Tsi Conrad, Anglophone detainee who was recently jailed by the Yaounde military junta on May 25th, 2018 for 15 years along side Mancho Bibixy had before his sentencing wrote a lengthy letter addressed to the president of the Cameroun military court in Yaounde after some sixteen months of back and forth appearances at the military court from the trumped-up charges against him and others.

The 5-page 24th May 2018 letter, a copy of which BaretaNews procured did mention the fact that the trappings of ”warfare” and ideological debates have dominated political discourse in the Cameroons. Mr. Tsi did not shy away from the fact the ”inevitable pain and sorrow” to befall everyone affected by the ongoing conflict in the Cameroons rest on the shoulders of the presiding judge as such moves will further angered the people of the Former British Southern Cameroons.

Taking an direct aim at the case, Conrad says the charade of a trial were politically motivated, calling the abduction of himself and co-accused nothing short of a ”brutal kidnap” by the Cameroun armed forces as he rightly pointed. Sad that the government of LRC-a signatory to an international accord who is supposed to be enforcers of Article 5 of the African Charter for Human and Political Rights has against all odds instead subjected Anglophone detainees to all forms of cruel and inhumane treatment while also denying the rights to due process.

Tsi Conrad.

Conrad lamented that the burden of proof lies on the prosecutor to establish the guilt of the accused beyond any reasonable doubt less for false testimonies from elements of the Judicial Police without corroborating their statements which saw the entire process being marred thereby throwing the notion of a ”fair trial” of the window. Conrad chastised the common use of the word ”terrorist” to describe the people and wonders at how it has been normalized in such a way that expressing one’s dissatisfaction with the system that has unfortunately ruined so many lives is likened to terrorism.

Coerced confessions extracted through torture are admitted in the military court as evidences-Conrad regretted. However, without calling up the interrogating officer as what he calls ”principal witness” for cross-examination under oath, Conrad describes the entire process as a charade and hall of shame.

Knowing fully well that freedom is hardly free, Mr. Tsi Conrad made it clear his job had as duty reporting the news, creating video content, making short films, providing jobs for young adults, asking for better living conditions from the powers that be, decrying the marginalization of Ambazonians has nothing to do with terrorism. He stood his ground and reiterated his readiness to pay the ultimate price if it came to that.

Calling on the government of La Republique Du Cameroun that it stands to benefit should it call for a ”round table negotiations” or risk blowing the situation into a full-scale civil war as the situation currently indicates. He thanked the defense lawyers who’ve provided legal representation to them tirelessly and showed gratitude to the public for their moral support.

For the prosecutors and judges who kept them for long hours with food and drink in the hopes of breaking them and intimidating them psychologically, he was sorry to disappoint them that the treatment only tested their resolve and made them stronger.

Neba Benson,

BaretaNews Foreign Correspondent/Analyst