Amnesty International Report 2005 - Cameroon

Covering events from January - December 2004

The government held on to power in presidential elections after using violence to disrupt peaceful opposition meetings. Political leaders were detained to prevent public meetings and demonstrations. One political prisoner died in prison, apparently from medical neglect. The government failed to investigate reports of torture, "disappearances" or deaths in police custody independently or openly.

Background

Paul Biya, head of state since 1982, was re-elected in presidential elections in October amid allegations by opposition parties and the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Cameroon of vote-rigging and law-breaking. A Commonwealth Observer Group concluded that the electoral process lacked the necessary credibility in a number of key areas, including denying some voters the right to vote. However, the Group believed that the intention of those who voted was reflected in the result.

The oil-rich Bakassi peninsula remained under the control of Nigerian forces, despite a 2002 ruling by the International Court of Justice in The Hague that it be handed over to Cameroon. Nigerian forces had not vacated the area by deadlines set for May and September.

Critics gagged

Opposition parties continued to operate under severe constraints. Their supporters were arbitrarily detained and their public gatherings obstructed by the security forces.

• Jean-Jacques Ekindi and other leading members of the opposition Front of Alternative Forces (Front des forces alternatives, FFA) were briefly detained by the paramilitary mobile police on 12 January in Douala. They were prevented from publicly launching a petition for free and fair presidential elections.

Protest marches by a coalition of opposition parties were forcibly obstructed. The National Coalition for Reconciliation and Reconstruction (Coalition nationale pour la réconciliation et la reconstruction, CNRR) was calling for the electoral register to be computerized to prevent vote-rigging in favour of the ruling party, the Cameroon People's Democratic Rally (Rassemblement démocratique du peuple camerounais, RDPC).

• On 6 July a peaceful march in the capital, Yaoundé, was blocked by hundreds of anti-riot gendarmes. Among the demonstrators said to have been assaulted were John Fru Ndi, leader of the Social Democratic Front (SDF), and SDF members of parliament. On 3 August police officers and gendarmes reportedly surrounded and assaulted about 50 protesters near the central market in Yaoundé. On 10 August the police and gendarmes surrounded a group of CNRR supporters for several hours to stop them from marching, and allegedly punched and whipped a demonstrator who escaped the cordon.

• A march in Douala on 17 August was halted at its rallying point by police and gendarmes and Jean-Jacques Ekindi and other opposition leaders were detained.

John Kohtem, an SDF leader, was beaten to death on 20 August near Bamenda, the capital of North-West province, reportedly by followers of a local RDPC leader and member of parliament. Following mass protests by SDF supporters, 11 people were arrested in September in connection with the killing. The 11 and the member of parliament had not been formally charged by the end of the year.

Some human rights defenders faced official harassment.

• Judicial officials in Maroua, the capital of Extreme North province, seized property from the Movement for the Defence of Human Rights and Freedoms and returned it only after the group paid the officials.

Continued denial of press freedoms reflected the government's long-standing fear of uncensored news reporting. A ban imposed during 2003 on a number of radio and television stations accused of transmitting without licence remained in force. The government refused to grant them the licences.

• On 11 July, two local correspondents for the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) were arrested by soldiers in the Bakassi peninsula. Despite having government authorization to be in the area, they were accused of espionage, had their equipment and documents briefly seized, and were detained under house arrest in the town of Limbe until 16 July.

Political imprisonment

Political prisoners continued to be held. Several were in poor health, and were denied adequate medical care.

• Martin Cheonumu died in July, days after complaining of abdominal pain. He was the second prisoner to die since he and 17 other defendants were convicted in 1999 after an unfair trial by a court controlled by the Ministry of Defence. The defendants were denied access to legal counsel in pre-trial detention. The government announced in December that the right to appeal had been granted, but it had not occurred by the end of 2004. The 18 were members of the Southern Cameroons National Council (SCNC), a group advocating independence for the English-speaking provinces of Cameroon. They were convicted on charges including murder, robbery and illegal possession of firearms in connection with armed attacks in North-West province in 1997.

Torture in custody

Detainees in police custody remained at risk of torture. No procedures were in place to ensure that unexplained deaths or reports of torture or "disappearance" were independently or thoroughly investigated.

• Bruising and injuries on the body of Laurent Kougang, who died in police custody on 23 April, appeared to have been caused by severe beatings. After his arrest on 15 April, allegedly on suspicion of trafficking firearms, he was held at two police stations before being transferred to the central police station in Douala's Brazzaville district where he died. No investigation was known to have been carried out into the circumstances of his death.

• Police officers were reported to have handcuffed, assaulted and set fire to Afuh Benard Weriwo, aged 27, in Ikiliwindi on 12 May, as gendarmes stood by. He had been arrested after being accused of stealing a bicycle. He died from his injuries on 10 July. There was no official response to calls by witnesses and local activists for an investigation and for the suspected perpetrators to be brought to justice.

• There was still no investigation into the alleged "disappearance" of nine adolescents from the Bépanda Omnisports district of Douala in February 2001. Arrested on suspicion of stealing a gas cylinder and stove, the nine were reportedly tortured at the Gendarmerie Operational Command headquarters known as "Kosovo" before they "disappeared".

Death penalty

In July a Justice Department official said that death sentences were no longer carried out and that they were usually commuted to life imprisonment in response to petitions for presidential clemency. He said that 27 petitions were under examination, but provided no information about those still under sentence of death. Death sentences were last carried out in 1997.

AI country visits

AI representatives sought to visit Cameroon to investigate reports of pre-election human rights violations, but, as in previous years, the government refused to grant them access.