikes were encouraged by individuals who are yet to be identified by the court.

Meanwhile firebrand Littoral SDF chairman and MP for Wouri East, Jean Michel Nincheau, was intercepted at the Douala international airport last Sunday by secret service. The MP, who is well known for organizing anti-government demonstrations in the economic capital of Douala, was escorted home where he has since been under permanent security surveillance.

Hon. Jean Michel Nincheau, who single-handedly mobilized his SDF party militants in Douala to
demonstrate against president Paul Biya’s life presidency project, had come under numerous sparingly disguised attacks by government ministers.

The MP who is not under arrest has the right to travel within the country.