Cameroon: Journalists beaten on World Press Freedom

While other countries celebrated World Press Freedom Day on 3 May 2010 with relative calm, it was not the same in Cameroon. Security forces ruthlessly suppressed a sit-in strike in front of the Prime Minister’s office organised by the Cameroon Union of Journalists who were protesting against the death of one of theirs, under very unclear circumstances.

The world watched how journalists were beaten like snakes! Unfortunately the same protests took place amid attempts at banning it in Douala, Bamenda and in Kumba in the Littoral, North West and South West Regions respectively.

In Yaoundé, two placards caught the attention of many. ‘We are all Bibi Ngota’ and ‘Vigilance Mr President.’ The rest of the placards condemned several attempts at muzzling the press, with the memorandum later presented, calling on the government to define the status of pressmen in Cameroon.

What is intriguing in the first placard is the circumstances that led to the death of the publisher of Cameroon Express, Cyrille Germain Bibi Ngota, at the Kondengui Maximum Prison on 22 April 2010.

Bibi Ngota

There are, however, three unanswered questions surrounding the death of this pressman with a clear indication that Cameroon is fast becoming unsafe for the practice of journalism!

First, it has never been made public why the three imprisoned journalists (Serge Sabouang and Harrys Mintya Meka) spent days at the Special Unit in charge of counter espionage better known in French as Direction Générale de la Recherche Extérieure , DGRE, where allegedly they were tortured following their testimonies.

Return To Pre-1990s?
The DGRE in all semblance replaces the former investigative services in the days of late Ahidjo, notably SEDOC, DIRDOC, CND and CENER. Placed under a certain Jean Forchive, these services were acting following ordinance No°62/Of/18 of 12 March 1962 and had as mission the tracking down of people who were suspected of subversion and hostile activities towards the regime at the time.

This ordinance had been suppressed by the law No° 90/046 of 19 December 1990. A political scientist Enoh Meyomesse, had once noted: up to 1990 Cameroonians were living in fear of the unknown, given that security men from these services were present almost everywhere and used a good number of citizens as their informants.

To Meyomesse they were found even in embassies out of the country and even amongst some sporting delegations. Their role in the delegations was to ensure the athletes do not have any contact with Cameroonians on exile at the time.

It is said that when Cameroon Airlines was created a good number of its hostesses were operatives from Cener who keenly followed up the conversation of passengers. Church houses were not spared as even ‘subversive declarations’ from preachers were tantamount to treason and therefore punishable.

There was the strong belief that with the advent of multipartism all that trauma was not supposed to exist anymore. Officially the DGRE is a counter espionage service and was not supposed to have any links with the activities of civilians to talk less of journalists. It is evident that that force is still there and ready to clamp on any dissenting voice! It would be wise for Yaoundé authorities to tell Cameroonians why the indicted publishers who were simply suspects were take to the DGRE.

Of HIV and Privacy
Secondly, everyone is asking whether the communication Minister had the right to say Bibi Ngota was seropositive and died of opportunistic infections.

Issa Tchiroma who talks a little to much claimed that he was being transparent, although it is common knowledge that every patient has a right to privacy in his medical results. The wife of Bibi Ngotta has denounced him; a local NGO fighting against HIV/AIDS has asked him to step down while the medical council, through its president, Guy Sanjong, has expressed shock with the Minister’s declarations.

The question now is whether another medical report had being cooked while Bibi Ngota was in the mortuary? Also, questions are also been raised as to why the communication boss created confusion over the autopsy of the deceased journalist if the government had nothing to hide.

It would be recalled that Cyriaque Ebola Bole, the journalist was to represent the press throughout the funeral was phoned by the Minister on April 27 to rush to the Yaoundé teaching hospital and witness the autopsy. By the time he reached there according to him, he was told the exercise was over. In his absence and that of the deceased’s family members. It remains unclear why the autopsy results have not been published.

Role of SNH
The most disturbing issue in the ‘Bibi affair’ is that those who were expected to make pronouncements have since his death maintained sealed lips. The national and international community expected to have clarifications on the content of the document that has been described by those directly or indirectly concerned as fraudulent. It remains unclear whether the ship was bought by the National Hydrocarbons Corporation, SNH. And if it were, what was its cost?
The Cameroonian public which is encouraging the fight against corruption would want to know who the intermediaries were and what the actual amount they received as commissions was. Also it would be important to clear public opinion on who gave instructions for the payments to be made and whether it reflected the texts governing the company.

A CPDM big wig, Charles Ateba Eyene, has said from his investigations, a ship was actually bought but under doubtful conditions, like the Albatross. And like every other Cameroonian, he is interested in knowing where the ship was bought and whether the Director of the National Shipyard Engineering Company, Chantier Naval Antoine Bikoro, and the Director of the Douala Autonomous Ports, Dayas Mounoume, and the financial expert Dooh Collins are involved. In an Article published by Dikalo Ateba Eyene calls on the Secretary General at the Presidency, Laurent Esso to clear the air on the intricacies of the matter that has taken away the life of an illustrious son of the South Region.

Vigilance Mr President!
If there is one thing President Biya can boast of, it is his quest for the implantation of free speech with the introduction of the liberty laws of the 1990s. But it would seem his close collaborators are thwarting that effort. With the death of Bibi Ngota and the torturing of others by security forces the image of Cameroon has badly been tarnished. The press which is accompanying the President in his efforts, feels very uncomfortable with the ongoing since pressmen have the impression anyone can be given the kind of treatment the three journalists received.