The Southern Cameroons Special Tribunal Coordination Committee (SCSTCC) has announced an initial list of war crimes suspects including two Cameroonian government military units implicated in war crimes and torture of civilians. The list is a work in progress and the allegations are not yet proven though in many cases video, eyewitness evidence and the public statements of the suspects strongly implicates some of the accused in conceiving, ordering and carrying out atrocities against Southern Cameroonian civilians and Amabazonian self defense units.

The Special Tribunal Committee has received a mandate from several Ambazonian organizations and their supporters to collect evidence, carry out investigations, and prosecute using any and all means possible including the national courts of third countries and international tribunals.  The Special Tribunal Committee will also contact other national war crimes units with their findings and will seek visa bans and sanctions on implicated individuals and organizations.

The initial backers of the Special Tribunal include the Southern Cameroons National Council (SCNC), the Southern Cameroons Defense Force (SOCADEF), the Ambazonia Governing Council (AGC), the African Peoples Liberation Movement (APLM), the Organization of Emerging African States (OEAS) and the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium. Dr. Jonathan Levy, an international lawyer specializing in human rights was appointed Chief Coordinator of the Tribunal and has been joined by two prominent African barristers.

According to Dr. Levy, the Special Tribunal’s immediate mission is to use existing courts and procedures to investigate and prosecute war crimes: “We need to bring legal actions quickly to prevent further atrocities.  We also encourage other interested groups to do the same regardless whether they work with us or not. Our immediate goal is deterrence and that will only be effective if war criminals see demonstrable proof they will be held accountable for their crimes.”

The Southern Cameroons Special Tribunal Coordination Committee (SCSTCC) initial list of war crimes suspects are as follows:

President and Commander-in-Chief Paul Biya

Former Prime Minister & Deputy Commander-in-Chief Philemon Yang

Prime Minister & Deputy Commander-in Chief-Joseph Ngute

Minister of Defense Joseph Beti Assomo

Deputy Minister of Defense René Claude Meka

Major-General Nkoa Atenga

Secretary of State in charge of the National Gendarmeris, Galax Yves Landry Etoga

Gov. Adolphe Lele Afrique

Gov. Bernard Okalia Bilai

Senior Divisional Officer for Fako, Engamba Emmanuel Ledoux.

Senior Divisional Officer for Koupé Manengouba: Keyantcho Augustin.

Senior Divisional Officer for Lebialem: Ungitoh Zachry

Senior Divisional Officer for Manyu: Oum II Joseph

Senior Divisional Officer for Boyo: Tegni Fidèle.

Senior Divisional Officer for Bui: Mooh Emile Simon.

Senior Divisional Officer for Donga Mantung: Nkwenti Simon Doh.

Senior Divisional Officer for Menchum:  Kamga Charles

Senior Divisional Officer for Ngoketunjia: Emvoutou Mbita Benoît William

Battalion D’intervention Rapide (BIR)

General Directorate of External Research (Direction Générale de la Recherche Extérieure, (DGRE)

General Elokobi Daniel Njock

Brigadier General Agha Robinson

Colonel Didier Badjeck

Minister of Communications, Issa Tchiroma

Minister of Territorial Administration, Atanga Nji Paul

Chief of National Police, Martin Mbarga Nguele

The Mayor of Buea, Patrick Ekema Esunge

Italy’s deputy prime minister Luigi Di Maio on Monday insisted that France’s policies in Africa have created poverty and caused migration.

Maio’s remarks came hours after France summoned the Italian ambassador to Paris to protest the original assertions made over the weekend.

Italy’s accusations

Speaking on Saturday in central Italy, Di Maio attacked France’s Africa policy, the latest chapter in a war of words between Rome and Paris since the anti-establishment 5-Star-Movement and far-right League won power last year.

“If we have people who are leaving Africa now it’s because some European countries, and France in particular, have never stopped colonizing Africa,” said Di Maio, who leads the 5-Star.

“If France didn’t have its African colonies, because that’s what they should be called, it would be the 15th largest world economy. Instead it’s among the first, exactly because of what it is doing in Africa.”

Di Maio added that France was manipulating the economies of 14 African countries that use the CFA franc — a colonial-era currency which is underpinned by the French Treasury.

“France is one of those countries that by printing money for 14 African states prevents their economic development and contributes to the fact that the refugees leave and then die in the sea or arrive on our coasts,” he said.

France reacts

Ambassador Teresa Castaldo was summoned on Monday afternoon by the chief of staff of European Affairs Minister Nathalie Loiseau, the French diplomatic source said.

“It’s not the first time the Italian authorities have made unacceptable and aggressive comments,” the French diplomatic source added.

France argues that the CFA franc has brought welcome monetary stability to the countries that use it, but French President Emmanuel Macron said in 2017 that it was up to African governments to decide what to do with the currency.

Italy wants France sanctioned

The new Italian government has frequently clashed with Paris, be it on immigration or policy in Libya, eager to mark the difference between itself and the previous center-left administration which had good ties with the French authorities.

“I’ve stopped being a hypocrite talking only about the effects of immigration and it’s time to talk about the causes,” Di Maio said at the weekend.

“The EU should sanction all those countries like France that are impoverishing African countries and are causing those people to leave.”

Reuters

In its annual report, Oxfam International warns against a widening economic gap between the rich and the poor due to faulty tax systems in different world countries, calculating that a mere 26 billionaires owned more than 3.8 billion people last year.

The rich grew richer and poor got poorer in 2018, the international charity organization said in the report titled “Public Good or Private Wealth.”

The world’s billionaires saw their fortunes grow by $2.5 billion per day, while the bottom half of the global population saw their wealth dwindle by $500 million daily, said the report, citing information provided by Swiss bank Credit Suisse and the Forbes List of billionaires.

It added that the number of billionaires possessing as much wealth as half of the world’s population fell from 43 in 2017 to 26 last year. Their combined fortunes reached $1.4 trillion, the same amount as the total wealth of the 3.8 billion poorest, according to the figures.

In 2016, the number stood at 61.

The report was released on Monday as political and business leaders are set to gather for the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.View image on Twitter

As the elites gather at #wef19, we reveal the true costs of under-taxation of the rich on the world’s poorest.

It revealed how governments were exacerbating inequality among the masses by increasingly underfunding public services like healthcare and education at the same time as they consistently under-tax the wealthy.

“Our economy is broken, with hundreds of millions of people living in extreme poverty while huge rewards go to those at the very top,” Oxfam said. “Governments face a stark choice today — a choice between a life of dignity for all their citizens or continued extreme wealth for a tiny few.”

The report also said women and girls were the social group the hardest hit by the frightening increase in the economic gap.

Oxfam recommended that nations tax the wealthy fairer, raise rates on personal income and corporate taxes and stop tax dodging by firms and wealthy individuals.

The charity organization also advocates providing universal free health care, education and other public services including water, electricity.

It also suggests providing free childcare to free up mothers’ schedules.

The charity said that the United States played a big role in the current dire situation with most of the world’s mega-wealthy living there.

Super-rich people like Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, Microsoft’s Bill Gates, Berkshire Hathaway’s Warren Buffett and Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, who are collectively worth $357 billion, are all Americans.

The combined fortunes of the world’s 26 richest individuals reached $1.4 trillion last year — the same amount as the total wealth of the 3.8 billion people who make up the poorest half of humanity.

Source: Presstv

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited Chad on Sunday for what he called a “historic” trip, during which he announced renewal of diplomatic ties decades after they were ruptured. Netanyahu and Chadian President Idriss Deby Itno have “announced the renewal of diplomatic relations between Chad and Israel”, a statement from the Israeli premier’s office said.

Ties between Israel and the Muslim majority nation were broken in 1972. “The two sides view the resumption of relations as the key to future cooperation for the benefit of both countries,” the statement said.

Netanyahu on Twitter called the announcement “a historic moment”. The Israeli leader has sought to improve ties with countries in the Arab and Muslim world and said he expected more such diplomatic breakthroughs soon.

His one-day visit follows Deby’s November trip to Israel. The two leaders at the time declined to comment on whether their talks have included arms deals. Chadian security sources say the country has acquired Israeli equipment to help battle rebels in the country’s north.

Chad is also one of several African states engaged in Western-backed operations against Boko Haram and Islamic State group jihadists. Pressure from Muslim African nations, accentuated by the Arab-Israeli wars of 1967 and 1973, led a number of African states to sever relations with the Jewish state.

But in recent years, Israel has held out the prospect of cooperation in fields ranging from security to technology to agriculture, to improve ties on the continent.

Deby is one of Africa’s longest-serving leaders. He took over the arid, impoverished nation in 1990 and won a disputed fifth term in April 2016 to lead the country of some 15 million people.

(AFP)

There is an imminent risk of mass atrocity crimes due to violence between government security forces and armed separatists in Cameroon’s Anglophone regions.

BACKGROUND

Political tensions over cultural rights and identity have been growing in Cameroon’s Anglophone regions since 2016 when English-speaking lawyers, students and teachers began protesting against their under-representation and cultural marginalization by the Francophone-dominated government. Violent repression by the security forces resulted in arbitrary arrests, sexual violence and the killing of protesters in the largely Anglophone North-West and South-West regions.

The crisis deepened after October 2017 when Anglophone separatists symbolically proclaimed independence from Cameroon, declaring a new state of “Ambazonia.”

The situation is reaching a critical threshold and the risk of mass atrocity crimes occurring in the immediate future is very high if effective preventive action is not taken.

As the conflict intensified, there has been growing evidence of government security forces perpetrating extrajudicial killings and torture, as well as burning property in Anglophone villages.

Armed separatist forces have also perpetrated abuses, including killings and kidnappings. At least 40 schools in the Anglophone region have been destroyed since October 2017. Some armed separatist groups have also attacked and killed state officials and members of the security forces as part of an effort to render the Anglophone areas ungovernable.

On 12-13 November 2018 at least 30 people were killed and hundreds displaced as result of military raids on separatist strongholds. On 25 December hundreds of people fled the villages of Menkefou and Choupat in western Cameroon after suspected Anglophone separatists abducted 15 people and torched 80 houses.

The Anglophone and Francophone areas of Cameroon were unified in 1961, but there have been long-term disputes over the extent to which government resources and access to employment are controlled by the French-speaking majority. Although the Anglophone minority constitutes 20 percent of the overall population of Cameroon, they are a majority in the North-West and South-West regions.

OCHA estimates that 437,000 people have been internally displaced in the North-West and South-West regions since December 2017. As of 10 November 2018 UNHCR estimates that more than 30,000 people have also sought refuge across the border in Nigeria.

In addition to the Anglophone conflict, military operations against the armed extremist group Boko Haram also continue in the north of Cameroon, where there have been widespread allegations of security forces perpetrating extrajudicial killings.

Trade Treaty, all UN member states should immediately halt the sale of weapons to parties to the conflict who routinely violate IHL, including Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

ANALYSIS

The targeting of individuals based upon their cultural identity poses a direct threat to both Anglophone and Francophone civilians. Any further escalation of violence could result in greater internal displacement and further refugee flows. The government has failed to address the root causes of the Anglophone conflict and provide a political means for peacefully resolving it.

Cameroonian security forces appear to be committing systematic or widespread attacks on civilians, potentially amounting to crimes against humanity, particularly in the North-West and South-West regions as well as in their response to Boko Haram in the far north. Widespread allegations of extrajudicial killings have been bolstered by leaked video evidence of security forces summarily executing groups of unarmed civilians.

The government of Cameroon is failing to uphold its Responsibility to Protect the Anglophone minority and requires international assistance to mediate and end the developing armed conflict in the North-West and South-West regions.

INTERNATIONAL RESPONSE

During 2017 the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights called for the government of Cameroon to conduct impartial investigations into violence in the Anglophone regions. On 17 November 2017 six UN Special Rapporteurs issued a joint statement urging the government to engage in meaningful dialogue and halt violence in the North-West and South-West.

On 10 August the UNSC adopted a Presidential Statement on the situation in the Central African region. The statement highlighted the “worrying increase in violence in the North-West and South-West regions of Cameroon.”

Despite the government’s failure to protect populations from violations and abuses of human rights or to hold security forces accountable, on 12 October 2018 Cameroon was elected to the HRC for the 2019-2021 term.

On 21 November the UN Resident Coordinator for Cameroon called for dialogue between the government and armed Anglophone separatists.

NECESSARY ACTION

The security forces must cease the use of disproportionate and deadly force against unarmed civilians and ensure that the human rights of all Cameroonians are protected, regardless of language or cultural identity.

All persons responsible for extrajudicial killings must be held accountable. The government of Cameroon should grant OHCHR access to the North-West and South-West regions to investigate potential human rights violations and abuses.

The government of Cameroon should immediately initiate a dialogue with Anglophone community leaders and constructively.

Culled from Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect

The International Criminal Court has ordered former Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo and his top aide to remain in custody, even after judges acquitted them of crimes against humanity.

Prosecutors immediately appealed Tuesday’s verdict and argued the pair may refuse to return to The Hague for trial if the not-guilty verdict is overturned.

The three-judge panel called the prosecution’s case “exceptionally weak.”

Gbagbo and Charles Ble Goude had been on trial for alleged crimes against humanity stemming from the violence in Ivory Coast after the 2010 election.

Gbagbo lost to his bitter rival, current President Alassane Outtara, but refused to concede. The standoff led to violence that killed 3,000 people and sent thousands more fleeing the country for their lives.

Opponents and prosecutors blame Gbagbo and Ble Goude for the deadly unrest. But the three-judge panel ruled Tuesday there was not enough evidence of responsibility to convict the pair.

Gbagbo’s daughter told reporters her father plans to return to Ivory Coast when he is released.

But if he goes back, he faces 20 years in prison on charges of misusing funds from a West African central bank.

An Ivorian court convicted him in absentia last year, but the government has not said whether it will enforce the sentence.

VOA

Iranian English-language television news network Press TV has released a statement with regard to the detention and imprisonment of its anchorwoman Marzieh Hashemi in the United States.The statement is as follows:

PressTV would like to hereby express its strong protest at the recent apprehension and violent treatment of Ms. Marzieh Hashemi, born Melanie Franklin in the United States, who is currently serving as an anchor for the English-language television news network.

A female African-American international journalist, a mother and a grandmother, Ms. Hashemi has traveled to the United States to visit her family members, including her brother, who is suffering from cancer. She was, however, arrested at St. Louis Lambert International Airport in St. Louise, Missouri on January 13, 2019 by US police, and transferred by FBI agents to a detention center in Washington, DC.

Ms. Hashemi has told her family in a phone conversation last night that she has been subjected to violent and abusive treatment from the very onset as described below:

– Ms. Hashemi is yet to be arraigned or given a reason for her detention and imprisonment. She, herself, is at a loss to know why she should ever face apprehension.

– Her family members were kept completely in the dark about her situation for two straight days following the arrest.

– Immediately after arrest, she was forced to remove her hijab (the head covering for Muslim women) even though the authorities knew about her being a Muslim. They allowed her only a T-shirt to wear, with her forearms being exposed against Islamic law. She was even photographed in that state.

– The authorities running the detention facility have paid no heed to her religious preferences, despite her repeated protests.

– She has been forced to use another T-shirt to cover her head so as to remain observant of Islamic values.

– She has been denied halal food (food permissible under Islamic law), being offered only pork as meal and not even bread, which she has requested to avoid the meat. Ms. Hashemi has had nothing to eat other than a packet of crackers since her apprehension. The resulting malnutrition, compounded by cold weather conditions, has made her weak and infirm.

– Her current feeble health condition necessitates urgent medical attention.

– The United States government is accountable for any potential harm or hazard that would affect Ms. Hashemi’s mental or physical condition.

Accordingly, as part of the media community, we expect that all international media outlets set about relaying this affair without delay.

We, further, call for the immediate and unconditional release of Ms. Hashemi, and for the US government to apologize to both the journalist and the international media community for her treatment.

#FreeMarziehHashemi

#Pray4MarziehHashemi