4, June 2020
CPJ asks Cameroonian govt to account for arrested journalist 0
Cameroonian authorities must immediately disclose the whereabouts and the health and legal status of imprisoned journalist Samuel Wazizi, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.
“Samuel Wazizi’s friends, family, colleagues, and lawyers have unsuccessfully sought answers about his arrest from the Cameroonian government for far too long,” said CPJ Africa Program Coordinator Angela Quintal. “We are extremely disturbed by recent reports of the journalist’s death in government custody, and demand that authorities immediately and publicly account for his status.”
News reports and a tweet by Denis Nkwebo, the president of the Cameroon Trade Union of Journalists, published yesterday and today, allege that Wazizi died at a military hospital at an unspecified date after being tortured by security forces.
The Cameroonian government has not commented on those reports. CPJ called and texted representatives of Cameroon’s Justice Ministry, Communications Ministry, and prime minister’s office for comment, but did not receive any replies.
Wazizi, whose legal name is Samuel Ajiekah Abuwe, was arrested on August 2, 2019, was transferred to military custody on August 7, and has not been seen since, according to CPJ research. Until his arrest, he worked as an anchor for privately owned broadcaster Chillen Muzik and TV.
Source: Premium Times Ng
4, June 2020
Former Pentagon chief Jim Mattis says Trump trying to ‘divide’ America 0
After long refusing to explicitly criticize a sitting president, former Defense Secretary Jim Mattis accused President Donald Trump on Wednesday of trying to divide America and roundly denounced a militarization of the U.S. response to civil unrest.
Protests have erupted around the United States since the death on May 25 of unarmed black man George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody.
“Donald Trump is the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people — does not even pretend to try,” Mattis, who resigned as Trump’s defense secretary in 2018, wrote in a statement published by The Atlantic.
“Instead he tries to divide us. We are witnessing the consequences of three years of this deliberate effort.”
He drew a comparison to the U.S. war against Nazi Germany, saying U.S. troops were reminded before the Normandy invasion: ‘The Nazi slogan for destroying us … was ‘Divide and Conquer.'”
Mattis, a retired Marine general who denies political ambitions, also took a swipe at current U.S. military leadership for participating in a Monday photo-op led by Trump after law enforcement — including National Guard — cleared away peaceful protesters.
He criticized use of the word “battlespace” by Defense Secretary Mark Esper and Army General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to describe protest sites in the United States.
“We must reject any thinking of our cities as a ‘battlespace,'” Mattis wrote.
Trump’s threats to deploy active duty troops — even in states that oppose their use — has stirred alarm within the U.S. military and in Congress, where a top Republican warned it could make troops “political pawns.”
“Militarizing our response, as we witnessed in Washington, D.C., sets up a conflict — a false conflict — between the military and civilian society,” Mattis wrote.
Source: REUTERS