Cameroon Security Forces obstructing Journalists

25 February 2011

Source: Committee to Protect Journalists

Cameroon's government is obstructing journalists from reporting on issues of public interest, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Security forces detained a journalist without charge for six days after he interviewed a jailed former official. They also seized footage from reporters covering the brutal repression of a banned opposition march on Wednesday.

Late on Wednesday, military police in the capital, Yaoundé, provisionally released Raphael Kamtchuen, editor of the private monthly La Boussole, after six days of detention without charge on accusations of possessing a classified official document, according to local news reports and local journalists. The nature of the document was not immediately clear. Kamtchuen was arrested by prison guards at Yaoundé's Kondengui Prison while leaving the facility after interviewing jailed former Finance Minister Polycarpe Abah Abah, who is serving a sentence for corruption. Kamtchuen was summoned to appear before a prosecutor today.

"Cameroonian authorities must clarify why they detained Raphael Kamtchuen," said CPJ Africa Advocacy Coordinator Mohamed Keita.

Also on Wednesday, security forces prevented at least eight journalists from filming police brutally dispersing a protest march in the commercial city of Douala, according to local journalists. Plainclothes security agents picked up Agence France-Presse correspondent Reinier Kaze and held him overnight, defense lawyer Levi Deffo told CPJ. Police confiscated or destroyed footage or photographs taken by cameramen Warren Nzedeu of private Equinoxe TV and Charles Talom of pan-African satellite station Vox Africa, according to the Cameroon Journalists' Trade Union. Riot police used a water hose against another journalist, freelancer Aron Agien Nyangkwe, the union reported. Three other journalists, Equinoxe TV's presenter Polycarpe Essomba, and reporters Alain Tchakounte with the state daily Cameroon Tribune and Assongmo Necdem with daily Le Jour, were also harassed, according to union.

""We call on the authorities to hold to account members of the security forces and government who abuse their powers to prevent journalists from documenting their activities," Keita said.

Cameroon: Paul Biya, the Ghadafi of black Africa

23 February 2011
By Juliette Abandokwe

Douala, at all times the craddle of protest in Cameroon

Commemorating the massive upheaval of February 2008, where hundreds of young Cameroonians died in the shootings by Biya's security forces, today was the first day of the protest march proclaimed by Mboua Massok, the well-known and most courageous protester against Biya's regime for several decades. 

Logistically and militarily supported by France, that has extensive business "partnerships" with the regime, Biya has until now never been officially accused of crimes against humanity, although several heavily documented reports have been published on the mass human rights violations that took place in 2008. 

Since Monday, armed forces have been flooding the city of Douala, terrorizing and beating up people in the streets, attempting to paralyze any attempt of protest. 

However determined and convinced, most people felt forced to stay inside their homes today, because of the overwhelming deterrence efforts by Biya's troops. Terror has been the number one method for the regime since he came into power in 1982.

Nevertheless a few courageous ones attempted a potentially deadly outing. And more will doubtlessly do so in the next days. 

The "security forces" we see in the video below have been trained to kill and to torture. 

Like ferocious animals they can only be content by sheding the blood of their own people.

Human life has absolutely not value in their eyes. 

They are the best and most obvious symbol of Biya's 29 year old bloodthirsty regime. 

Several party leaders have been wounded by bat beatings, and some were arrested. In all, about 30 people have been arrested today, and are kept in a completely overcrowded and inhumanely insalubrious New-Bell prison with absolutely no prospect of legal support or a fair trial.

As the people of Douala are resting for the night, it is hard to say how the situation will evolve. Nevertheless the Cameroonians are totally fed up with the social and economic situation, rotten by extrem corruption, impunity and poverty. Biya has made no attempts towards the welfare of his people, and millions of Cameroonians are exiled all over the world. Cameroon is one of the potentially richest countries in Africa.

It is also a well-known fact that Biya & Co dwell in the Intercontinental Hotel in Geneva no less than ten months out of twelve, at the expenses of Cameroonian public funds. In fact nobody ever knows exactly where he is between Switzerland and Cameroon. 

France is covering him, Switzerland is covering him, as well as others within the international community. They are therefore accomplices to gross human rights violations, as well as crime against humanity in Cameroon. 

Gabon: French officers help to control the protesting population

21 February 2011 

Source: iCNN

French officers were involved with the gabonese security forces this afternoon, in the oppression in the capital of Gabon, prohibiting gabonese people to proteste peacefully. 

We call President Obama and human rights activist defenders to take a good look at what is happening in Gabon. We believe a mass killing in on it's way in Gabon. 

Why are the French barring gabonse people from marching peacefully?

This is a violation of the universal declaration of human rights adopted and proclaimed by the General assembly of the United Nations on November 10, 1948. 

APPEAL TO:

Ban Ki-moon

Secretary General                                                                  

760 United Nations Plaza,

New York, NY 10017

Amnesty International

Mrs. Kate Allen

Director, Amnesty UK

17—25 New Inn Yard,

LondonEC2A 3EA

Mr. Larry Cox

Executive Director

Amnesty International USA

5 Penn Plaza

16th floor

New YorkNY  10001 US

Stephan Oberreit

Directeur de Amnesty

International France

76 Boulevard de la Villette

Paris CEDEX 19 75940 FR

Human Rights Watch

Mr. Kenneth Roth

Executive Director

Human Rights Watch

350 Fifth Avenue, 34th floor

New York, NY  10118-3299 USA

Freedom House

Mr. David J. Kramer

Freedom House, Washington, DC

1301 Connecticut Ave. NW Floor 6

Washington, District of Columbia  20036

Phone: 202-296-5101

Fax: 202-293-2840

Country: United States

Human Rights Campaign

Mr. Joe Solmonese

President

Human Rights Campaign

1640 Rhode Island Ave. N.W.

Washington, DC  20036-3278

President Barack Obama

White House 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW

Washington, D.C 20500

Fax (202)456-2461

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
US Department of State
2201 C Street NW
Washington, DC 20520

The Honorable Senator Carl Levin
269 Russell  Office Building
U.S. Senate
Washington, DC 20510-2202

Reporters Without Borders,

International Advocacy,

Human Rights in Africa,

Human Rights First,

the World Organization for Human Rights USA,

the United Nations Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR)