Cameroon: How Paul Biya Treats Unarmed Civilian Protestors

27 July 2011

Juliette Abandokwe

The video below, which was made on February 23rd of this year, shows how Cameroonian police and armed forces behave towards unarmed civilian protestors. 

It particularly indicates with which brutality Paul Biya, who has been the President of Cameroon for 29 years now, is treating those people of his who have been "democratically and freely" electing him for the past 3 decades. 

This years' general election is taking place on the October 9th. 

Paul Biya, having manipulated the Constitution in December 2007, removing the terms' limit, which allows him to present himself for as many terms that he wishes, declared himself the candidate of the ruling RDPC (sarcastically, the Democratic Reassembly of the Cameroonian People) only a couple of weeks ago. 

Widespread repression has been occurring since February, with extensive intimidation methods as well as unarmed civilians being brutalized, imprisoned and tortured, together with systematically molested and house arrested opposition leaders. 

France, the former colonial power and until present neo-colonial power, which has gigantic commercial interests and contracts in the custody of the Cameroonian government, know exactly, together with the European Union and the rest of the international community, what is going on in Cameroon. Several detailed reports have been issued in the last three years on the absolutely appalling human rights situation. 

Systematic manipulation of the independent electoral commission ELECAM has been going for over a year now, with the choice of its members by Mr. Biya being regularly questioned by civil society and opposition leaders. 

If or when Biya wins the next elections, how far will the international community go to validate the result of the election, and how concerned will they feel the gross human rights violations, and remembering that France and its partners condemned and ousted President Laurent Gbagbo of Ivory Coast out of power for allegedly having rigged and lost the 2010 autumn general elections after 10 years of power, along alleged crimes against humanity. 

Incidentally, it is also to be remembered that France is responsible for extended massacres in Cameroon during the war of independence, where between 300 000 to 400 000 Cameroonians villagers died in the napalm bombings by the French air force. No official history book mentions these events, but many survivors as well has French pilots present at the time, have officially witnessed. 

To what extent is it a crime against humanity for the international community to accept and to validate, even "only" implicitly, an election which is the absolute result of obvious, widespread and systematic fraud, accompanied by a long and very painful history of extremely gross power abuse and basic human rights' violations? 

Why should Gbagbo be removed for those reasons, and to a lesser extent Kadhafi, while people like Paul Biya, Idriss Deby of Tchad, François Bozizé of Central African Republic, the latter two having proclaimed themselves successor to their previous term after systematic and arrogant fraud at the beginning of this year, ar keft in power? 

These questions are obviously linked to the quality of warranty offered by these "democratically and freely" elected "presidents" on the availability of natural resources' contracts and deals in unclear and corrupt conditions. We should therefore ask ourselves to what extent the power of a brutalized and silenced people can be exercised in these different conditions. Although internal interacting factors should also be considered, ranging from longstanding toxic behaviors induced by will-suppressing colonial rule, as well as widespread greed and lack of national conscience, the weight of external validation and acceptance should be considered as overwhelming. 

This video is to show how Biya is intending to continue ruling over his people
 while he is trying very hard to become his own successor at any cost.