Politics

Secession: New Catalan leader shuns Spanish constitution

17, May 2018

Secession: New Catalan leader shuns Spanish constitution 0

Quim Torra, Catalonia’s new separatist leader, was sworn in Thursday during a brief ceremony without central government representatives in which he avoided promising to obey the constitution and pledged instead to follow “the will of the Catalan people”.

The ceremony marks the end of nearly seven months of political limbo in the northeastern Spanish region, which has been under direct rule from Madrid since the central government deposed Catalan president Carles Puigdemont following a failed declaration of independence on October 27.

“I promise to loyally fulfil the duties of the post of regional president being faithful to the will of the Catalan people represented by the Catalan parliament,” Torra said as he was sworn in, using the same formula as his predecessor and mentor Puigdemont.

The 55-year-old did not promise to obey the Constitution nor the statute that regulates Catalonia’s autonomy.
He appeared flanked only by a Catalan flag, without the traditional Spanish flag and portrait of the king that protocol states must be present, in a small side-room of the regional government building in Barcelona.

Spanish Foreign Minister Alfonso Dastis criticised the ceremony, saying it done “on the sly”, as if Torra “were a second-rate president”.

The hardline separatist Torra was handpicked by Puigdemont, who is currently in Berlin awaiting potential extradition to Spain, where he faces jail on charges of rebellion and misuse of public funds.

He has stressed he is merely a “caretaker president” as he awaits the return of Puigdemont, whom he considers the “legitimate” leader, and has pledged to keep fighting for independence from Spain.

Torra’s swearing-in ceremony only lasted a few minutes and the central government decided not to send any representatives in a sign of tensions between the two.There were no representatives of political parties or civil society either.

As a deferential gesture towards Puigdemont, Torra did not put on the medallion that regional presidents usually wear when they are sworn in.Now Torra needs to form a government, a prerequisite for Madrid to lift direct rule.

But this isn’t assured as Torra has said he wants to reintegrate deposed regional ministers into his government, many of whom are either in preventative custody for their role in the secession drive or in self-exile like Puigdemont.

If the Spanish government decides this is illegal, it could maintain direct rule over the region as requested by center-right party Ciudadanos, whose hardline stance towards the Catalan crisis has resounded in Spain.

The party is now threatening to overtake Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy’s Popular Party in regional and municipal elections next year.

In the more immediate future, however, Rajoy needs the support of the Basque Nationalist Party (PNV) in parliament to approve the 2018 budget.

The PNV wants Madrid to lift direct rule as it strongly supports regional autonomy and is sympathetic to the Catalan cause.
Caught between the two, Rajoy has pledged to watch Torra closely and maintain control over regional finances to avoid public money going to any separatist initiatives, and has also said he is willing to meet the Catalan leader.

Meanwhile, another battle is going on in the courts, with 25 separatist leaders being investigated for rebellion or other offences, nine of whom are in preventative custody and another seven abroad.

On Wednesday, a Belgian judge rejected the extradition request of three former Catalan ministers due to irregularities in the arrest warrants, dealing a blow to Spain.

A court in Germany has also rejected extraditing Puigdemont to Spain for rebellion, a very serious charge that implies violence took place and which many legal experts have discarded.

The court is still considering whether to hand him over to Spain on the lesser charge of misuse of public funds.
Faced with these setbacks, Spain’s Supreme Court has said it is was considering replacing rebellion with sedition, which does not imply violence took place and is less severe.

(Source: AFP)


Southern Cameroons crisis raised in U.K. parliament

17, May 2018

Southern Cameroons crisis raised in U.K. parliament 0

Cameroon’s Anglophone crisis has been raised in the House of Commons – the United Kingdom’s lower house of Parliament with a request from the government as to what it is doing over the situation.

The issue was raised by MP Jessica Morden (Labour Party member for Newport East) who wanted answers over the security crisis and the resultant refugee crisis in the Central African country.

Her question directed to the British Minister for Africa, Harriet Baldwin also demanded ‘a meaningful process to address the issue and to end the violence.’

In response, Baldwin reiterated the U.K. stance that there was the need for cessation of violence by parties and more than anything for the process of inclusive dialogue given that key polls are slated for later this year. Below are her full remarks:

“I am delighted Mr. Speaker that she has managed to get this important issue on the Order Paper and for discussion here in the House of Commons because it is a serious situation, there violence from all sides in Cameroon, we are extremely concerned about the situation.

“And we are encouraging the government but all Cameroonians to participate in the process of inclusive dialogue. It’s an election year and this must take place without resorting to violence.”

The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Its opposite is the upper house, known as the House of Lords. Both chambers meet in the Palace of Westminster.

Officially, the full name of the house is the Honourable the Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland in Parliament assembled.

Baldwin, MP for West Worchestershire who doubles as a Minister of State at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) on a trip to Cameroon called for dialogue. She visited capital of the southwest region of Buea and met with a number of stakeholders.

“Important visit to Buea in South West Anglophone region hearing from local people about the impact of the ongoing dispute and the urgent need for dialogue,” she said in a tweet accompanied by a photo of a meeting of leaders in Buea.

 

Source: Africa News


One and Indivisible Cameroon sliding towards partition

17, May 2018

One and Indivisible Cameroon sliding towards partition 0

No political commentator knows when President Biya is going to stop his senseless war against the people of Southern Cameroons. From Cameroon government intelligence sources, we understand that the Ambazonia Self-Defense Council Restoration Forces are in complete control of the rural areas. The French Cameroun government is determined to re-assert its sovereign authority over all Ambazonian territory, as well as the ambiguous political situation in Southern Cameroons, where the Interim Government has effectively banned all activities of the ruling CPDM party.

Over the past several months, a growing number of senior political analysts have concluded that President Biya is losing Cameroon’s brutal war. Seemingly from a position of strength some few years ago, Biya could appoint and dismiss any Anglophone political elite and he had consolidated control over West Cameroon. But things are changing so rapidly on Ground Zero and the French Cameroun army appears to have been abandoned by its main Yaoundé sponsors, all of whom are now preparing for life after Biya. As our chief correspondent in Buea recently put it, the Federal Republic of Ambazonia looks as though is here to stay.

That may be so. But the temptation to over-interpret the latest events on the battlefield has bedeviled policymakers since the Southern Cameroons uprising began. The military challenge to Biya’s rule has taken a new dimension even though some significant amounts of Ambazonian territory remain in Yaounde’s hands. If Biya is losing the war, he’s doing so at the cost of dismembering the country. Events in the Federal Republic of Nigeria points to a chaotic outcome after the presidential elections in 2019 and this will have a spillover effect on the war in Southern Cameroons.   A number of factors including major diplomatic push by the Interim Government’s pragmatic approach suggest that Cameroon’s de facto partition is a more likely outcome. What might this look like? And is separation something the French Cameroonians should accept or oppose?

Since 1900, approximately two dozen conflicts ended by either de facto or de jure partition. These range from the loss of sovereign control over small territorial enclaves (e.g., Cyprus in 1964 or Somaliland in 1991) to declarations of sovereignty with full international recognition (e.g., Eritrea and Croatia in 1991, South Sudan in 2011). More recently, several Nigerian politicians have proposed a similar approach in Cameroon. This reflects deep skepticism on whether Biya will be able to reunify his so-called one and indivisible Cameroon and a recognition of the degree of divide that’s already taken place. A quick glance at the situation in Manyu, Lebialem, Belo, Bamenda, Muyenge, Kumba, Ndian, Batibo reveals a complex patchwork corresponding to discrete blocs held by the French Cameroun government, the Ambazonia Self-Defense Council Restoration Forces and armed gangs operating from Nigeria. Biya’s control over some areas in Southern Cameroons is limited to economic loyalty. For example, the French Cameroun government has continued to pay salaries to civil servants, even in areas outside its control. But over time, the Interim Government will make these constituencies become increasingly autonomous: Every Southern Cameroons County flies the Ambazonian flag, operates its own security and takes orders from the Interim Government.  Administrative, judicial institutions and educational curricula are still being developed by the exiled government in the USA.

Cardinal Christian Tumi pointed out that the path to Cameroon’s demise was shaped by French intervention in the politics of the country.  In the Northern Zone, the Anglophone Minister of Territorial Administration, Paul Atanga Nji and his partners have created armed groups and though small, the North West area is now buzzing with French Cameroun-funded killer squads.  The precise objectives of this Minister Atanga Nji operation in the North West remain unclear.

In the South West, self-defense forces loyal to the Interim Government are exercising their influence over the Cameroon army and attacks against government forces are rampant. To be sure, Biya regime forces are extremely vulnerable and the area remains self-governing and resistant to Yaoundé authority.

It is important to stress that separation is an outcome almost every Southern Cameroonian wants including those in the Diaspora. However, the international community continues to insist on Cameroon’s unity and territorial integrity.  After two years of war, the vast majority of Ambazonians are comfortable with inclusive dialogue precisely on the grounds that it would be a step towards separation.

Deep within the French Cameroun army, the fight is no longer over Southern Cameroons as a whole, but about making as much money as possible preparing for a new government after the CPDM.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai


War in Southern Cameroons: Joseph Beti Assomo’s investigation will go nowhere

16, May 2018

War in Southern Cameroons: Joseph Beti Assomo’s investigation will go nowhere 0

The Francophone Minister for Defense, Joseph Beti Assomo was forced to inform local and international public opinion of the creation of a commission of inquiry into the brutal killing of a Southern Cameroonian which French Cameroun army soldiers claimed was a leader of an armed group in the Northern Zone.  The Francophone dominated Cameroon army admitted its troops had meted out inhumane treatment to a suspected separatist arrested in the North West region of the country.

According to Mr. Joseph Beti Assomo, gendarmes deployed to the Northern Zone to fight the so called separatists had “mistreated and tied up” an alleged separatist leader during his arrest on Saturday. A viral social media video showed French Cameroun forces having tied the suspects’ hands behind him. The suspect who was lying on his belly in muddy conditions is kicked and his head is stamped upon by some of the gendarmes and a Francophone police officer.

Out of shame and embarrassment, the operations manager of the French Cameroun war machinery, Joseph Beti Assomo opined that the gendarmes were “clearly out of the norms and legal techniques in such circumstances.” The Biya Francophone regime announced to the world that an investigation has been opened to identify (and) where appropriate sanction the perpetrators of these acts contrary to respect for human rights.

Joseph Beti Assomo told a lie that the Southern Cameroonian was nicknamed “general” and was a separatist leader who was arrested on Saturday.  Assomo further pointed out that the innocent Southern Cameroonian was actively sought for several weeks for his involvement in acts of violence against the population and (in) the killing of the personnel of defense and security forces.

If you have been following the war in Southern Cameroons, you will know Mr. Joseph Beti Assomo who said that French Cameroun soldiers would implement President Biya’s war decision without batting an eyelid.  He is now seeking a longer timeframe to submit a fake report to the international community on the numerous atrocities committed by French Cameroun army soldiers in Southern Cameroons. But for social media, there won’t be any French Cameroun investigation. What genius set that investigation?

Legal obstacles

All military judges and army and gendarmerie commanders are from President Paul Biya’s Beti Ewondo tribe whose main goal is to keep Biya and his tribal setting in power and plunder Southern Cameroons wealth.  The Yaoundé government will not allocate any resources required to pursue this investigation as they have done in the past with the Lake Nyos Gas disaster, the Nsam Fire Disaster, the Mbanga-Pongo Plane Crash and the Eseka train disaster including the murder of Bishop Balla.

Biya and members of his Francophone CPDM crime syndicate are struggling to give the impression that there is indeed a responsible government in Yaoundé. Mr. Beti Assomo has never been in a position to comment on the genocide going in Southern Cameroons. But with Communications Minister Issa Tchiroma Bakary anticipating the end of the Biya regime, Assomo is now in the spot light.

The investigation was made public to take the political heat off the Biya Francophone Beti Ewondo Government in reaction to shocking revelations made recently by the United Nations. The Biya regime with help from the French have kept the UN silent for too long. As part of the transaction, UN Secretary General received a golden statue from President Biya worth millions of US dollars.

We also know that the French embassy in Abuja, Nigeria is bankrolling the arrest of Southern Cameroonians in the Federal Republic of Nigeria by the Buhari regime.  Southern Cameroons has since become a “commercial success” for the French as they now have control of the CDC-the biggest Agro-Industrial Plant in West Africa and the oil and gas fields in the Bakassi Peninsula. This feeds the narrative that Southern Cameroonians are strangers in their ancestral land. The Joseph Beti Assomo investigation will go nowhere.

By Sessekou Asu Isong, London


Bundes: Merkel joins European allies in reaffirming support for Iran nuclear deal

16, May 2018

Bundes: Merkel joins European allies in reaffirming support for Iran nuclear deal 0

Germany has joined its European allies in reaffirming support for the Iran nuclear deal in defiance of the US that pulled out of the landmark agreement last week.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Wednesday pushed back against Washington’s rejection of the Iran nuclear deal, and reasserted a defense of the agreement in remarks to lawmakers in the Bundestag lower house of parliament.

She also said that Iran was complying with its commitments under the deal, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

“This agreement is everything other than ideal, but Iran is, according to all the knowledge of the international nuclear authorities, sticking to the commitments of the agreement,” Merkel said.

US President Donald Trump announced on May 8 that Washington was walking away from the JCPOA, which was reached between Iran and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council — the US, Britain, France, Russia and China — plus Germany in 2015.

Trump also said he would reinstate US sanctions on Iran lifted by the accord and impose “the highest level” of economic bans on the Islamic Republic.

The deal lifted sanctions in 2016 in return for Tehran limiting its nuclear program.

Iran has reiterated it would remain in the JCPOA for now, pending negotiations with the other signatories in the coming weeks before making a final decision on its future role in the agreement.

Meanwhile, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif met EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini and his counterparts from Britain, France and Germany in Brussels on Tuesday.

Following the meeting, Mogherini told reporters that European top diplomats had agreed to follow through the Iran nuclear deal despite Trump’s decision to withdraw.

To this end, the EU will launch intensive discussion at all levels with Iran in next few weeks, she said, adding that the discussion would focus on, among others, how to maintain economic relations and effective banking transactions with Iran in the context of renewed US sanctions.

“We are determined to ensure that the JCPOA stays in place. We know it’s a difficult task but we are determined to do that,” Mogherini said, adding, “We’ve started to work to put in place measures that help ensuring that this happens.”

She noted that similar willingness has been expressed by the European and Iranian sides.

Before visiting Europe, Zarif first traveled to China and later Russia, the two other signatory nations that have supported the JCPOA, on the first leg of his diplomatic mission.

Meanwhile, in their first meeting since the US withdrawal from the JCPOA, EU leaders are expected to meet to explore options on Wednesday for keeping the Iran nuclear deal alive and protecting their reviving economic cooperation with Tehran.

“I would like our debate to reconfirm without any doubt that as long as Iran respects the provisions of the deal, the EU will also respect it,” the chairman of the gathering, Donald Tusk, said before the meeting in the Bulgarian capital Sofia.

Russian President Vladimir Putin will also host Merkel on Friday to discuss, among other issues, the Iran deal.

 

Source: Presstv


Scottish parliament decisively rejects May’s EU withdrawal bill

16, May 2018

Scottish parliament decisively rejects May’s EU withdrawal bill 0

The Scottish parliament has decisively voted against the United Kingdom’s legislation on departure from the European Union (EU), placing London on course for a major constitutional dispute with Edinburgh and the further postponement of Brexit.

The Scottish lawmakers rejected British Prime Minister Theresa May’s EU Withdrawal Bill by 93 votes to 30 on Tuesday.

Labour, the Liberal Democrats and Scottish Greens backed First Minister Nicola Sturgeon’s party members in rejecting the divorce bill, arguing that it would restrict Holyrood’s powers.

The vote is not legally binding but it will force London to make a high-risk decision and assert power over Edinburgh or make further concessions to the Scottish government to avoid a crisis.

May’s disregard for the vote could fuel Sturgeon’s demands for a second referendum on Scottish independence and provide her Scottish National Party (SNP) with a further justification for staging one.

Britain has been at loggerheads with the devolved nations – Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales – on how power would be shared after the Britain’s separation from the 28-member bloc.

Speaking after the Tuesday vote, Scotland’s Brexit secretary Mike Russell, called on the UK government to respect the will of the Scottish parliament and find an acceptable solution.

“The Scottish Parliament has now said overwhelmingly that this attempt to undermine devolution is unacceptable,” he said. “The UK government cannot ignore the reality of devolution or try to drown out what this parliament says. They cannot pretend that no motion has been passed.”

A day earlier, Sturgeon warned London against ignoring the Holyrood’s views and said May needed to secure a deal with Edinburgh fast.

“They [UK government] have a decision to make as to whether they are going to ignore the views of the Scottish Parliament or listen to those views and try very hard to get a deal and to close the gap that remains between us,” she said.

In the United Kingdom’s 2016 referendum, 52 percent, or 17.4 million people, voted to leave the EU while 48 percent, or 16 million, voted to stay.

The British government has faced fierce criticism both at home and by the EU for its lack of clarity on its Brexit strategy.

The uncertainty has raised fears that Britain could crash out of the bloc without a trade deal, incurring heavy costs on its domestic economy.

London and Brussels are due to move on to the next stage of Brexit negotiations this year, after reaching agreement in December on exit terms.

 

Source: Presstv


Algeria dismisses Morocco’s new claims of backing Polisario

14, May 2018

Algeria dismisses Morocco’s new claims of backing Polisario 0

Algeria has roundly rejected and denounced fresh claims by the Moroccan foreign minister that it played an “operational” role in alleged Iranian support for a pro-independence Western Sahara movement.

Nasser Bourita, Morocco’s top diplomat, had told the French-language Jeune Afrique weekly news magazine that Algiers offered more than a meeting venue for members of the separatist Polisario Front and Lebanon’s Hezbollah resistance movement.

He had claimed that “Algeria has given more than its blessing. It has given an opening, backing and operational support.”

Rabat has accused Iran of using Hezbollah to support Polisario, a claim Tehran has sharply dismissed.

“Algeria strongly condemns and deplores the statements made by the Moroccan foreign minister in an interview, released yesterday in a Paris magazine,” the Foreign Ministry in Algiers said in a statement late on Sunday.

Algiers has criticized Rabat for not providing any evidence to support its claims, adding it continuously makes up “stories.”

Earlier this month, Morocco severed its diplomatic relations with Iran, with Bourita accusing Tehran and Hezbollah of training and arming Polisario members via the Iranian Embassy in Algeria.

Algeria, Iran and Hezbollah were all quick to reject the claims as baseless back then.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qassemi said there was no cooperation between Tehran’s diplomatic mission in Algiers and the Algeria-backed movement.

Hezbollah also blamed the US, Israel and Saudi Arabia for the diplomatic tensions, saying Rabat cut ties with Tehran under pressure from the trio.

In turn, Algeria summoned Morocco’s ambassador to protest the “unfounded” claims.

Rabat annexed Western Sahara, a former Spanish colony, in 1975, and has since then been in conflict with Polisario, which demands a referendum on self-determination and independence.

The movement, which aims to end Morocco’s presence in the Saharan region, recently said they sought to set up a “capital” in the region, prompting Rabat to caution it would respond with force.

 

Source: Presstv


On Biya regime’s determined attempt to mislead Cameroonians on the killings of soldiers

13, May 2018

On Biya regime’s determined attempt to mislead Cameroonians on the killings of soldiers 0

In the early hours of Saturday the 12th of May 2018, a military truck transporting some elements of the Rapid Intervention Battalion reportedly had an accident around the Atlantic Beach entrance in Limbe. 30 soldiers were killed and dozens injured. The Francophone dominated army had before the accident ordered Southern Cameroons civilians to evacuate the area.

Cameroon Intelligence Report gathered that the soldiers left their base and were en route to Muyuka to crush the attacks on the gendarmerie post when their vehicle crashed.  French Cameroun army sources say the accident was caused due to over speeding. However, our chief correspondent in the Southern Zone, Sama Ernest who is also very experienced in intelligence gathering has gotten reliable information that the Limbe Atlantic Beach accident was staged by the military.

In an interview he had with a senior Francophone military official in Limbe who sued for anonymity, the officer wondered aloud on the numerous “lie telling competition” going on deep within the Cameroon army. “These days the army kills its own and say it was a motor accident’ he pointed out.  He said the Cameroon military high command was not telling the truth to the Cameroonian people. He admitted that soldiers were being killed by the Southern Cameroons restoration forces at an alarming rate but the army was maintaining a kind of silence of the lamb.

Questioned on the diabolic harsh ploy by the army against the people of Southern Cameroons, he bolted and claimed he did not understand English properly.  Some sources have maintained the view that the army is afraid to tell the truth as it may generate an uprising in East Cameroun. The Biya regime plans to make public the names of some of the soldiers killed in the Southern Cameroons war this coming week and we understand the list will be linked to the Limbe accident.

Elsewhere, there was an attack at the Gendarmerie post in Yoke, Muyuka and the Southern Cameroons freedom fighters made away with ammunition. Two days ago, they attacked the Muyuka police head office and freed all detainees.

By Rita Akana with files from Sama Ernest in Fako County


Why is President Trump supporting failed and rogue states like La Republique du Cameroun?

11, May 2018

Why is President Trump supporting failed and rogue states like La Republique du Cameroun? 0

Cat calls have greeted the recent US military donations to La Republique du Cameroun. The Southern Cameroons political leadership has refused to comment on the combat aircrafts donation from the Trump administration to the butchers in Yaoundé.  However, many of the Ambazonian political elites contacted by Cameroon Intelligence Report opined that the United States was appearing like an intransigent rogue state pursuing only its own interests at the expense of human rights and freedom and has blatantly refused to push the Paul Biya Francophone regime to curb attacks in Southern Cameroons.

To be sure, the US won’t deploy carrots or sticks to even stop the genocide currently going in Southern Cameroons and it won’t scold the French Cameroun political leadership for crackdowns against innocent Southern Cameroons civilian population. Interestingly, US President Donald Trump just this week cancelled the historic nuclear deal with Iran and reiterated that it was a bad deal. But to hand over two aircrafts to the regime in Yaoundé with the potential to scan and detect enemy hideouts is completely unacceptable to the people of Southern Cameroons.

The Biya regime does not have the cash to pay for such sophisticated aircraft so the argument that US weapon donation to French Cameroun is largely about relations with France is legitimate. But the truth is that, US behaviour too is about more than just money. The US actually has a soft spot for countries that buck the international system, oppress and murder their citizens, and threaten regional stability. A good example is the Biya Francophone Beti Ewondo regime that has been in power for 36 years and has contributed in destabilizing the Central African Republic and creating many Cameroonian military billionaires.  This recent US military gesture to the 86 year-old French Cameroun dictator is an indication that the US in the end, needs rogues.

For decades the US backed the Mobutu Sesekou regime in Congo-Kinshasa which killed more than two-thirds of the country’s political elites.  The US continues to support President Denis Sassou Ngessou of Congo-Brazzaville and today it’s the turn of the French Cameroun thug, President Biya who is killing Southern Cameroonians in a monstrous ideological genocide.

Towns and villages have been burned by Francophone army soldiers deployed to Southern Cameroons.  Teachers, lawyers, businessmen including women and children are being murdered to make French Cameroonians the only owners of the Ambazonian ancestral land a reality all with the backing of the USA. Southern Cameroons schools and hospitals have been closed, as well as Southern Cameroons banks including service companies. Some 40,000 Southern Cameroonians have fled the conflict into neighboring Nigeria.

Over the last two years, the Francophone dominated government in Yaoundé has overworked and is starving the Southern Cameroons population, at the same time exterminating selected groups who they believe are enemies of the French Cameroun state or have the potential to undermine the French Cameroun political leaders. People who the French Cameroun armies perceive as Ambazonian leaders or even those who disagree with the military campaign have also been killed.

A sea of Southern Cameroonian women and children were killed in Kembong, Kwa Kwa, Belo, Kendem, Batibo, Ndian, Nguti, Muyenge for attempting to escape from the French Cameroun military onslaught. A majority of those caught in the Manyu and Lebialem Counties were taken quietly off to a distant forest between Numba and Kendem and were killed.  The fiercest extermination campaign is taken place in Calabar and Ikom in the Federal Republic of Nigeria with the complete and total support of the Buhari administration. Southern Cameroonian civilians have suffered the biggest death toll (over 1,500) have been killed so far with the UN registering some 21,291 as refugees in Nigeria.

Family relationships including those residing in the USA can no longer send money back home to loved ones and family members are being arrested and jailed for communicating with those in the Diaspora. The US embassy in Yaoundé noted that the aircrafts were to fight the Nigerian Islamic sect, Boko Haram. However, the Francophone Minister for Defense, Joseph Beti Assomo pointed out that the war machines will also be used to fight other related crisis.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai


Ambazonia Self-Defense Council Briefing: Tall on details, Heavy on substance

11, May 2018

Ambazonia Self-Defense Council Briefing: Tall on details, Heavy on substance 0

My fellow Ambazonians and people of the world, in mid-March 2018, Acting President Samuel Sako of our Interim Government in Exile (IG) convened in the United States of American with self-defense groups throughout our territory, consulting with their leaders to adopt a statement and action plan that established an independent self-defense wing of our liberation war—the Ambazonia Self-Defence Council (ASC). Under the new framework, all self-defence activities across the territory of Ambazonia are conducted under the general name Ambazonia Self-Defence Council’s Restoration Forces (ASC/RF).

Tonight, I want to address three categories of audiences that are stakeholders in the Ambazonia Liberation War. Specifically, I want to speak with our freedom fighters on ground zero, the people of Ambazonia on ground zero and worldwide, and the international community in the context of self-defence toward achieving Ambazonia statehood.

 

To our freedom fighters

We should have but one desire today: the desire to fight so that Ambazonia may live free—the willingness to face a martyr’s death, so that the path to freedom may be paved with martyrs’ blood. Friends! my comrades in the War of Liberation! Today I demand of you one thing, above all. I demand of your loyalty and self-discipline.  The blood of our heroes cannot go in vain. Their blood has paid the price of our freedom. Therefore, we cannot give up, we have to fight, fight, and fight till we reach BUEA. We must live Free or Die.

We, the citizens of Ambazonia, are now joined in a great national effort to defend our people, and our property, and to protect our interests against the illegal occupation, administration, and exploitation by President Paul Biya’s regime of La Republique du Cameroun (LRC), a neigbouring country, since 1961. Our ultimate goal is to take full control of our territory as defined and recognized under international treaties and to restore Ambazonia’s promise of sovereignty and freedom to all of our people.

Together, we will achieve our unconditional sovereignty, determine the future of Ambazonia, and join the international community of nations.

 

To the people of Ambazonia

Whether you are in the homeland, residing abroad, or homeless in some country seeking refuge—rest assured we will soon celebrate our freedom and independence in Buea. But freedom does not come free. We must fight for our freedom with everything we have, even our own lives, and win it from those who would take it from us or deny us our right to live. We must defend our God-given right of existence. God is with us and freedom is ours if we stand with each other. Together in this fight for freedom, no power can stop us—not the helicopter gunships, nor the state-sponsored terrorists of Paul Biya.  Together we shall beat down any mountain that stands in the way of our freedom.

By now, you must know at least one village person who has been brutally killed, beheaded, executed, abducted, burnt alive, tortured for ransom, maimed, or otherwise suffered human rights violation by La Republique du Cameroun’s government forces. The message is clear, and the meaning is simple: Act now and act fast. You must associate yourself with your village or community groups and support self-defence. Not taking action is not an option. President Biya and his government have made this clear—he has declared war on us, deployed troops to our territory, and killed our people. They will kill all of us. Therefore, we must defend ourselves until such a time when the international community takes concrete action to hold President Biya and his government accountable for all crimes against the people of Ambazonia.

We need you—we need everyone. Support in any form takes us closer to victory. Take heart, look up to God and have faith. There is no second thought, my country people: the time is now. If you do not support the self-defence, armed soldiers and paramilitary forces of LRC will mercilessly kill your loved ones and family members at home or burn your house or loot your property. Here is a mantra, a short one that I give you. You may imprint it on your hearts and let every breath of yours give expression to it. The mantra is: ‘Do or Die’. We shall either free Ambazonia or die in the attempt; we shall not live to see the perpetuation of our slavery. Every true Ambazonian man or woman will join the struggle with an unbreakable determination not to remain alive to see the country in bondage and slavery. Let that be your pledge.

 

To the international community

Thank you to the Governments of the United States, the United Kingdom, and France for condemning the barbaric offenses of President Paul Biya’s regime against our people since our decades long peaceful protest heightened in late 2016. Thank you to the secretariats of the African Union, United Nations, European Union, and Commonwealth for urging the Biya regime to negotiate a political settlement with the Ambazonian people. Your leadership and actions are highly appreciated. Why is it that, for half a century, we have never heard voices from the international community speaking out against the suppression and tyranny of La Republique du Cameroun authorities? Why is it that we have not witnessed international condemnation of the systematic disregard for our basic rights and values, and forced assimilation into a union between two countries and two peoples with distinct cultures, ways of life, and irreconcilable differences?

We can no longer remain on our knees with our hands clasped together, begging for basic freedoms and opportunities in a God-given land and internationally-recognized territory to survive, when all that we get in return is killing, maiming, abduction by armed soldiers and security forces of La Republique du Cameroun. We can no longer bury our youths in vain, we can no longer watch our girls and mothers raped before us, we can no longer watch our grandparents burnt alive in their homes, we can no longer continue to exist as refugees in foreign countries without a place to call home because of a union forced upon our ancestors. We have therefore decided to stand up for our rights, fight for our freedom, and guard our homeland.

On November 30, 2017, President Paul Biya of neighboring LRC declared war against the territory of Ambazonia, a clear confirmation that Ambazonia and the LRC are two different countries and two distinct people. The silence and inaction of the citizens of LRC is further testimony that they are different from us and that we are two different people in different territories. Since that day, LRC’s elite forces continue to use war equipment to carry out mass killings, executions on the spot, beheadings, and burning of communities—all of which have created huge humanitarian consequences in neighboring countries like Nigeria. We have therefore come to the conclusion that no one can defend us except us. And we will defend our land till the last man falls down.

Looking forward, this is the position of the Ambazonia Self-Defence Council. The only competent authority to call for a cease fire across the Ambazonia territory is the Interim Government of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia. A peaceful exit strategy out of the ongoing Biya-declared war will come from the voice of either the United Nations Security Council or of a member state coming before it and demanding a referendum for the people of Ambazonia on our side to exercise our freedom of sovereignty.

In conclusion, the American people have shown the world that democracy and individual liberty provide the conditions in which knowledge progresses, science discovers, innovation occurs, enterprise thrives and, ultimately, people advance. This is the kind of democracy and values we envision, and for which we are fighting, for Ambazonia.

In due course, as the spokesperson of ASC, I or the deputy will issue regular statements and brief the media as need arises on the status of the self-defence activities and significant developments in our war of liberation.

By Nsoh Foncha


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