Covering events from January - December 2002

REPUBLIC OF CAMEROON
Head of state: Paul Biya
Head of government: Peter Mafany Musonge
Death penalty: retentionist
International Criminal Court: signed

Security forces continued to ill-treat criminal suspects, political activists and members of ethnic minorities in police stations. At least one person died in custody, allegedly as a result of torture by the gendarmerie. Eight gendarmes were tried by a military tribunal in connection with the "disappearance" of nine teenagers in Douala in 2001. Members of the Southern Cameroons National Council (SCNC) were arrested and detained without trial for weeks. Human rights defenders and independent journalists were harassed and intimidated by the security forces and, on occasion, detained without charge for weeks. Eighteen detainees sentenced in 1999 to long prison terms after an unfair trial remained in prison; some of them were suffering serious health problems.


Background

The ruling Rassemblement démocratique du peuple camerounais, Cameroonian People's Democratic Movement, increased its majority in parliament following legislative elections in June. The International Court of Justice in The Hague ruled on 10 October that sovereignty over the Bakassi Peninsula, an oil-rich territory disputed between Nigeria and Cameroon, lay with Cameroon.

Human rights defenders and journalists

Intimidation and harassment of human rights defenders, independent journalists and political opponents intensified during the year. On occasion, the security forces confiscated travel documents preventing people considered to be critical of the government from travelling abroad and taking part in international meetings. Offices of human rights defenders and opponents were routinely searched and documents confiscated without explanation. Publishers, journalists and human rights activists were arrested by the gendarmerie and detained for weeks without charge. Journalists from independent newspapers and press groups such as Mutations, Le Front Indépendant and Le Messager were particularly targeted.

  • On 28 September, Albert Mukong, former executive director of the Human Rights Defence Group, was arrested by the gendarmerie at Ayukaba in South-West Province. He was taken to Mamfe Gendarmerie Station and held there until his release on bail on 22 October. Albert Mukong was accused, together with seven members of the SCNC, of taking part in illegal meetings, disturbing public order, banditry and separatism. AI believes that Albert Mukong was targeted for publicly expressing the right of self-determination of the English-speaking provinces of Cameroon.
Detention without charge

Detainees were held without charge, sometimes for several months, in breach of national law which states that detainees should be referred to a judicial authority to be either charged or released within 72 hours of arrest.

The authorities continued to target English-speaking activists in the South West and North-West provinces. Throughout the year at least 10 members of the SCNC were arrested and detained without charge for weeks.
  • Nwanchang Thomas was arrested by gendarmes in Bamenda, North-West Province, on 18 May while he was distributing leaflets calling for independence for Southern Cameroon. He was transferred to Bamenda Central Prison where he remained until he was released without charge on 3 June.
Torture and ill-treatment

Suspects held in custody by the gendarmerie continued to be subjected to torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment.
  • Ousman Haman, a member of the Mbororo ethnic group in the North-West Province, was arrested in Bamenda on 29 April, in the context of a dispute between Mbororo shepherds and a landowner said to have close links with the authorities. According to his lawyer, gendarmes tortured him following his arrest. They reportedly beat the soles of his feet 150 times using a cane and flogged him while they made him jump on sand. He was taken to hospital before being released on bail by the Bamenda High Court on 17 May. However, he was rearrested a few days later and remained detained without charge at the end of the year together with three other members of the Mbororo ethnic group: Adamu Isa, Yunusa Mbaghoji and Yaouba Oumaru.
  • Shiynyuy Georges, an SCNC activist, was arrested on 10 September by gendarmes in the Tobin quarter of Kumbo, North-West Province, and taken to the local gendarmerie station. According to Shiynyuy Georges' wife, when she visited him at the station the following day he told her that he had been severely beaten all night long by gendarmes. Shiynyuy Georges died in custody on 16 September, apparently while being transferred to Bamenda. No investigation into the death was known to have taken place by the end of the year.
Impunity

On 9 July, a military tribunal in Yaoundé convicted two gendarmes of involvement in the "disappearance" of nine adolescents in the Bépanda Omnisports neighbourhood of Douala. The youngsters, popularly known as the "Douala 9", had been arrested in February 2001 on suspicion of stealing a cooking-gas bottle and "disappeared" after they were taken to Bonanjo, Douala, and detained in a facility of the Commandement Opérationnel, a special anti-crime unit of the gendarmerie. There were allegations that the teenagers had been extrajudicially executed. The two gendarmes were found guilty of abuse of authority and complicity in the abuse of authority and sentenced to short prison terms. The other six gendarmes tried in the same case were acquitted. By the end of the year no one had been held to account for the "disappearance" of the "Douala 9".

AI country visits

Despite repeated requests by AI to visit the country, the Cameroonian authorities failed to grant visas to AI delegates.

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