French Cameroun: Maurice Kamto, others are released, but rule of law reforms still urgently needed

11, October 2019

French Cameroun: Maurice Kamto, others are released, but rule of law reforms still urgently needed 0

The ICJ today welcomed the release from detention and the dropping of charges against, of Maurice Kamto and other opposition figures. 

The ICJ has called on Cameroonian authorities to ensure that they and others are able to exercise their human rights and fundamental freedoms without harassment or fear of arrest and prosecution.

The ICJ also called for the authorities to embark on wider legal and institutional reforms to facilitate respect for human rights and the rule of law in order to build genuine constitutional democracy in that country.

‘’Neither the arrest, nor detention nor prosecution of people for exercising their fundamental freedoms, including political dissent and peaceful opposition nor the trial of civilians before a military court was in compliance with Cameroon’s international legal obligations,” said Arnold Tsunga, ICJ’s Africa Regional Director in reaction to news of the release.

Maurice Kamto, a leading international jurist, former ICJ Commissioner, and presidential candidate of the Cameroon Renaissance Movement (MRC), was arrested on 28 January 2019 along with dozens of other opposition figures for protesting and challenging the results of the last Presidential elections held in October 2018.

They were facing trials before military courts, in contravention of their rights to a fair trial trial, on charges of ‘’insurrection, hostility to the motherland and rebellion’’ – charges which potentially carry the death penalty.

The detainees were released last weekend after Cameroon’s President Paul Biya’s tweet on 4 October 2019, that he had ordered the discontinuance of proceedings against them. The bringing and dropping charges should be in the remit of independent prosecutorial authorities, not the President.

Nonetheless, the ICJ stressed that the release of Maurice Kamto and the other leaders provides a welcome window of opportunity for Cameroonian authorities to begin an inclusive process of revamping the legal and constitutional framework to meet international standards.

The ICJ called on the Cameroonian authorities to desist further from applying the law and legal process to persecute or otherwise harass any person for the exercise of fundamental freedoms and from administering justice through military courts, which should be reserved for prosecution military personnel for military offences only.

The ICJ stressed that the release of Maurice Kamto and other opposition figures presents a unique opportunity for Cameroonian authorities to restore public confidence in the country’s democratic institutions by including all Cameroonians in the building of a society based on the rule of law.

Culled from International Commission of Jurists

Russia, US veto European statement on Turkey’s Syria action

11, October 2019

Russia, US veto European statement on Turkey’s Syria action 0

Russian and the United States have used their veto power at the United Nations Security Council to vote down a European statement against Turkey’s invasion of northern Syria.

The council held a closed meeting on Thursday to discuss Ankara’s military incursion, which began on Wednesday despite widespread warnings by world leaders.

Moscow and Washington had their own reasons to veto the statement by five European members — France, Germany, Belgium, Britain and Poland — who had called the meeting to end the bilateral military action.

In a joint statement after the discussions, the European called on Ankara “to cease the unilateral military action,” warning that the offensive threatens progress.

Russian UN Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said his country would only support UNSC motions that address broader issues, including the presence of foreign forces in Syria.

US Ambassador Kelly Craft, on the other hand, told reporters that as US President Donald Trump “has made it clear” Washington does not “in any way” endorse Turkey’s actions.

Later in the day, Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar spoke with his French counterpart Florence Parly, US Secretary of Defense Mark Esper and UK Defense Minister Ben Wallace over phone to fill them in on the latest developments.

The UNSC meeting came a day after Turkey launched Operation Peace Spring, its third in a series of cross-border operations in northern Syria.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan claims that the offensive only targeted militants affiliated with Daesh as well as the Kurdish militia called People’s Protection Units (YPG) in order to establish a Turkish safe-region there.

Ankara says the YPG is effectively the military of wing of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). The YPG also forms the backbone of the so-called Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which has much of northern Syria under control.

Turkey, according of Erdogan, is trying to establish a safe zone in order to resettle millions of refugees in there.  

More civilians fall victim, Kurds push back

Meanwhile, human rights groups have been warning that a war of this scale would be deadly for civilians living in crowded cities on both sides of the border. There are also no exact data available on the real extent of the casualties.

Syrian sources reported late Thursday that at least four more Syrians were killed and four more were injured due to Turkish shelling in the border town of Ras al-Ayn.

Earlier, the SDF announced that nine more civilians had been killed in Turkish airstrikes.

Erdogan said Thursday that his country’s forces had already killed, injured or captured a total of 109 Kurdish forces. However, the SDF said the number was exaggerated.

The so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), which is based in London, said at least 16 SDF militants had been killed and dozens more injured.

The SDF announced on one of its Twitter accounts that the group had deterred Turkish forces east of the Jalab river, destroying three military vehicles and killing 22 soldiers.

In retaliation for the Turkish attacks against civilian targets, Kurdish militants fired at least three rounds into the Turkish city of Akcakale, killing two civilians.

The International Rescue Committee aid organization said at least 64,000 people had reportedly fled their homes and the number could surpass 300,000 if the offensive continued.

Turkey shells Daesh prison

Kurdish authorities have accused Turkey of attacking one of the several prisons Daesh militants are held in Qamishli in the east of the border region, in what they denounced as a “clear attempt” to help the terrorists escape.

More than 12,000 suspected Daesh militants, including many foreign nationals, are being kept in several SDF-run prisons across northern Syria. More than 58,000 of their family members live across SDF-controlled areas.

Source: Presstv

Austrian Handke, Poland’s Tokarczuk win Noble literature prizes

10, October 2019

Austrian Handke, Poland’s Tokarczuk win Noble literature prizes 0

Austrian writer Peter Handke won the 2019 Nobel Prize for Literature on Thursday and the 2018 award went to Polish author Olga Tokarczuk, the Swedish Academy said on Thursday.

Handke, 76, was recognized for a body of work which includes novels, essays, notebooks and drama and “that with linguistic ingenuity has explored the periphery and the specificity of human experience,” the Academy said in a statement.

Tokarczuk, 57, won for “a narrative imagination that with encyclopaedic passion represents the crossing of boundaries as a form of life,” it said.

Both have courted controversy – Handke for his portrayal of Serbia as a victim during the Balkan wars and attending its leader’s funeral, and Tokarczuk for touching on dark areas of Poland’s past that contrast with the version of history promoted by the country’s ruling nationalist party.

Two prizes were awarded this year after last year’s award was postponed over a scandal that led to the husband of an Academy member being convicted of rape.

Since then, the organization has appointed new members and reformed some of its more arcane rules after a rare intervention by its royal patron, the king of Sweden.

Academy member Anders Olsson said both Handke and Tokarczuk had accepted their prizes.

“I only talked to Peter Handke myself. He was very, very moved. At first he did not utter any words,” Olsson said. He added: “It is not a political prize, it is a literary prize.”

Handke established himself as one of the most influential writers in Europe after World War Two, the Academy said. He also co-wrote the script of the critically-acclaimed 1987 film “Wings of Desire”.

The author of books such as “The Goalie’s Anxiety at the Penalty Kick” and “Slow Homecoming”, he attracted widespread criticism attending the funeral of former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic in 2006.

Tokarczuk trained as a psychologist before publishing her first novel in 1993. Since then, she has produced a steady and varied stream of works and her novel “Flight” won her the high-profile Man Booker International Prize last year. She was the first Polish author to do so.

Though some of the episodes she has written about contrast with version of history promoted by Poland’s ruling Law and Justice (PiS), her agent said the award should not be seen in the context of a parliamentary election being held on Sunday in Poland.

Speaking on Polish television, Poland’s culture minister, Piotr Glinski, said the award to Tokarczuk was a success for Polish culture.

“I think that Mrs Tokarczuk also perceives this that way, because she is a representative of Polish culture and Polish literature,” he said.

(Source: Reuters) 

Two students and dad abducted in Southern Cameroons

10, October 2019

Two students and dad abducted in Southern Cameroons 0

Two female students and their father were abducted early Wednesday by armed separatists in Cameroon’s troubled Anglophone region of Southwest, according to local authorities.

Separatists confirmed the abduction on social media, saying they have been “arrested for disrespecting school boycott” imposed by the separatists.

Government officials said, security forces are conducting a search and rescue mission of the captives.

Armed separatists have warned that they will not allow any school to be opened until the release of their leader Juilius Ayuk Tabe and nine of his close followers. They were given life sentences by a military tribunal in August over rebellion and terrorism charges

Separatists in the regions have been clashing with government forces since 2017 in a bid to create and independent nation they call “Ambazonia”. Insecurity has left more than 4,400 schools forcibly closed in the two English-speaking regions of Northwest and Southwest, affecting more than 600,000 children, according to a UNICEF report released in August.

A national dialogue to end the separatist conflict held in the country last week and recommended that a special status should be granted to the two regions.

Source: Xinhuanet

Denmark to set up temporary border control at border with Sweden next month

10, October 2019

Denmark to set up temporary border control at border with Sweden next month 0

Denmark is to impose temporary border controls at the Swedish border next month, after Swedes were suspected of being behind a number of serious attacks this year in the Danish capital Copenhagen, the justice minister said on Thursday.

Sweden, which itself has had controls at the border since 2015 to try to stop asylum seekers from entering the country, welcomed the move.

Denmark is connected to Sweden via the Oresund bridge across a 16-kilometer (10-mile) strait. Thousands of citizens commute across the border daily.

Two Swedish nationals are currently in custody in Denmark suspected of involvement in an explosion outside the Danish Tax Agency in August. Five Swedes are also in custody in Denmark on suspicion of carrying out two killings in a Copenhagen suburb in June. They have yet to be formally charged.

August’s attack prompted Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen to say at the time that she considered strengthening controls at its border with Sweden.

“To counter the threat of serious cross-border crime, we are now strengthening the protection of the border against Sweden by introducing temporary border control and strengthening police efforts in border areas with Sweden,” Justice Minister Nick Haekkerup said at a news conference on Thursday.

The controls will begin on Nov. 12, he said, adding police would aim to avoid causing delays for the commuters.

A temporary fence is erected between domestic and international tracks at Hyllie train station in southern Malmo, Sweden, on January 3, 2016, to ease border control preventing illegal migrants to enter Sweden. (Photo by AFP)

Both countries are members of the European Union, which needs to approve the move. Sweden applauded Denmark’s action and said it was looking into the possibility of giving police more access to operate in border areas, including camera surveillance of vehicles

“We welcome that Denmark is taking action to fight crime in the Oresund region,” Sweden’s Minister for Home Affairs Mikael Damberg said in a statement.

Violent crime in Sweden, with assailants using firearms and high explosives, has become a major political issue over the past years and prompted political moves such as one of the tougher gun laws and tougher sentencing for some offenses.

Among the highest profile incidents in recent months, a massive blast demolished parts of an apartment building in the southern town of Linkoping in June, injuring around 20 people, while a mother was gunned down in broad daylight on a street in Malmo, across the bridge from Copenhagen.

The cases have yet to result in convictions.

Haekkerup said a new center to prevent cross-border crime will be set up in Denmark and staffed by Danish police officers, who will be working closely with colleagues in Sweden.

(Source: Reuters)

Ambazonia Interim Gov’t launches market-leading bonds to finance the liberation struggle

10, October 2019

Ambazonia Interim Gov’t launches market-leading bonds to finance the liberation struggle 0

The Southern Cameroons Interim Government-backed savings bonds will go on sale soonest. Treasury Secretary, Comrade Tabenyang Brado says the new scheme is likely to prove popular with Ambazonians desperate for better accountability deep within the Interim Government.

With the Southern Cameroons war set to move into a more decisive phase over the coming months, Ambazonians putting money into the new bond will achieve a real return in Buea. The Ambazonia Treasury Department noted that it is all about loaning the Interim Government your money and you will be paid back at the best rate that will be available in Buea for those willing and able to tie up their money for the remaining years of the war.

The bond – its official name, the Amba Freedom Bonds – was first announced by the Treasury Secretary, Tabenyang Brado during a presentation on SCBC TV and it is open to anyone aged 16 or over and has no minimum investment limit. However, you only get a Bond Certificate once you get to the level of 250 US dollars.

The bonds are in three categories: Defense, Humanitarian and Diplomatic and are suitable for Southern Cameroonians who are happy to see the Federal Republic of Ambazonia become a reality.

Vice President Dabney Yerima will be doing a presentation on Sunday at exactly 8 pm Amba time on the bonds and he is also expected to order the sale process to go operational after his address.

Our chief economic reporter in London says the new Ambazonia product will provide a valuable boost for Southern Cameroonians who have been affected by corruption and misappropriation of funds that was meant for Ground Zero operations.

By Asu Isong in London

France bans protest questioning motive of Paris police killer

10, October 2019

France bans protest questioning motive of Paris police killer 0

French authorities on Wednesday banned a demonstration by activists claiming the police staffer who stabbed four colleagues to death was not an Islamist radical but was instead a man discriminated against because he was partially deaf.

The killing last week of the four police employees at the headquarters of Paris police shocked the country and prompted President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday to promise an “unrelenting” fight against what he termed the “Islamist hydra”.

The assailant, Mickael Harpon, converted to Islam about 10 years ago and, according to investigators, had adopted increasingly radical beliefs and been in contact with a radical Salafist imam.

A local activist, Hadama Traore, had called for a demonstration Thursday in Gonesse, the northeastern Paris suburb where Harpon lived, insisting that he was “not a religious extremist”.

Writing on Facebook, Traore claimed that Harpon suffered discrimination and mockery at work because he was hard of hearing.

“That’s the context which explains why he cracked,” he wrote, while condemning the “atrocious” killings.

‘Obscenity and insult’

The leader of the far-right National Rally (RN), Marine Le Pen had urged the government to ban the protest.

“How can we believe that Emmanuel Macron will fight against the ‘Islamist hydra’ when he cannot even ban a demonstration supporting an assassin of four police organised by an earthworm?” she wrote on Twitter.

Interior Minister Christophe Castaner insisted the demonstration would be banned, calling it an “obscenity and insult to the memory of our police”.

Castener is under huge pressure as the government is pressed to explain how Harpon’s radicalisation failed to raise red flags.

On Tuesday, the minister appeared before a parliamentary committee, conceding there had been a “malfunction” in not reporting the signals.

Analysts say Macron and his government want to show they are tackling Islamist extremism to prevent a drift of voters to the far right.

Macron’s speech Tuesday at a ceremony for the slain police marked a toughening of rhetoric, with the president calling on France to be a “society in a state of vigilance”.

(AFP)

Southern Cameroons War: Civilians flee Bali as French Cameroun troops continue assault on Amba fighters

10, October 2019

Southern Cameroons War: Civilians flee Bali as French Cameroun troops continue assault on Amba fighters 0

Cameroon government army soldiers attacked Ambazonia Self-Defense positions in Bali Nyonga on Saturday in a military operation just a day after the so-called Grand National Dialogue announced that the regime in Yaounde was preparing to accord special status to Southern Cameroons in a bid to end the Ambazonia conflict.

Cameroon Concord News gathered that residents fled Bali Nyonga and the Southern Cameroons town of Bali toward Manyu held by Southern Cameroons Restoration Forces.

The Cameroon government onslaught killed at least eleven civilians and six Ambazonia fighters, and wounded scores of civilians, our source said.

Yaounde said the offensive was targeting “separatists fighters” — the Ambazonia separatist group and other armed militias operating on the main highway linking Mamfe to Bamenda.

The Ambazonia Interim Government is yet to comment on the recent assault seen potentially as sending contradicting signals to the people of Southern Cameroons.

By Sama Ernest in Bamenda

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Hon. Wirba finds problematic points in Biya’s Anglophone new deal

9, October 2019

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Hon. Wirba finds problematic points in Biya’s Anglophone new deal 0

Hon. Joseph Wirba has reportedly reacted to the resolutions of the Grand National Dialogue that recently held in La Republique du Cameroun and will be speaking on SCBC TV on Sunday at exactly 2 pm Amba time. The SDF parliamentarian has been quoted as saying that “Southern Cameroons new slave chains are called special status.”

It is hard to escape conclusion that the Special Status for Ambazonians in La Republique du Cameroun is designed to fail.  However, the much respected SDF MP is expected to make public the fundamental points as demanded by Southern Cameroonians from the international community which will include taking British Southern Cameroons out of the union with French Cameroun.

A cream of Southern Cameroons political elites have unanimously opined that the so-called Special Status is really the safeguard that the Federal Republic of Ambazonia needs. Wirba will give point after point the reason the Biya French Cameroun resolution is not acceptable.

By Fon Judith

US: Joe Biden says “Trump betrayed this nation, should be impeached”

9, October 2019

US: Joe Biden says “Trump betrayed this nation, should be impeached” 0

US President Donald Trump has “betrayed” the nation and “should be impeached,” says the top Democratic hopeful for the 2020 presidential election, Joe Biden, whose ties with Ukraine are at the heart of impeachment efforts in the House of Representatives.

“Donald Trump has violated his oath of office, betrayed this nation and committed impeachable acts,” Biden told a crowd of supporters in Rochester, New Hampshire, on Wednesday. “He should be impeached.”

He made the comments as the Trump administration was struggling with how to defend itself in the wake of the president’s call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, in which he tied the US aid to an investigation into Biden and his son, Hunter.

“The Do Nothing Democrats are Con Artists, only looking to hurt the Republican Party and President. Their total focus is 2020, nothing more, and nothing less. The good news is that WE WILL WIN,” Trump said on Twitter.

The House of Representatives has set off a spiraling impeachment inquiry in the wake of a whistleblower complaint into the phone call.

“The so-called Whistleblower, before knowing I was going to release the exact Transcript, stated that my call with the Ukrainian President was “crazy, frightening, and completely lacking in substance related to national security.” This is a very big Lie. Read the Transcript,” Trump alleged.

In an appearance on Fox News Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said that he was going to ask other Senate Republicans to send a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, saying that they “do not believe the transcript of the phone call between the president and the Ukraine is an impeachable offense.”

“They’re about to destroy the nation for no good reason,” Graham said. “And I want Nancy Pelosi to know that Republican senators are not going to impeach this president based on this transcript, so she can stop now before she destroys the country.”

Trump himself stressed the transcript on Twitter, asserting that Democrats should apologize.

“No Pressure at all said Ukraine! Very congenial, a perfect call. The Whistleblower and others spoke BEFORE seeing the Transcript. Now they must apologize to me and stop this ridiculous impeachment,” said the president.

The White House has also announced that it would not cooperate with the impeachment inquiry.

“Given that your inquiry lacks any legitimate constitutional foundation, any pretense of fairness, or even the most elementary due process protections, the executive branch cannot be expected to participate in it,” White House counsel Pat Cipollone wrote in a letter to Pelosi (and the three House committee chairmen leading the impeachment inquiry.

Source: Presstv

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