[governance] Fwd: Fears for jailed activists as Cameroon cracks down on anglophone minority

[Nyangkwe Agien Aaron]

-Subject: Fears for jailed activists as Cameroon cracks down on anglophone
minority




Fears for jailed activists as Cameroon cracks down on anglophone minority
Agbor Balla and Fontem Neba could face death penalty over protests to
promote rights of nation’s English-speaking minority
[image: Bamenda, Cameroon, on 8 December 2016.]
<https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/feb/01/cameroon-activists-to-remain-in-jail-as-terrorism-trial-is-delayed#img-1>
Bamenda,
the country’s largest anglophone city, where at least four people were
killed in December. Photograph: Stringer/Reuters

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Ruth Maclean <https://www.theguardian.com/profile/ruth-maclean> in Dakar
Wednesday 1 February 2017 07.35 ESTLast modified on Wednesday 1 February
2017 11.15 EST
Two activists jailed for trying to promote anglophone rights in Cameroon
<https://www.theguardian.com/world/cameroon> will remain in prison after
their trial for terrorism was delayed without an official explanation.
Human rights lawyer Felix Agbor Balla and university lecturer Fontem Neba,
who were arrested last month, could face the death penalty for organising
peaceful protests to promote the rights of the English-speaking minority in
the central African country.
Cameroon urged to investigate deaths amid anglophone protests

Read more
<https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/dec/13/cameroon-urged-investigate-clashes-anglophone-regions>
What is today known as the Republic of Cameroon was, from 1922 to 1961,
split into a French territory and a British mandate territory. Since
independence, many anglophone Cameroonians have felt marginalised in a
country where the majority speaks French.
Protests erupted late last year against the use of French in courts, and
quickly spread to schools and universities after teachers agreed to strike
over the dominance of the French language.
In Bamenda, the country’s largest anglophone city, at least four people
were killed in December when security forces fired live ammunition in the
air and launched teargas into a market despite no evidence that there was a
protest taking place.
Agbor Balla and Neba, the leaders of the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society
Consortium, were arrested after organising “ghost towns” – stay-at-home
protests against “oppression, marginalisation, and deprivation”.
Tried alongside them will be Bibixy Mancho, an activist who in November
marched alone through Bamenda in west Cameroon, carrying a coffin and
shouting that he was prepared to die for his cause.
“This case has political undertones. We’re just hoping the judges will be
fair, but some are afraid. I don’t see why they charged them with
terrorism,” said Lawrence Nganda, one of the barristers acting for Agbor
Balla and Neba. He has been visiting the men in prison every day, taking
them food and water, but said that their families had been too afraid to
visit.
An online petition
<https://www.change.org/p/president-paul-biya-free-lawyer-felix-agbor-balla>
has
been started calling on the country’s president, Paul Biya, to free Agbor
Balla and Neba.
On Wednesday more than 60 lawyers arrived at the military tribunal where
their case was due to be held on Wednesday. Tensions were high in court
after lawyers videoing the proceedings clashed with soldiers, who said
filming and taking pictures were forbidden and tried to seize their
equipment.
No official reason for the postponement was given, but unofficially,
lawyers understood that it was because a Cameroonian general had died in a
plane crash and many of those working at the court were planning to attend
the funeral.
Amnesty International has called for the prisoners’ immediate and
unconditional release. *“*This worrying pattern of arbitrary arrests,
detention and harassment of civil society members is entirely at odds with
the international human rights law and standards that Cameroon has
committed to uphold,” said Amnesty’s Ilaria Allegrozzi.
Sean O’Brien, Agbor Balla’s former law professor in the US, called for his
former pupil to be freed.
“Felix is a natural leader of people. He leads by inspiring others to
articulate a shared sense of justice and the common good. He is as
confident and comfortable in the courtroom making legal arguments as he is
in the streets making moral arguments. It is precisely these qualities
which make him a threat to the status quo in Cameroon.”
Two weeks ago, the government shut down the internet in the anglophone
regions of Cameroon, replicating a technique to stifle opposition that has
been on the rise across the African continent. There have been internet
shutdowns over elections in the Gambia, Gabon and Uganda in the past year.
In a last communiqué before he was arrested on 17 January, Agbor Balla told
his supporters that the anglophone consortium had been banned and that he
expected to be detained.
“We thank all west Cameroonians for endorsing the non-violent resistance
initiated by the consortium and call on us all to remain resilient in our
march into freedom,” he wrote. “Always remember Dr Myles Munroe’s words
when he said: ‘The greatest tragedy in life is not death, but a life
without purpose.’”
French is the main language in eight regions out of 10, with 63.7% of the
population aged 15 and older reading and writing French.

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-- 
Aaron Agien NYANGKWE
P.O.Box 5213
Douala-Cameroon
Tel. 237 673 42 71 27
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