History defines us. Perhaps it is the only thing we truly own. Embrace it, own it. Mend it where it was once broken, enlighten it where it was once misguided, for what you are this minute isn’t what you were only a minute ago.

For peace to return to Cameroon, Anglophones and Francophones must first realise that at one point, they shared a common history, under German Cameroon. But like a river that splits into two courses at some point, they broke off only to be joint later downstream. This is not disputed.

What is disputed is the fact that during this separate journeys, each of them acquired new and separate experiences on their independent courses, perhaps new streams flowed into them, they flowed through new landscapes acquiring new flavours, visited different places with different sunsets and sunrises, making new friends and partnerships. Though they later became one again at the new confluence further downstream, they were essentially different by now; chemically, physically, in what they now know and have seen and experienced, where they have been, and enriched by new and different life principles and values.

The Francophone led leadership in Yaounde must realise and appreciate this difference, which they haven’t for over five decades. They can’t erode a people’s culture with guns, regardless of how that culture was acquired, for the effects of colonialism are an integral part of our history that we can never run away from. As sad as it is. The mass killings in Anglophone Cameroon must be brought to a stop via a political solution of inclusive dialogue without any precondition. In essence, the two Cameroons have to revisit the Fumban drawing board.

Peace can’t be achieved simply because the government that caused the problem in the first place is asking separatists fighters to put down their arms, because the government didn’t buy them the guns. You can’t ask a revolting people to stop revolting without proposing a tractable solution to their grievances, you can’t do so either by threat of the gun to which they have become accustomed. And you can’t eradicate someone’s family and expect them to love you, live with you, dine with you and laugh with you as if you are best friends. Worse, trust you.

What the Cameroonian government is doing to the Anglophones in Cameroon is criminal, calling them terrorists and all. Citizens can’t step out in the streets to protest for legitimate reasons and you turn your big guns on them, guns bought with their money, money from all the natural resources that are being wantonly exploited in their backyard.

It is this stupidity, lack of vision and diplomacy that sparked the wrath of the Anglophone Cameroonians, now operating under the name of the separate state called, Ambazonia, to retaliate and sought to protect themselves. The Francophone leadership in Yaounde without thinking, joyfully declared outright war against the 8 million Anglophones, add or take, by calling them terrorists, as the most parsimonious way of solving the differences.

The same regime once said when Yaounde is breathing Cameroon is alive when the Anglophone regions were in strife. The same regime at one time or another, called Anglophones enemies in the house. And at the onset of the present conflict, the Francophone led national assembly refused to discuss the problem because Anglophones are supposed to tow the line quietly. How much provocation should a people be subjected to before they break? Even a fool, under these circumstances, is bound to revolt at some point. This is the point where we are unfortunately at now.

No happily married man or woman would deliberately destroy a gratifying union, except they have lost their minds to the devil. Marriages only fall apart because of discontent and an accompanying inability to mend the problem.

Source: Not available

Two years after declaring unilateral independence, Africa’s newest country, Ambazonia, is in a deadly spiral of ever increasing violence .  After decades of marginalization the two English speaking provinces of Southern Cameroons declared independence.  Ambazonian self-defense units have fought a running battle with government forces over control of villages and strategic roads.  The government of President Paul Biya, Africa’s longest serving ruler, has ordered mass arrests and a military campaign against what he terms terrorists.  The result for civilians has been catastrophic, over ten thousand casualties, hostages taken, schools closed, and displacement of tens of thousands fleeing battles, brigands and marauding government forces. Indiscriminate violence has claimed thousands of innocent lives including an American missionary and Ghanaian priest.  Villages have been burned, civilians butchered, limbs hacked off with summary arrests and executions carried out with impunity.

The international response to date has been nonexistent because of the Biya regime’s long-standing trade and diplomatic relations with France, Canada, the USA, and UK and as a partner in the war against Boko Haram. Respected NGOs like Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and International Crisis Group however have been quick to identify the human rights abuses, many of which are recorded on cell phone video.  Nonetheless, the UN, African Union, ECOWAS, the Commonwealth and other international organizations have failed to step in while the casualties and atrocities mount.

Fearing another Liberia or Sierra Leone type conflict, in which murder, torture, and war crimes became endemic; several Ambazonian groups have come together now to declare the formation of a War Crimes Tribunal – The Southern Cameroons Special Tribunal Coordination Committee (SCSTCC).  The initial backers include the Southern Cameroons National Council (SCNC), the Southern Cameroons Defense Force (SOCADEF), the African Peoples Liberation Movement (APLM), the Organization of Emerging African States (OEAS) and the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium.  Other groups are expected to join soon.

Dr. Jonathan Levy, an international lawyer specializing in human rights was appointed Chief Coordinator of the tribunal.  According to Dr. Levy, the special tribunal’s immediate mission is to use existing courts and procedures to investigate and prosecute war crimes: “Right now we have solid proofs of numerous crimes against civilians committed by government forces.  There are also reports of brigands and bandits.  However, the overwhelming evidence shows a policy and pattern of brutality against civilians by government forces engaged in the so called anti-terrorist campaign. The command structure is such that these atrocities could not be committed on such a large and ongoing scale without the knowledge and consent of president Paul Biya, the Minister of Defense and their field commanders.”

The next step according to Dr. Levy is to assemble a team of experts through the good offices of the International Criminal Bar and other organizations and to immediately begin both civil and criminal prosecution against Paul Biya and his military commanders in worldwide courts. “We hope someday to have our own UN backed war crimes tribunal and chambers, but we cannot wait years while people are dying, we will act now using all legal means available to us.” Said Levy, who added, “Right now we need lawyers who are willing to take these cases to court in London, Washington, Barcelona, Banjul, and any other venue in which a civil or criminal case can be lodged against Paul Biya and his commanders.”

Dr. Jonathan Levy