Washington DC, Sept. 21, 2019, SCLC Communique

Southern Cameroonians Say No to Dictator Biya’s Grand National Parody of Dialogue

We, member organizations, groups and movements affiliated to the Southern Cameroons Liberation Council, SCLC have completed a thorough analysis of the speech made to the international community by Octogenarian, baby-killing Dictator, Paul Biya of neighbouring La République du Cameroun and, do hereby, on behalf of the sovereign people of the former UN Trust Territory of British Southern Cameroons solemnly reject what we consider one comedy too much, meant to distract international attention and play for time in pursuit of his genocidal agenda.

We like to recall that Dictator Paul Biya who has over the last three years been in total denial of the existence of a Southern Cameroons Question, a denial he doubled down on in his Tuesday September 10 address, has seen so much international pressure to embrace third-party mediated peace negotiations lately. The so-called grand national dialogue is simply an attempt to pose as wanting dialogue, while setting pitfalls for Southern Cameroonians “invited to attend” in order to turn around and try to fool the world that our people were not interested in dialogue. The décor being erected is a repeat of the 1991 tripartite conference at which Southern Cameroonians were so sidelined and treated as one of the many tribes of La République du Cameroun that, angered, late Statesman John N Foncha dropped out and later resigned definitely from the CPDM Party in protest. Nothing has changed ever since, and nothing indicates that anything is about to change.

Dictator Paul Biya has never been a man of dialogue, all his life as president, he has dueled on cosmetic solutions to serious problems. When the people asked for a sovereign national conference, he opened the doors to a tripartite conference at which he alone named the stakeholders, decided the agenda, and downloaded resolutions in advance. When protests intensified, he talked about a “Grand Débat”, turned it later to “Large débat” and drowned all those in brutal repression until the people resigned to their fate. He thinks this is the same scenario and that is why Paul Biya has created his “die-logue” committee, appointed delegates for both sides, decided on an agenda, set pre-conditions and literally the resolutions. The well-choreographed “consultations” going on now are merely designed to make-belief, while his trigger-happy soldiers are on the ground busy decimating our unarmed population daily without any form of provocation.

We are inviting the international community to witness that Paul Biya’s refusal to talk permanent peace is reflected in the people he has sent out for consultations and with whom he intends to pass his already prepared resolutions. Those from Southern Cameroons are the same self-proclaimed elites who for three years and counting, have been dispatched to our various towns and villages to woe the local masses and have been rejected repeatedly. The likes of Prof. Fru Angwafo III, Prof. Uphie Chinje Melo, Senator Mbella Moki Charles, Dr. Diane Acha Mofor, Hon. Enwe Francis Abi, among others.

On the other side of the Mungo, are mainly Parliamentarians and Senators who vehemently refused to talk about the Southern Cameroons question during their sessions, to the point of publicly walking out on their Social Democratic Front, SDF peers when the latter took to the rostrum to force the issue down their throats. The likes of Hon. Mbe Assae and others. Thus, what is in gestation right now, is a massive grand national rally of Paul Biya’s CPDM Party, it has nothing to do with the Third-Party Mediated Talks that world powers have been calling for, at which the root causes of the conflict will be examined and dealt with in accordance with international law.

Therefore, we are urging the people of Southern Cameroons across the world to stay away from all meetings called anywhere by members of such delegations sent out to waste the peoples’ money by way of mission allowances, in the name of consultations. The leadership of the Southern Cameroons liberation struggle will not be holding any meetings whatsoever with whoever to legitimize a charade that does not represent the will of our people. Anyone going out of their way to attend such meetings, for whatsoever reasons, will end up being considered as having enabled that parody of dialogue: it is indeed a “victor’s” exclusionist peace offer.

We seize this opportunity to remind Paul Biya and his cohorts, that the total independence of the former UN Trust Territory of British Southern Cameroons is non-negotiable!