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OPPOSITION FACE TO FACE WITH THE POLICE AT SITE OF THEIR GRAND PATRIOTIC RALLY

Yesterday, 12th January 2001, Cameroonians were surprised to learn through announcements on CRTV (radio and television) that the Minister of Territorial Administration has suspended all political activities in the national territory until 25th January 2001 to create safety for the France-Afrique summit! The opposition parties considered this as an attempt to ban their Grand Patriotic Rally without saying that they had done so. The parties therefore unanimously agreed to go ahead with the rally starting at 3 p.m.

Early in the morning today, the area around Warda Roundabout usually used for rallies, but which is not usually football grounds for adults was occupied by plain clothe security men engaged in a football match, with dozens of their colleagues as spectators and a truckload of gendarmes hanging around in a truck. Around mid-day , traffic flow into Warda Roundabout was completely blocked from Tsinga, La Retraite, Ministry of Education and Hilton. The population was completely cordoned off so that they could not reach the Roundabout.

By 2.45 p.m., opposition MPs and some NEC members and other party members started to arrive at Warda Roundabout on foot and by around 3.30 p.m., most MPs were there, including Hon. KODOCK of UPC. The National Chairman of the SDF, NI John FRU NDI arrived the Warda Roundabout at 3.20 p.m. Upon arrival, the MPs who came in groups of three, four or five were surrounded by armed security men. Chairman FRU NDI was similarly surrounded with some SDF members upon their arrival in front of Capitol. Hon. ADAMOU NDAM NJOYA of CDU later joined the Chairman in front of Capitol. Meanwhile, scores of security men ensured that the population that had massed around the rally area was kept far off Warda Roundabout. In the process Mr MANJONG George, a boy of about 20 yrs old was arrested and taken off in a car that looked like a Peugeot 205 with number plate bearing 3889.

Around 4.30 p.m. the commanding officers of the gendarmerie and the police withdrew and asked the subordinates not to talk to the Parliamentarians and SDF members any longer. After some time, they manhandled Hon. Chief TCHATCHOUANG, 3rd Vice President of the National Assembly and Hon. MOUKOURI MANGA BELL, 5th Vice President of the National Assembly. A water cannon was sent towards the direction of Score. They did not allow those they were surrounding to move. At about 6 p.m., 20 hefty police officers got around the Chairman and started “squeezing” him.

At 6.20 p.m. MPs continue to be squeezed in. A young man called CHE TANO is arrested and taken away by plain clothe men. We are rounding up this first Communiqué at 6.45 p.m. and the National Chairman of the SDF, Hon. Adamou Ndam Njoya, President of UDC and several Parliamentarians and NEC members of the SDF are virtually under arrest because they are not allowed to move from where they are ar ound the Warda Roundabout where they have been since this afternoon. The security officers are swearing that they have invited PRESBY (President Biya’s Youths), a group of agitated youths who go around under this cover to have the liberty to commit all types of crimes with impunity, to brutalise them. There is no doubt that anything can happen any time now. You will surely be informed in our next Communiqué.

The France-Afrique meeting is of course a very important meeting, like others that hold in other cities around the world. However, like other such meetings that hold in other places, it is supposed to be just an additional event on the national scale, not an event that brings the whole country to a standstill. In Cameroon, not only Yaounde but the whole country has been brought to a standstill! First, Municipal elections that were supposed to hold in January 2001 were postponed. Second, the programme “Expression Directe” that allows the opposition parties represented in Parliament to express themselves once a week on radio and television was suspended. Third, MINAT signed a text banning all meetings of the Opposition and Associations in the national territory until 25 January 2001. Fourth, certain streets in Yaounde are declared no-go areas. These decisions of the regime show how much it has antagonised other political forces in the country, to the extent that it now fears even its shadow. The regime is putting in a lot of effort to window dress the country in order to deceive the guests to the summit about the “peace and stability “ in Cameroon. However, the opposition is determined to ensure that while the regime is displaying this false face, we are showing the true face of a country governed by a cabal that is determined to stay in power against the will of the people, through repeated electoral fraud. We are prepared to show that the regime survives on the perpetration of fear through repression, corruption, tribalism and exclusion. In so doing, we shall be reaffirming that marches, demonstrations, rallies and other forms of protest are part and parcel of democracy and that even the force of arms cannot stop us from using them to demand the creation of an Independent Electoral Commission and to show our disavowal of the National Elections Observatory imported from Senegal.

Yaounde, 13th January 2001
Prof. T. ASONGANYI
Secretary General.

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