Cameroon apologises for "anti-Semitic" comments

In this file photo taken on January 30, 2013, Cameroon president Paul Biya waves as he leaves the Elysee Palace in Paris following a meeting with his French counterpart. PHOTO | PATRICK KOVARIK | AFP 

YAOUNDE-The Cameroon government has expressed "sincere regret" to Israel over comments made by a minister who compared the Bamileke people to Jews persecuted by Nazi Germany.

Deputy justice minister Jean de Dieu Momo appeared to warn arrested opposition leader Maurice Kamto that he was leading the Bamileke people to a similar fate of Jews murdered in the Second World War.

Both men are of Bamileke descent.

"In Germany, there was a very rich community who wielded all economic power," Jean de Dieu Momo said on Sunday during a prime-time TV show on the public Cameroon radio television (Crtv) network. He added that he was referring to the Jews.

"They (the Jews) were so arrogant that the German people were frustrated. Then one day, a certain Hitler came to power and put them in the gas chambers," he said.

"Educated people like Mr Kamto need to know where they are leading their people," he said.

THREAT

Former government minister Maurice Kamto was arrested on January 28 in a move condemned by human rights groups.

Analysts say the authorities view Mr Kamto as a threat as he claims to have been cheated out of the presidency in last year's elections.

The Cameroon government distanced itself from the minister amid outrage from Israel.

"The government of the republic of Cameroon would like to stress that the minister concerned was speaking in a personal capacity," said the communication minister, René Emmanuel Sadi in a press release received by AFP on Tuesday.

The government "deplores" the deputy justice minister's comments, but has not said if he will be disciplined.

In a press release on Monday, the Israeli embassy in Cameroon "strongly" condemned Mr Momo's comments, which they said "makes a tacit justification of the holocaust by Nazi Germany" -AFP