WEEKEND REFLECTION

In more than 50 years, all our diplomatic efforts to regain our independence took Ambazonia from an independent country into near extermination. All attempts to use the justness of our Cause argument; matching our ideals against the method of both the oppressor and the international system made us a mockery of the continent. In the face of resistance in South Africa, defence of the right to be free in South Sudan, East Timor, Eritrea Ambazonian idealism looked like cheap propaganda from a people who lacked guts to face down their robbers. Our believe in the international system: our believe in Western capitalism, concept of liberalism and its almighty trojan horse dubbed democracy left warriors to be led like sheep to the slaughter.

Three years ago we rose up to defend our independence. Against all odds we normalised the right to exist; the right to life and dignity in the psyche of our people; but the most important achievement was normalising the right to the protection of these concepts using arms. We did not pick up arms because we were savages. We did because for close to sixty years matching our ideals to the method of the oppressor did not work; hoping on the international system to fix the mess they put us in did not work. We faced the arrogance and guns of an unrepentant occupier. We were faced with two options, Blink or fight back. As we resisted, the world hoped it was simply agitation from a disgruntled few; they used all kinds of words to describe our revolution. We neither blinked nor lost focus. We knew our mission; had mastered our methods and understood our oppressor. Our determination frightened them and sensing the defeat of Cameroun, they introduced a speed brake call Swiss talks. They knew we were gullible and will fall for it. In 1997, as the forces of Kabila garnered strength, the West that had been complicit to the plunder of Zaire attempted to introduce a speed brake by asking for transition by negotiations. Kabila and his men knew that a man who had refused to negotiate for more than 30 years should be out-rightly defeated. In May of 1997, Mobutu left the capital for Gabon on a one way flight into exile. In Syria, after the rebels had defeated the Syrian forces in almost all of Syria and laid siege to the capital, scared of an Islamic take over, the world used the Swiss and HD to organise negotiations in Geneva. That speed brake introduced to slow the rebel momentum cost the rebels heavily. Today the rebels have lost all their gains and are struggling for survival in the last city of Idlib where they have been surrounded.

Fellow Ambazonians

We are faced with a choice. Mobilise our people for total resistance or succumb to the machinations of Switzerland using infiltrators to forever destroy our resistance. Switzerland is not our friend. It is a trojan horse being used by the international system to hand victory to Cameroun. Ask yourself these questions; what is the interest of Switzerland in trying to help end the conflict? Does Switzerland care about the genocide in ambazonia? if it does, why can´t it refer Cameroun to the ICC? Is Switzerland interested in a genuine outcome that brings peace and justice? If yes, why is it afraid to make the process transparent and inclusive of other international stakeholders? In the negotiations between South Africa and the ANC, and between Colombia and the FARC rebels, secret channels of contacts existed for many years. It is unable to get Cameroun commit; unable to use its influence to halt the killings: Switzerland is a danger to our war of independence. It is not a neutral facilitator. it is a collaborator in the subjugation and maintenance of Ambazonia as a colony of Cameroun. This move has been frustrated by our refusal to accept a blank cheque.

My fellow people

We are finally back on track. We must not be naive. The world does not care about justice. They want stability. If they cared about us, they wouldn´t have asked for a unilateral cease fire because of Covid 19; they would have asked for Yaounde to release our people; they have never cared about the condition of detention, the trauma our POWs are going through; they don’t care about the tragedy of those in IDP camps and the consequences of Camerouns continuous brutality on our children; if they did, they would have taken stronger actions. All of Biyas money is in switzerland. For many years they were complicit in the exploitation of our cocoa; in banking Biyas ill gotten wealth from extortion in Ambazonia; while Biya developed Switzerland we had no schools and no hospitals. We do not hate our oppressors; we do not hate those who conspire against us; we have identified them and we shall never be fooled again. We must intensify the war against Cameroun. Mandela did not do the same because he did not care about his people: He sacrificed his own freedom because he wanted everyone to be free. Martin Luther King Jr could have simply given up; he lost his life to ensure that Barrack Obama had a chance: Malcolm X did not invoke the right to self defence blind to the dangers of that decision. he lost his life in the process. These conspiracies must stop with this generation. We will not be manipulated or derailed from our focused on ending Camerouns reign in Ambazonia using self defence as a key instrument to achieve our objectives

This is what Ambazonians must know. The nature of the process of any negotiations will determine the outcome you want. At this stage in our struggle the world cannot negotiate the outcome of our war without the Ambazonia Governing Council. The AGOVC oversees the most structured, most armed and inspired force on the ground. The Swiss are in bed with weak, corrupt and ideologically weak groups who cannot end the conflict. We can because our position reflects that of our people. Wars of liberation are about the most effective strategies that weakens your enemy, gains you respect and forces your enemy to beg for a way out. Anytime your enemy is unwilling to even talk, you must understand that you still have some knocking to do. That is why our people must persevere and work harder to cripple Cameroun, render it powerless and force it to beg to negotiate its way out. That is what it takes to free. Chances make Champions. We have taken our chance and this generation will end the nightmare over our. Our forces are ready. They are determined. They are inspired and they are confident.

Dr Cho Ayaba