While there is still no date for any UN to visit Cameroon, Southern Cameroonians are being summoned in to see the police and the army in a campaign of intimidation. A second mass grave has reportedly been found, in Buea and has been made public by Inner City Press to the UN. We gathered the Biya regime is spending millions of US dollars to censure information coming out of Southern Cameroons to the UN.

Inner City Press’ has hinted that its journalism on Cameroon is being hindered in the UN by restrictions continued by the UN Department of Public Information under Alison Small.  Several but not all of the human rights violations by Cameroon authorities on which Inner City Press has asked and reported are confirmed by Amnesty International.

So Inner City Press on October 13 asked UN Spokesman Stephane Dujarric, “I wanted to ask you about Cameroon.  Some of the things that, I guess, I have asked you about, there’s now… now, I would assume that you’ve seen the Amnesty International study, which says that… that hundreds of people are detained without charge, packed like sardines, paying bails, people shot in the legs so they can’t protest, people fleeing the hospital to avoid the authorities.  So they obviously got in, were able to gather this evidence and they’ve called for other international organisations to send people.  Has the UN sent anyone, and if not, why not? Spokesman:  We have… as you know, we have a presence in Cameroon.  We’ve seen the Amnesty report, which raises a lot of issues of great concern to us, and I should have… hopefully have a bit more for you later.

Inner City Press:  Including on the [François Louncény] Fall visit? Spokesman:  Yes.  Well, when I have something on the Fall visit, I will share it with you.” Eight hours later, nothing. AI confirmed for example: At least 500 people remain detained in overcrowded detention facilities following mass arbitrary arrests in Southern Camerons, and many wounded protestors fled hospitals to avoid arrest… In Bamenda, the capital of the North-West Region, at least 200 people were arrested and the majority transferred to the prison in Bafoussam. In Buea, the capital of the South-West region, at least 300 people have been arrested since the 1st October protests, including a series of mass arbitrary arrests between 6 and 8 October.

On Sunday 8 October, for example, police arrested up to 100 people walking to church in the Mile 16 area of Buea, and entered the building to arrest church staff. In one incident on 3 October in Buea, a police officer threw a teargas canister into a vehicle containing a dozen protestors, who had to smash the window to let in air. In one facility run by a mobile police unit, the Groupement Mobile d’Intervention (GMI), in Buea, detainees were described as being ‘packed like sardines.’ A young man who was left with multiple fractures after being shot in both legs by member of the armed forces was taken home by his family before he could be stabilised. According to a doctor treating the patient “he had lost more than a litre of blood. I do not know whether he is still alive, he may likely die.’

Culled from Inner City Press

The Southern Cameroons Ambazonia Consortium United Front, SCACUF has written to the International Criminal Court (ICC) about acts of violence in Southern Cameroons. Their letter dated 12 October 2017, asked the ICC Prosecutor to open an investigation into the “ongoing genocide and crimes against humanity” in British Southern Cameroons.

Their complaint to the ICC concerns Paul Biya (President of the Republic), René Emmanuel Sadi (Minister of Territorial Administration and Decentralization), Laurent Esso (Minister of Justice), Jacques Fame Ndongo (Minister of Higher Education),  Joseph Beti Assomo, Minister of State at the Presidency in charge of Defense, Martin Belinga Eboutou (Director of the Civil Cabinet), Jean-Baptiste Bokam (Secretary of State for the Gendarmerie Nationale), Adolphe Lélé Lafrique, Goveror of the Bamenda State and Bernard Okalai Bilai (Governor of the Buea State). “These personalities or members of the Government are directly responsible for the killings, torture, rape and kidnappings since October 2016,” the Governing Council said.

The leadership of the Governing Council also pointed in the letter to the ICC that if urgent measures are not taken, genocide and crimes against humanity could intensify. They stressed that the personalities mentioned above had ordered demonstrators who were marching “with tree of peace in hand” to be killed. “More than 250 demonstrators including children have been confirmed dead, scores are still hospitalised and more than 1000 others are missing. Amnesty International recently revealed that more than 500 Southern Cameroonian detainees were suffocating in detentions centres throughout the territory.

By Rita Akana, CCN

European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini says the US president is not in a position to terminate Iran’s nuclear deal with world powers.

Shortly after US President Donald Trump officially announced on Friday that he would not certify the nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), Mogherini stressed that the 2015 accord reached between Iran and Britain, France, Germany, Russia, China as well as the US “does not belong to any single country”.

“To my knowledge there is not one single country in the world that can terminate a UN Security Council resolution that has been adopted, and adopted unanimously, and implemented, and verified,” she said.

“It is clearly not in the hands of any president of any country in the world to terminate an agreement of this sort. The president of the United States has many powers (but) not this one,” the EU foreign policy chief pointed out.

Mogherini underlined the EU’s determination to abide by the JCPOA, noting that the bloc expects the other parties to the deal to adopt the same stance.

“We cannot afford as an international community, as Europe for sure, to dismantle an agreement that is working and delivering,” she said.

Apart from his refusal to certify the JCPOA, Trump also warned in his strategic review of US policy on Iran that he might ultimately terminate the deal, in defiance of other world powers and undermining a landmark victory of multilateral diplomacy.

While Trump did not pull Washington out of the nuclear deal, he gave the US Congress 60 days to decide whether to reimpose economic sanctions against Tehran that were lifted under the pact. Reimposing sanctions would put the US at odds with other signatories to the accord and the European Union.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry said earlier on Friday that Tehran had a “very broad” range of options for any breach of the JCPOA and would “end all its commitments in this regard if deemed necessary.”

Trump called on Congress and US allies to address “serious flaws” in the JCPOA, including the deal’s “sunset clauses” that will put an end to restrictions on Iran’s nuclear program after a few years as well as the agreement’s “total silence on Iran’s missile programs.”

The US president noted that key Congress leaders are drafting legislation to amend the 2015 Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act, which has given Congress some oversight on the JCPOA, prevent Iran from developing intercontinental ballistic missiles and make all restrictions on Iran’s nuclear program permanent.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani slammed Trump’s speech against the Islamic Republic as nothing more than insults and delirious talk, urging the US president to brush up on his world history and geography to improve his comprehension of international obligations and global ethics, etiquette and conventions.

The Iranian president further rejected Trump’s demand that the 2015 nuclear deal be revised, saying the agreement would remain intact and no article or paragraph would be added or taken away from it.

Rouhani said Iran will only respect its nuclear deal commitments so long as its rights are safeguarded, emphasizing that Tehran has cooperated and would continue its cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which has certified Iran’s compliance eight times.

UK, Germany, France back JCPOA

Following Trump’s speech, the leaders of Britain, France and Germany issued a joint statement, expressing concern over “the possible implications” of Washington’s decision.

British Prime Minister Theresa May, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel said they “stand committed to its full implementation by all sides.”

“The nuclear deal was the culmination of 13 years of diplomacy and was a major step towards ensuring that Iran’s nuclear program is not diverted for military purposes,” said the statement released by May’s Downing Street office.

“We encourage the US administration and Congress to consider the implications to the security of the US and its allies before taking any steps that might undermine the JCPOA, such as re-imposing sanctions on Iran lifted under the agreement.

“Our governments are committed to ensuring the JCPOA is maintained,” the statement pointed out.

While both the US and the IAEA confirm that Iran is meeting the technical requirements of the nuclear deal, Trump claims that Tehran is in breach of the “spirit” of the agreement because of its expanding influence in the Middle East and the country’s achievements in its conventional missile program.

The three European leaders also expressed concern over Iran’s ballistic missile program, noting that they “stand ready to take further appropriate measures to address these issues.”

The nuclear agreement is solely about Iran’s nuclear activities and it does not incorporate non-nuclear issues.

Russia slams Trump’s policy

In reaction to Trump’s speech, Russia’s Foreign Ministry denounced his Iran strategy as one using “aggressive and threatening rhetoric” but said it expected the JCPOA to stay intact.

The ministry’s statement said it expected Trump’s decision “would not have a direct impact on the implementation of the deal” but was “an element of (US) domestic debate.”

Trump’s threat to terminate the nuclear deal comes as the US has a history of quitting international pacts and organizations.

This is not the first time that the international community witnesses efforts by the Trump administration to renege on a multilateral agreement.

Trump withdrew the US from the Paris Climate Agreement in June and has ordered the US to withdraw from UNESCO next year.

The US decisions to abandon multilateral agreements is not limited to the Trump administration. In 2002, the administration of former US President George W. Bush withdrew from the Antiballistic Missile Treaty (ABM), which it had signed with the Soviet Union in 1972.

Culled from Presstv

Local US officials have confirmed that the death toll from this week’s wildfires in the state of California has climbed to 31, making it the deadliest series of blazes in the state’s history. 

Fire officials said on Thursday the tally could rise further in the eight counties which have been affected by the fires.

In Sonoma County alone, where entire neighborhoods have been destroyed, hundreds of people are still unaccounted for.

The fires have swept through California’s wine country, leaving thousands of people homeless and burning over 190,000 acres (76,000 hectares) of land.

Firefighters said gusty winds and dry conditions have hampered their efforts to contain the fires, which began on Sunday. Some 8,000 firefighters were battling 20 blazes as of Thursday.

“What this means is that our fires will continue to burn erratically,” California fire chief Ken Pimlott told a press conference. “They have the potential to shift in any direction at any time.

“We are a long way from being done with this catastrophe,” he said.

On Tuesday, President Donald Trump declared a major disaster in California, releasing funding and resources to fight the catastrophe. Forest fires are common in the western United States during hot months, but few have claimed as many lives as this week’s blaze.

Source: Presstv

On Friday 13 October Mr Kofi Annan, Chair of the Kofi Annan Foundation and the Advisory Commission on Rakhine State, will brief UN Member States on the Advisory Commission’s main findings and recommendations for Myanmar’s troubled western state of Rakhine.

In his capacity as Chair of the Advisory Commission on Rakhine State, Mr Annan presented the Commission’s report “Towards a Peaceful, Fair and Prosperous Future for the People of Rakhine” in Yangon in August 2017. The report puts forward recommendations to surmount the political, socioeconomic and humanitarian challenges that have long existed in Rakhine State and have contributed to the current crisis.

The Advisory Commission on Rakhine State, which was disbanded following the completion of its mandate in September 2017, focused on long-term solutions for improving the welfare of all people in Rakhine State. Its final report addresses many of the root causes that underlie the humanitarian crisis.

“Towards a Peaceful, Fair and Prosperous Future for the People of Rakhine” and the recommendations it contains have been endorsed by the Government of Myanmar and widely welcomed by the international community.

In his briefing to Council Members and other Member States, Mr Annan will present the main recommendations of the report and discuss their implementation in the context of the violence and displacement that has taken place since the Commission’s report was published.

Mr Annan will urge stakeholders to use the report as a roadmap to peace and development in Rakhine State.

Mr Annan will stress the need to quickly end security operations, facilitate humanitarian access to affected populations and ensure protection of civilians.

The briefing will begin at 15:00 EST. It will be held under the Arria-formula to allow for participation from all United Nations Member States and accredited non-governmental organisations.

Mr. Annan’s statement will be made public at the time of the briefing.

About the Advisory Commission on Rakhine State

At the behest of the Ministry of the Office of the State Counsellor of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar and in collaboration with the Kofi Annan Foundation, the Advisory Commission on Rakhine State was established in September 2016 as a neutral and impartial body to propose concrete measures for improving the welfare of all people in Rakhine state. It was disbanded following the completion of its mandate in September 2017.

The Commission was composed of six local and three international experts and chaired by Kofi Annan. It released an interim report in March 2017 and its final report in August 2017. The reports considered and provided recommendations on humanitarian and developmental issues, access to basic services, legal questions including citizenship and the assurance of basic rights, security to all people in all communities and other issues central to building lasting peace.

Source:  Kofi Annan Foundation