The French are nursing genocide in Cameroon - Agbor Tabi

In a strongly worded declaration at a 20th May demonstration on the steps of the United States Congress in Washington D.C, Jude Ozughen, leader of the Southern Cameroons Independence Movement in the United States, said the Obama Administration had the obligation of calling on the Biya government to respect the inalienable rights of the Southern Cameroons.

About 100 Southern Cameroonians in the Washington DC metropolis had converged at the US Capitol, on the occasion of Cameroon’s May 20th celebrations to call for the release of detained SCNC leader Oben Maxwell Eyong. Eyong was arbitrary arrested on the eve of President Biya’s reunification anniversary visit to Buea and charged with conspiracy to foment civil war in the country. However, rights groups have since declared him a prisoner of conscience.

Besides his petition for the unconditional release of Maxwell Eyong, speaking on the steps of the capitol Ozughen said, Southern Cameroons had the most legitimate claim to the restoration of their independence. However, he said, the Biya regime has responded to the recommendations of the African Human Rights court for dialogue with extreme violence.

Reminding the Obama administration of U.S gov’t’s past mistakes in international diplomacy, the SCNC leader noted that twenty years ago, the US turned a blind eye and a deaf ear to the Rwandan genocide and still regrets it. He warned the French are preparing another genocide in Cameroon now, that it is necessary for the US to avert it before it begins.

He drew attention to the fact that while British Prime Minister David Cameron is pleading with Scotland not to separate in the forthcoming referendum of independence, in the case of Southern Cameroons, Paul Biya perpetrates a bloody repression.

Since the United States supported the separation of Southern Sudan, Southern Cameroonians believe it has become imperative for the U.S to recognize the legitimate claims of Southern Cameroons to self-determination.

As many more Southern Cameroonians discover the unconscionable conditions of their union with “La Republique du Cameroun” and testimonial evidence of the humiliation of English speaking officials including the prime minister, it becomes imperative that Southern Cameroons are afforded the opportunity of another referendum of self-determination, the demonstrators appealed to U.S politicians.

Southern Cameroonians have continued to argue that nothing in the past forecloses their right to determine their own form of government and choose their own leaders.

Not too long ago, the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention ordered the Cameroon government to pay compensation in the case of the detention and torture of Southern Cameroonian leaders like the late Albert Mukong and Ebenezar Akangwa.

Maxwell Eyong was arrested at Mile 17 Bus Station in Buea, February 2, as he was about to leave for Yaounde. He was taken before the South West Attorney General and later before the State Council for Buea, February 7. On March 24, he was summoned before a Buea military tribunal in the absence of any lawyer and summarily slammed with a year of what the court described as preventive detention.

He has denounced the inhumane treatment he is receiving at the Buea Central Prison. He says those who come to visit him are often intimidated and turned away. At the Washington demonstration, Ozughen said “Philemon Yang and Peter Agbor Tabi will be held criminally liable for any harm Maxwell Eyong suffers in jail.”