Amnesty International Report 1999 - Cameroon

CAMEROON

Several prisoners of conscience, including journalists and members of opposition political parties, were detained. Some 50 political prisoners were held without charge or trial throughout the year. Torture and ill-treatment remained routine and at least two prisoners died as a result. Harsh prison conditions amounted to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. Scores of people were reported to have been extrajudicially executed in the north of the country in an operation to combat armed robbery. Death sentences continued to be passed.

Attempts at dialogue between the government of President Paul Biya and the main opposition political party, the Social Democratic Front (SDF), failed. The government continued to reject the SDF's demands for an amendment to the Constitution which would provide for an independent electoral commission to oversee future elections. International observers who monitored the 1997 legislative elections had recommended the creation of an independent electoral commission. The failure to set up such a commission had led the SDF and three other opposition parties to boycott the 1997 presidential election.

As in previous years, journalists writing for independent newspapers were convicted of criminal offences and imprisoned. Pius Njawé, director of Le Messager, arrested in December 1997 following an article which questioned President Biya's state of health, was convicted in January of disseminating false news and sentenced to two years' imprisonment and a fine. He was imprisoned at the Central Prison, New Bell, in Douala. In April the Court of Appeal reduced the fine and the prison term to one year and the Supreme Court upheld this sentence in September. There were many calls both within Cameroon and abroad for Pius Njawé's release. He was released in October, before completion of his sentence, after being granted a presidential pardon.

A member of a committee campaigning for Pius Njawé's release, the Comité pour la libération de Pius Njawé, who was part of a delegation of the committee planning to travel to Europe, was arrested at Douala airport in March and detained for two days.

Michel Michaut Moussala, editor of Aurore Plus, was convicted of defamation in January, in a separate case but at the same trial as Pius Njawé, and sentenced to six months' imprisonment and a fine. The charges related to an article which accused a member of the National Assembly of the ruling Rassemblement démocratique du peuple camerounais, Cameroon People's Democratic Movement (CPDM), of corruption and other offences. Although an arrest warrant was issued following the trial, he was not imprisoned until September when he was also accused of evading arrest because he had not presented himself to the prison authorities after his conviction. These new charges were, however, subsequently dismissed. He remained imprisoned in New Bell prison at the end of the year.

Among several other journalists imprisoned during the year was Patrick Tchouwa, director of Le Jeune Détective, who was arrested by police in July following an article which implicated a government minister and member of the National Assembly in misappropriation of government funds. He was convicted and given an eight-month suspended sentence in November, and was subsequently released. In November Christopher Ezieh of The Herald was arrested and detained briefly in Kumba after an article reported that the Governor of South-West Province had ordered a significant salary reduction for civil servants.

Members of opposition political parties were also detained. Two prominent SDF members were arrested in late August and early September in an apparent attempt to discredit the SDF. Ferdinand Asapngu, vice-chairman of Kumba Electoral District in South-West Province, and John Kumase Ndanga, chairman of Bonaberi Electoral District in Douala, were accused of planning armed attacks, although there was no evidence to substantiate these allegations. They were both released without charge in mid-September. Other SDF officials were also harassed and intimidated. In June armed gendarmes went to the house of the SDF chairman of Kribi Electoral District, South Province, to arrest him but were deterred by neighbours. When the gendarmes returned later, they physically assaulted his wife.

In northern Cameroon, traditional rulers, often prominent members of the ruling CPDM, and acting with the tacit approval of the authorities, continued to be responsible for the illegal detention and ill-treatment of political opponents, in particular members of the opposition Union nationale pour la démocratie et le progrès (UNDP), National Union for Democracy and Progress.

Nana Koulagna, a former UNDP member of the National Assembly, remained held throughout the year. He had been arrested in May 1997, shortly before the legislative elections, when a UNDP delegation was attacked by the private militia of the traditional ruler (lamido) of Rey Bouba in North Province; five people died in the confrontation. Nana Koulagna and 15 others were arrested, apparently accused of murder, and held at the Central Prison in Garoua; no member of the private militia was arrested (see Amnesty International Report 1998). None was charged and all but Nana Koulagna and six others were subsequently released. Although the judicial authorities in Garoua ordered Nana Koulagna's release, he remained held under an order issued by the Senior Divisional Officer under legislation passed in December 1990 which provides for indefinite administrative detention. In October Nana Koulagna and six others were charged by a military tribunal with murder, looting, arson, illegal possession of arms and other offences. Their trial was expected in early 1999. The fact that a civilian court ruled that Nana Koulagna should be released, that charges were subsequently brought by a military tribunal, and that there appeared to be no evidence against him of individual responsibility for any criminal offence, suggested that he was held for purely political reasons.

A former government minister and his close associate, who had been sentenced to lengthy prison terms in 1997 after an unfair trial, remained imprisoned. Titus Edzoa, who had resigned as Minister of Health and stated his intention to contest the presidential election, and Michel Thierry Atangana Abega, his presidential campaign manager, were convicted of corruption and misappropriation of public funds in October 1997 and sentenced to 15 years' imprisonment. Their trial proceeded despite defence lawyers withdrawing in protest against being informed of the trial only 24 hours in advance (see Amnesty International Report 1998). Their appeal against conviction and sentence had not been heard by the end of 1998.

Some 50 prisoners who were arrested following attacks by armed groups in several towns in North-West Province in March 1997 remained in detention without charge or trial throughout the year (see Amnesty International Report 1998). Although 14 others were released without charge during the year, arrests of suspects continued, including two gendarmes who were arrested in August. The authorities attributed the attacks to a group supporting independence for Cameroon's two English-speaking provinces, North-West and South-West Provinces, and those arrested included members of the Southern Cameroons National Council (SCNC) and an affiliated organization, the Southern Cameroons Youth League (SCYL). Most of the prisoners were held at the Central Prison in Yaoundé, known as Nkondengui prison; others were held at the Principal Prison in Mfou.

Five other SCNC members who had been arrested in previous years in connection with a referendum on independence (see Amnesty International Reports 1996 to 1998) remained held without charge throughout the year.

Many among the group of prisoners held in connection with the events in North-West Province in 1997 were reported to be seriously ill either as a result of torture and ill-treatment or lack of medical care. Ebenezer Akwanga, President of the SCYL, was reported to have been admitted to hospital suffering paralysis of his lower limbs and impaired vision as a result of torture. Another prisoner reported to be critically ill, Lawrence Fai, died in late August after finally being admitted to hospital, bringing to at least nine the number of those arrested following the violence in North-West Province in 1997 who had died in detention.

Torture and ill-treatment of prisoners and detainees remained routine. In January Hamadou Mana (known as Agnana), a prisoner at the Central Prison in Maroua, Far-North Province, died from a severe head injury after being beaten by prison guards following an escape attempt. Another prisoner had died in similar circumstances at the prison in 1997 (see Amnesty International Report 1998). No action was known to have been taken by the authorities against those responsible in either case.

In at least two cases, however, those who had tortured and ill-treated detainees were prosecuted. Two police officers who were found responsible for the death of a young man in police custody in Yaoundé in November 1997 were sentenced to 10 years and six years' imprisonment respectively in June, under legislation passed in January 1997 which prohibited torture and made causing injury or death as a result of torture punishable by up to life imprisonment. They were also ordered to pay compensation to the man's family. Police officers responsible for a second death in custody in November 1997 were acquitted (see Amnesty International Report 1998).

Pius Njawé's wife, Jeanne Ongbatik, was physically assaulted by prison guards on several different occasions when she attempted to visit her husband and in January she had a stillborn child. A complaint submitted by Pius Njawé about his wife's ill-treatment was not pursued by the authorities.

Prison conditions remained extremely harsh throughout Cameroon, with severe overcrowding, inadequate or non-existent sanitary facilities and seriously deficient health care and nutrition. For example, Pius Njawé was held in a cell with some 100 other prisoners, all accused or convicted of criminal offences, at New Bell prison and violence frequently broke out in the cell. According to reports, in an attempt to isolate Pius Njawé, the prison authorities punished a number of prisoners who associated with him. Although Pius Njawé was allowed to see a specialist in hospital in May, the prison governor refused to allow him to attend subsequent appointments despite recommendations from the prison doctor.

Scores of people were reported to have been extrajudicially executed by the security forces in North and Far-North Provinces during an operation by security forces to combat a serious and long-standing problem of armed robbery. Several hundred people were estimated to have been killed by armed robbers in the area in recent years. A special unit of the army and gendarmerie was formed in March to tackle insecurity in the region. Captured armed robbers, who included Chadian nationals, and those suspected of armed robbery, were summarily executed or "disappeared" after their arrest. There were also reports that people denounced as armed robbers in personal settling of scores were among those extrajudicially executed. The security forces were reported to have taken suspects from their homes at night, killed them and abandoned their bodies. A non-governmental human rights organization, the Mouvement pour la défense des droits de l'homme et des libertés, Movement for the Defence of Human Rights and Liberties, compiled information about 12 extrajudicial executions in March and more than 40 in June. These summary killings continued throughout the rest of the year. In October a photographer, Alioum Aminou, was arrested in Maroua, apparently because he had distributed photographs of victims of extrajudicial executions. His whereabouts remained unknown at the end of the year. Extrajudicial executions were also reported to have taken place in North Province.

Several people were reported to have been killed or injured in incidents where the security forces appeared to have used excessive force. In July a trader was shot and killed by a police officer in Douala during a search for stolen goods. In August a street trader was shot dead by a police officer at a market in Yaoundé after he refused to pay money in exchange for being allowed to sell in the market. In late December a student was shot and killed in Bafoussam, West Province, by a police officer who was pursuing him after a fight had broken out between the two men. The authorities were reported to have started an investigation into the death and to have arrested two suspects.

Death sentences continued to be passed. Three men, one of whom subsequently died in detention, were sentenced to death after being convicted of murder by a court in Bafoussam in September.

Twelve refugees from Equatorial Guinea arrested in September 1997 remained in detention throughout the year while efforts were made by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees to resettle them in a third country. Eight Chadians, including three members of a former Chadian armed opposition group who had been arrested in November 1997, were released without charge in July and allowed to return voluntarily to Chad. All had been at risk of grave human rights violations if forcibly returned to their own countries (see Amnesty International Report 1998).

Amnesty International repeatedly called for the release of prisoners of conscience and for other political detainees either to be charged and tried or to be released. The organization called for safeguards to protect all detainees from torture and ill-treatment, for independent investigations into deaths in custody, and for those responsible to be brought to justice. Amnesty International also called on the international community to scrutinize human rights in Cameroon and to press Cameroon to adhere to its human rights commitments.

In April Amnesty International repeated calls not to forcibly return detained nationals from Equatorial Guinea.

In December Amnesty International published a report, Cameroon: Extrajudicial executions in North and Far-North Provinces, which called for an investigation into these killings in order to bring those responsible to justice and for urgent measures to be taken to prevent further killings.