Open Letter No4 to President Paul Biya.
You have been deceived again Mr. President. Schools will not resume in Southern Cameroons with the release of “some” Anglophone detainees! Dear Mr. President, your decision to enter a “nolle prosegui” (we shall no longer prosecute) against “some” of the detainees in connection with the Southern Cameroons struggle has been received with mix feelings. An overwhelming majority does not see your decision as a genuine gesture intended to initiate dialogue as recommended by the UN. It is perceived as a calculated attempt to secure school resumption and to ignite a leadership battle within the Southern Cameroons struggle along federalism and nationalism sentiments. Let me tell you why?
1. People say that the Anglophone detainees did not commit any crime that warranted their arrests, detention and trials in the first place. Because the evidence against them was fatally flawed in light of the claims, a must acquit is what the people expected for a long time before now.
2. People say also that the selective acquittals have only added more salt to injury. And are now angrily demanding the uncoditional relasee of every detainee, especially Mancho Bibixy before anything. They interpret this act as a scheme designed to cover up for some detainees who are feared missing or outrightly eliminated. For this reason, they won’t allow anyone to play over their intelligence. And therefore, insist schools will not resume throughout Southern Cameroons until their demands are fully and completely met.
3. Yet other people view your decision to release a few key leaders as a scheme to instigate division in the Southern Cameroons struggle so that you can continue your reign. Sir, It is an open secret that before their arrests, the consortium leaders you have just released were pro-Federalists (for 2 state federation) whereas, the Southern Cameroons Governing Council stands for restoration (independent State of Southern Cameroons).
Though the release of our leaders is welcome, the timing that coincided with school resumption, diplomatic offensive of SCACUF are seen as a deliberate attempt to divide the struggle into two weak groups with intent reconquir and continue the annexation Ambazonia.Dear Mr. President, if this is the hidden agenda behind your decision to release few leaders as opposed to letting go everybody and trying to find long lasting solutions to the root causes of the crisis, then, I’m afraid this strategy will fail and backfire.
-The people of SC have buried whatever differences they may be nursing amongst themselves to struggle together for the liberation of the homeland.
-The people of SC are tired of living in fear of harassment, arrests, torture, elimination, false imprisonment and marginalization.
– The people of SC believe that their fundamental freedoms can only be enjoyed through separation and restoration and never through the continuation of an unholy union.
-The people of Southern Cameroons no longer trust your regime because it neither keeps its own premises nor respects the highest law of the land. For example, the decentralization and declaration of assets clauses of the 1996 constitution have not been implemented. And this has only aided and abbated marginalization and corruption at the detriment of our scarce natural resources and ageing youth population.
To conclude Mr. President, my objective is to tell you the truth if it can help you address the root causes of this problem and save Cameroon.
1. Schools will not resume until all persons arrested are completely released or adequately accounted for.
2. Schools will not resume in SC until both sides of the problem can meet in the presence of a third party like the U.N. to laydown the foundation for a referendum to be conducted in SC.
3. Schools will not resume in SC unless you remove your army from school campuses. Students and pupils fear the army carrying guns and bullets around schools and not ” diaspora Facebook activists sitting behind keyboards”.
4. Carefully approach this matter as an international crisis and not a domestic issue. In so doing Sir, you will fully appreciate the implications of your acts in connection with the Southern Cameroons struggle.
Those who love peace hate conflicts!
Dr. David Makongo (Senior International Negotiator & Legal Consultant) USA
2 comments
The below copy and paste job is news from BBC news today 4 September on Ambazonia’s school boycott success:
11:05
English-speaking schools remain closed in Cameroon
The new school year has opened in Cameroon but pupils in the country’s English-speaking areas of the country have largely stayed away, a BBC reporter in the region says.
Schools in north-west and south-west Cameroon shut at the end of last year as teachers protested against the use of French-speaking teachers, among other things.
Some of their demands have been agreed to but many activists feel that they are too cosmetic.
People have also agitated for the release of some Anglophone activists who had been jailed over the recent protests.
Dozens were released last week, but people are arguing for the release of all those jailed before the children go back to school.
BBC
People in Cameroon’s north-west and south-west regions have argued that their interests have been marginalised by the government in Yaounde.
Mr James Agbor your letter accurate!Actually any dialogue with lrc & third parties will be specifically to declare our Independence and for them to hand us all our stolen resources,the accountability of ALL our SCs in various prisons and bunkers to be released unconditionally,all those who have been buried in mass graves must be accounted for,lastly for the international courts to prosecute dictator mr biya, all those brutal army men and their commanders who give them the right to shoot and kill, arrest and kidnapping including the minister of the arm force,some senior figures such as the primitive liar chiroma, mr biya, cpdm heads in the SW/NW regions and lrc are untrustworthy,bribing, corrupt cancers, they will never be allowed to rule over Southern Cameroons again