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16, October 2017
State of Blood in Southern Cameroons as second mass grave is found in Buea 0
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