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| Anglophone lawyers in Southwest Region of Cameroon defied police brutality to stage protest march ,pressing for solutions to their concerns |
By Christopher Ambe
Police and gendarmes in
riot gear Thursday morning could be seen stationed at strategic road junctions
in Buea.Some barricaded all the entrances
to Buea court buildings, while others
were on patrol in attempts to preempt a peaceful protest by Anglophone lawyers
announced to take place that morning.
Water canon trucks were also stationed near
Buea Mountain Club waiting for instructions and the appropriate moment to fire
tear gas and seemingly pepper spray,
The Recorder observed.
Decently dressed in black suits and some in
their wigs and gowns, the Common Law lawyers who before opting for street protests,
had been on sit-in strike for over a month, least expected that police could brutalize, molest and torture them.
These human rights defenders were mistaken
as the law enforcement forces had planned to give them doses of police brutality
and torture, apparently okayed by the Biya administration, which is yet to have
a meaningful dialogue with the advocates over the latter’s demands.
Armed police chased lawyers all over
struggling to dismantle any of their peaceful gatherings especially as they
they had programmed to assembly in front of the Southwest Court of Appeal
before proceeding with their protest marches; Police clubbed them, dragged them
out of their vehicles and tortured some in public .Lawyers had their wigs and
gowns seized and their phones shattered. Several others were even arrested but
hurriedly released.
To
avoid identification by the pain-inflicting forces, a few lawyers reportedly
ran into roadside bushes and removed their suits, hiding for safety.
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| Lawyer Caroline Time with injured leg |
At Street 2 entrance to Great Soppo in Buea,at
about 9:15 am Thursday , this reporter witnessed how police with batons beat
female lawyers. For example, Lawyer Caroline Time of Taku Chambers in Buea was
beaten and injured, leaving her bleeding. .As the police closed up on another Lawyer
Blaise Sevidzem Berinyuy to beat him, he ran for safety while loudly denouncing
the violation of their rights.
Unfortunately, some ordinary people who wore
black suits that morning were mistaken for lawyers and molested.
But the brutal reaction from the forces did
not in any way deter the determined lawyers who marched past in the towns of
Muyuka, Limbe and Muea –Buea with placards pressing for their demands just as
was the case in Bamenda days before. So determined was the Biya administration,
it seemed, that riot police were invited to Buea from Douala.
Speaking to The Recorder, at the end of the
Thursday protest marches, Barrister Felix Agbor Nkongho, President of Fako
Lawyers Association (FAKLA) and one of the leaders of the lawyers’ strike and
protest marches noted:
“As
we speak I don’t know any lawyer in detention. Those who were arrested have
been released. But lawyers were treated cruelly, inhumanely and degradingly.
They were insulted in French. Our rights were violated. The police seized the wigs
and gowns of at least hundred lawyers. Lawyers were dragged in mud. It was kind
of terrorizing the civilian population that the forces of law and order were doing.
“It is shocking and degrading for a country
that professes the rule of law and good governance…We are stunned by the
heavy-handedness of the forces of law and order, considering that authorities
were informed that it would be a peaceful protest and that lawyers would
respect state institutions”
Barrister Nkongho disclosed to The Recorder that at least sixty
( 60) of his colleagues, while being rough handled by the forces, sustained injuries
and were responding to treatment at various health facilities. The Recorder
could not independently confirm the number reportedly injured.
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| Another injured lawyer being attended to |
The lawyers who are fighting to protect Common Law
Practice in Cameroon, barely days before
the street protests in major towns and cities in Anglophone Cameroon( former British
Southern Cameroons),had announced the creation of what is now known as Cameroon
Common Law Bar Association, apparently splitting what used to be known as
Cameroon Bar Association.
It is unclear why
the Cameroon government is insensitive to the demands of Anglophone lawyers
months after they had submitted them to the Biya administration for solutions.(Read Anglophone Lawyers Prolong Strike by One Week Over Government's ''Divide and Rule Tactics')
But political pundits
have been quick to claim that it may be Government’s “secret plan to perpetuate
the marginalization” of Anglophone Cameroon, which the Southern Cameroon
National Council (SCNC) tagged as a secessionist group, has since 1994 been
fighting against- by calling for the restoration of the Independence of
Southern Cameroons.
The lawyers have
resolved to continue using all legal means to press for their demands.
"We are not going
to give up … The fight for our rights has just started”, Barrister Nkongho told
the protesting lawyers at the end of the protest marches, while lauding them
for defying the odds to standup for their rights.
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