Post-strike arrest: 729 people jailed in Cameroon, 157 still on trial, and 466 on appeal

Amadou Ali, Vice Prime Minister, Minister of Justice and Keeper of the Seal, of the Republic of Cameroon has revealed that of the over 1600 persons arrested during the February 24 to 29 social unrest in the country, 729 of them have been tried and sentenced to serve various prison terms ranging from three months to six years.

Speaking during a press conference which took place at the nation’s capital, Yaounde, the Justice Minister made it clear that of the 1671 individuals arrested nationwide, 199 were released in the West province by a decision of the local administration, 256 set free by the courts while 470 others who have been found guilty have appealed against the decision. Contrary to popular out cry that the victims most of whom were innocent did not have a fare trial, Amadou Ali assured
that the trials were being done under the strict respect of the law.

Meanwhile youths and some politicians who have been targeted as being at the origin of the wanton destruction that took place during the strike had gone underground. They are said to be escaping from security operatives who have intensified the search of those alleged to have been actively involved in the destruction of property. A couple of weeks ago Hon.
Nicheau, of the Social Democratic Front Party (SDF), was blocked at the Douala International airport, in an attempt to travel abroad.

During the unrest, furious youths in Bonaberi destroyed fuel stations, rampaging and looting shops. They were stopped at the Bonaberi Bridge on their way to Banonjo on grounds that they wanted to meet the Governor of the province Fai Yengo Francis. Trapped on the bridge most of them were arrested while others jumped into the river for safety. In a nationwide statement, the president of the Republic, Paul Biya, blamed politicians for manipulating the youths in order to reap political gains. He warned that their plans were doomed to failure as he would use all legal means available to ensure the rule of law. Biya’s threat became real as Courts held urgent sessions passing a number of summary judgments on youths arrested by the security
during the social action. During a press conference in Yaounde, a few days after
the strike the Vice prime minister, Minister of Justice and Keeper of the Seals, Amadou Ali, disclosed that of 1671 arrests made across the country, 671 came from the Littoral province. He said the arrests were made following instructions given out to judicial police officers by the state prosecutors, by virtue of Article 103 of the Criminal Procedure Code. Consequently some Courts in the various jurisdictions held in-camera summary session to try those arrested

In Douala, two people received sentences ranging from seven months to one year at the Douala-Bonanjo Court of First Instance. The same court acquitted 22 arrested suspects. In the Douala-Ndokoti Court in the same city 48 persons received prison sentences between six months two years while 17 were acquitted. In Nkongsamba, of the nine persons brought before the
court, two were acquitted; six sentenced to prison terms between four and 16 months while one case is pending. In neighboring Mbanga, the six arrested persons were each sentenced to 18 months in prison. In Limbe in the South West province, two of the six persons brought before the Court of First Instance were acquitted while four received sentences of six to eight months. In Tombel, three people appeared before the court. One was acquitted while two others were
fined CFA 50.000 frs or an imprisonment term of six months.

Meanwhile, armed security operatives still roam the streets of the main cities, especially Douala and Yaounde in search of the alleged perpetrators of acts of vandalism during the strike.
Parents who have not been able to trace their children after the strike are in a state of total bewilderment as to whether they are dead, alive, or locked up in one of the cells or prisons while awaiting trial. Mrs Wambo Madalene, of Ndogpassi, Douala, for example was lucky to find her son alive though locked up in the Bonnajo Judicial police cell. This situation of families seeking to have concrete information about their arrested offspring has been an embarrassment
even to the administration.

It is alleged that some of those recorded as arrested were released by some government officials without authorization, a situation that has created confusion on the check-list of those declared dead, arrested and detained. Amadou Ali said investigations were still underway in Buea, Tiko, Bamenda, Kumbo, Kumba, Dschang and Bafang. ‘Bush Faller’ Jailed Amongst Riot suspect
Meanwhile, Nkeng Thaddeus, a Cameroonian living abroad commonly referred to as ‘bush faller’ who was in Cameroon to prepare for the funeral celebration of his late father will have to spend one year at the Kumba principal prison before ‘falling bush’. Nkeng Thaddeus was jailed amongst nine others as they were found guilty as charged by the Kumba court of first instance for having committed offences contrary to and punishable under the Cameroonian Penal code. Nkeng and
the others, the court declared, were found with crates of beer and other valuables from less Brassieres du Cameroun and Transformation Reef Cameroon (TRC) during the recent strike that was characterized by looting, vandalism and destruction.

Though the state prosecutor Florence Nzene had called on the court to give maximum sentences with hard labour in order to deter looting and vandalism in future, the presiding magistrate, Maire Asong, tempered justice with mercy as pleaded by the defense lawyers, finding Pascal Ayuk Marnus Mbah, Thaddeus Nkeng, Augustine Nkeng, Patrick Tabe, Kamga, Philimon Nkemasong and Emile Forgwe guilty. They will serve an imprisonment terms ranging from 3 months to 1 year.

Man of timbre and calibre: Ayah defies Biya, boycotts constitutional revision bill

The Akwaya CPDM MP tells Biya and Inoni that he won’t be part of the farce

By Roland Akong Wuwih in Yaounde

Much of a democrat, much too independent minded, Paul Ayah Abime, MP for Akwaya sub-division boycotted last Thursday’s plenary session that gave overwhelming endorsement to the constitutional amendment bill.

To eliminate all pressure on him, the deputy, a former senior Appeal Court judge, left Yaounde earlier that day to return to his residence in Buea.

He turned down all telephone calls urging him to change his mind. Ayah did not take his decision in a cowardly manner. He took time to inform his party overlords, notably René Sadi, CPDM secretary-general, and Ephraim Inoni, prime minister, and South West CPDM elite.

He pointed out to them that he was completely unable to bring his conscience round the joining in the adoption of the bill, and took no objections from them. It turned out to Ayah’s surprise that he had, in fact, voted by proxy when the bill was adopted.

Who was the CPDM deputy who faked the proxy? It was none other than Emilia Lifaka Monjowa who played the nasty trick.

She claimed that before leaving Buea, Ayah had asked her to vote for him. Ayah disavowed the manoeuvre, stating that he had not left either verbal or written authority to Lifaka Monjowa.

The Herald has since learned that Lifaka Monjowa who is deputy CPDM group leader had conspired with her chief, Ndongo Essomba, to turn in a hundred per cent vote by the CPDM.

The matter since generated a row among the CPDM South West group some of whom have qualified Lifaka Monjowa as a liar and traitor.

Another strike? Frightened, Biya calls off trip abroad

Courtesy - The Herald

True or false the persistent rumours of another strike as an expression of the public’s anger at last week’s constitutional revision have pushed the government to adopt many more security measures

By Roland Akong Wuwih in Yaounde

The public did not waste time in reacting to last Thursday’s amendment of the constitution which opens the way for Biya to continue in office beyond 2011.

Since Friday, and all throughout the weekend there have been persistent rumours of another strike, as an expression of public anger at the political development.

Until this newspaper went to press yesterday evening, the organisers of the strike remained difficult to identify.

But, true or false, the government has reacted to suggest that they were not taking the rumours lightly.

President Paul Biya, in a striking reaction to the rumours, called off at the last minute a journey that he was about to undertake abroad on Saturday. The Yaounde town centre main street was in the process of being cleared to await his passage as is usual, when directives to halt the action and free the traffic were given.

The president was taking leave at his Geneva residence (Inter-continental Hotel) after successfully getting through the constitutional amendment, which has weighed heavily on him for the last one year. He may now have to wait until the coast is clear of any storm.

In other moves, there were movements and positioning of reinforcement troops. Molyko - the university quarters - was so heavily infested with armed troops amidst persistent talk of strike with effect from today, Monday that some students began to leave.

Truckloads of troop reinforcement arrived in Bamenda on Friday evening, waiting for deployment.

Nightly arrests of youths in Yaounde and Douala were observed. Even though the organisers of the strike are not known, they are said to target when the strike begins, CPDM parliamentarians who voted the constitutional amendment bill.

Last February’s strike which was initiated by transporters’ unions who failed to come to an
agreement with the government on rates, revealed a new sense of power of the masses.

Public authorities were stunned by the whole-hearted adherence to the strike by transporters across five provinces, and the discipline with which they took instructions from their leaders in Yaounde.

The strike, once it began, offered the opportunity for the determined expression of widespread public anger at the policies of the regime, and particularly the planned amendment of the constitution.

The strike was so successful that as soon as it ended there began talks of yet another strike in preparation - sure evidence of a new sense of confidence by the people.

Constitutional revision: Biya’s risky adventure: People power is already rumbling!

Courtesy - The Herald Editorial

Paul Biya’s bill had hardly been voted on when the streets began to rumble. In fright, the president called off his trip abroad where he had to rest after the great task. Whether the strike is true now or not, people power threatens and is something to reckon with. From the Church, an unusual and forthright voice also warns the Yaounde authorities to beware of people power. Says February was child’s play.

Ask just anyone you meet their opinion on last week’s illicit tampering with the constitution to allow Paul Biya yet another term in 2011, and the answer you get is the same: ‘ Cameroon has fallen backwards; Cameroon is sinking.’

Twenty-five years so far (and 29 in 2011) of failed economic policies; patently corrupt and inefficient government, questionable governance and failed democratisation, and more, combined to render Cameroon, endowed with natural resources, fertile soil and a hard-working people, a failed, poor and beggarly nation.

With enormous patience, Cameroonians had very much looked forward to Biya’s retirement in 2011, in the ardent hope that with a new freely-chosen leader, Cameroon could have a new beginning and make up for the lost years.

It is just that hope that Paul Biya and his oligarchy are determined to deny Cameroonians. The assembly that voted the amendment bill is a fake one, derived from fake elections. And, contrary to spokesmen of the ruling CPDM click, the amendment was grossly unpopular. (A February 2008 poll by Gallup showed that an overwhelming 84% of Cameroonians disapprove of Paul
Biya).

There was, of course, never a shred of doubt that the amendment bill, like any other government bill, would be voted as soon as it was sent to the assembly. The real issue was the mighty risk that the project itself held for Biya and his regime.

We already drew attention to Biya’s good luck so far in that Cameroon’s donor partners have never so far made up their minds to sanction him for his piling political misconduct. But this time he went too far in defying them. Can they continue to pardon him at the very high cost to Cameroonians?

We have also often noted the public’s new sense of self-confidence which manifested in last February’s strike. We are sure that when all fails that cannot because it is the very policies of the regime that nourish and strengthen it.

People power, as we call it, seems already to be rumbling. There have been persistent talks about another strike that is expected to begin today. Try as hard as we can, this newspaper has been unable to know who are its organisers. For this reason anyone would dismiss it as baseless.
Not until we learnt that Paul Biya cancelled a planned journey abroad at the last moment (see our
main story), and all the militarization of the main towns of the five provinces that took part in last
February’s strike.

Last year September, against rumours of a coup d’état, Paul Biya traveled abroad for three weeks, including a trip to the United Nations. That was followed by another long week in France in October. The story did not bother Biya because it was unfounded.

This time it is not a coup, only a strike. And if it could have such an effect, then don’t dismiss it. That only tells you how real the regime is considering people power.

The answer is not to go to war with the people but to respect their legitimate aspirations. In this regard, Samuel Kleda, the archbishop coadjutor of Douala, who chaired the very recent meeting of the Catholic Episcopal Conference made forthright remarks.

Kleda is absolutely in no doubt that the real problem of Cameroon is one of social injustice that has caused severe socio-economic dis-functioning. Consequences: youth unemployment, rising cost of essential commodities and weak purchasing power of the masses, and corruption that blocks economic development.

The archbishop calls upon public authorities to face the problems squarely and approach solutions with a spirit of dialogue, reconciliation and respect for Cameroonians.

Unless public authorities are serious and objective in this, let them know that last February’s violence was only a wake-up call. A greater shock is in store for them, ie a popular uprising that will embrace the whole country.

Constitutional amendment:Defiant, Paul Biya embarks upon a risky adventure!

EDITORIAL, The Herald Newspaper

Against opposition at home and from vital donors abroad Biya has gone ahead to amend the constitution so as to stay in power beyond 2011. To ignore powerful foreign partners and the kind of people power we witnessed recently is foolhardy. Biya may still be counting on his usual good luck which has helped him to escape the sanctions of the international community for a long history of flawed elections. But his poor record in office over 25 years can no longer guarantee
that luck. This time we will see how he will escape both donors’ wrath and people power.

Those whom the gods will destroy, they first render mad! Anyone familiar with the extreme unpopularity of Paul Biya’s intention to continue in office after 2011 cannot but suspect that this ancient Greek observation is now at work in Cameroon.

The fierceness with which the policies of the government, particularly the amendment of the
constitution, are opposed was symbolised in the rioting, looting and destruction of February’s strike.

Cameroonians have not been alone in opposing Biya’s risky adventure. The EU, France and Britain, Cameroon’s most important donors, took turns only last week to urge the president to retire so there can be power change in 2011. That year Biya will be clocking 28 continuous years in office!

The US position which had been made known a lot earlier was exactly the same as that of the Europeans. US authorities have even been urging Biya to make good a promise he made to George W. Bush at the White House five years ago that he would unfailingly retire in
2011.
It was against that background that Biya went ahead last Friday and sent the constitutional
amendment bill to parliament. There was absolutely no question that Biya was
determined to defy, or even confront, these powers as well as ignore the will of Cameroonians!

In fact, it happened that Biya sent his bill to parliament right after receiving Georges Serre, the
French ambassador, who had come to personally convey both the French government and the EU common position on the matter. Disregard, you might call that.

How else would one regard Biya other than that he is on the road to self-destruction? Think of it. It was the sympathetic support of donor governments that permitted the regime another lease on life with the 2006 admission into the HIPC initiative (ie total debt cancellation).

Without their support Cameroon would be rejected by multilateral donors like the World bank/IMF and all the assistance they grant. The regime could be choked out of existence. But does Biya care?

One must admit, though, that the Etoudi occupant has so far had a good record in escaping the wrath of the international community. Just imagine how good Biya’s luck has been.

Since October 1992, Yaounde has repeatedly escaped punishment for deliberately refusing to correct its flawed electoral system that keeps the regime in power.

Cameroon’s twelve-year membership of the Commonwealth is a story of broken promises, starting with Biya’s brazen refusal to adhere to the Harare Declaration, the very principles of good governance by which membership is defined.

On the issue of a credible electoral system, Biya’s sense of impunity and defiance was openly displayed in December 2006 when he made a sudden u-turn on the Commonwealth with which he had worked for a year and a half at his own request to create a “truly independent election management organ in Cameroon.”

But the Commonwealth forgave the affront with amazing grace. Such is the generous pardon that Biya has usually received for his political sinfulness. No doubt the president feels confident his streak of good luck will continue with the present adventure.

If his overall record had been glowing there would probably be good reason to continue to count on the goodwill of the international community. But that is far from being so.

In the last one year international watchdogs on good governance, corruption, governmental efficiency, and more all took turns to rank Cameroon low on their scales of performance. A Gallop survey also put Biya’s approval rating at a meagre 16%.

Given such a horrific record; given the already long years in office, and given the daringness of the project that can only be achieved with rigged elections, it remains to see if this time the
international community would be complacent.

And even if that failed the huge and explosive anger of the masses, a bit of which was witnessed at the recent strike, is an ever-looming danger to watch.

With the odds that Biya has so painstakingly stacked against himself, isn’t it just possible that the
president is still counting on luck that may since have left him?
Hasn’t the president provoked the vengeance of the
gods?

Episcopal Conference: Embezzlement of Church funds top on agenda

Corruption in Cameroon is not only an evil in public life. It has become clear that Catholic Church money in Cameroon is often subjected to theft by the Church authorities. The issue has become alarming and constitutes the central point of the meeting of the
Episcopal Conference of Cameroon that is closing a three-day conference in Yaounde today

By Roland Akong Wuwih in Yaounde

The embezzlement and misappropriation of public funds in Cameroon is well known. The government appears helpless in coping with the problem of corruption for which it continuously gets low international ranking.

But hardly does the public know that there is corruption in the Catholic Church in Cameroon to a scale that is alarming its prelates.

The widespread abuse of Church money in Cameroon has repeatedly become a priority item during successive meetings of the Episcopal Conference, the union of bishops that governs the Church.

Because the issue is often handled at close door sessions and not carried in final communiqués, it goes unnoticed by the wide public.

But now it appears that the embezzlement of Church money is at a run-away scale, which obliged the papal nuncio, Elisio Antonio Ariotti, and the chairman of the meeting, Bishop Samuel Kleda, to comment openly on it at their opening addresses.

The papal nuncio condemned the quality of financial reports from the different dioceses and parishes. Then Kleda called for serious reflection on the matter to find a definite solution to it all.

The official agenda of the three-day conference that ends today put as top priority, “Better management of Church’s goods.”

It is common knowledge that fund raised by the different parishes across Cameroon are not faithfully accounted for and that some Church authorities are even known to be unscrupulous with Church money.

There is a permanent state of tension between heads of dioceses and heads of parishes over money problems.

Many diocese heads do not believe the financial account rendered by the different parish heads within their dioceses.

Priests in all the dioceses generally complain of poor pay and sometimes harsh living conditions that expose them to the temptation of pocketing Church collection.

Some commentators say that the first major step in correcting the abuse of Church fund is for the Church to raise the pay and other living conditions of its priests.