“We are thus faced with a situation in which Third World States, themselves the pre-beneficiaries of resolution 1514 (XV) guaranteeing the principle of self-determination of all peoples, become modern colonizers of less fortunate peoples within their area.” [Judge TO Elias, President of the International Court of Justice (as he then was), in ‘The Role of the ICJ in Africa’, 1 RADIC, 1989, p.8)]
Down Memory Lane: Genesis
On Tuesday December 5, 1991, the Cameroon Anglophone Movement (CAM), the vanguard organisation for the restoration of the statehood of the Southern Cameroons-on-Ambas, was founded. CAM was born in the home of Chief Dr. H.N.A. Enonchong’s, Bonaberi, Douala, La Republique du Cameroun.
Chief Dr. H.N.A. Enonchong became the consensus first Chairman of CAM. Veteran Mr. Albert W. Mukong, now of blessed memory, was then on self-exile in London. He returned home from exile in February 1992. Elections into CAM were conducted in a CAM General Assembly that held at the Batasof Hotel in Buea, the historic capital of the Southern Cameroons, on July 2, 1992. Dr. Enonchong, who with the support of Mr. Mbiwan, had tried to transform CAM into a political party, with himself as leader, failed to get the Batasof meeting banned by Pro-consuls of La Republique. What happened was that CAM operatives in Buea, among them, Messrs. Anu, George Ngwane, Barrister Charles A. Taku and Dr. Christopher Atang, had earlier obtained a permit for the holding of the CAM General Assembly from the Sous-Prefet of Buea, Mr. Rudolf Itoe, who later became a traditional ruler. Dr Enonchong idea was to turn CAM into a party to rival the Social Democratic Front (SDF) political party of Ni John Fru Ndi. The rank and file of CAM roundly condemned Enonchong. He had to abandon to his dreams.
At the Batasof General Asembly, portfolios were equally shared out between the North-West and the South-West. Ambassador Martin Ekwoge Epie was elected National Chairman, beating Professor Tanyi Mbuagbaw, also of blessed memory, in the process. Dr. Arnold B.Yongbang was elected Vice-Chairman and Mr. Albert W. Mukong was elected Secretary-General with Moses Tabe Nkwo as his assistant; Barrister Charles A. Taku was elected Commissioner for Human Rights, and Paddy Mbawa Commissioner for Information and Education; the Treasurer was Dr. Ngenge; the Financial Secretary went to Yana Zumafor; the Commissioner for Organisation and Propaganda went to Edwin Wongibe; Institutional and Environmental Affairs went to Barrister W. Chrys. M. Etinge; Dr. Christopher Atang handled the Commission for International Affairs; Professor Tanyi Mbuagbaw took on the Social and Cultural Affairs Commission; John Tazifor handled the Ways and Means Commission; Peter Nsanda Eba headed the Technical and Development Commission; Barrister John Nsoh the Legal Affairs Commission; the Auditors were Dr. Mrs. Elisabeth Tamanjong and J.E. Ndele.
Initially created as a socio-cultural organisation to defend the rights of the Anglophones against the overwhelming maginalistion by the Francophone-led regimes in Yaounde, CAM soon turned into a restoration movement because of the intransigence of the Biya regime. “Zero Option,” namely, separation from La Republique du Cameroun and full independence for the Southern Cameroons-on-Ambas was soon declared. CAM now devoted its energies and resources to spearheading the struggle for the restoration of the Statehood of the Southern Cameroons; and in December 1993,
On Saturday, 6 July 1996, the CAM General Assembly holding in Bamenda in the home of the late Pa Stephen Ndi’s at Cow Street, Nkwen changed the name of the vanguard liberation movement to the Southern Cameroons Restoration Movement – SCARM. CAM thus situated Southern Cameroons as the nation that it is, rather than a mere linguistic expression of a people in bondage.
The following members of the founding membership of SCARM have since passed on: Pa Joseph LAMFU, Barrister W. Chrys. M. ETINGE, Ephraim Ebong ENONGENE, Ambassador Martin Ekwoge EPIE, Albert W. MUKONG, Pa Stephen NDI, Christopher TOMPAH, Daniel Ngeka MOKEBA, Michael NDZE, Professor Tanyi MBUAGBAW, Christopher Bah TANGOH, Emmanuel NJUA, P.P. NKWENTI, and Professor Aloysius Ngimdoh FONJE.
The Coming of the Southern Cameroons Peoples Conference and its governing Organ the SCNC.
On April 18, 1995, the then Chairman of the Cameroon Anglophone Movement, Ambassador Martin EKWOGE EPIE, sent the following letter to the Southern Cameroons community in the UK-Society:
As most of you may know, there was an All Anglophone Conference (AAC) convened in April 1993 in Buea. The AAC had been a CAM idea. But circumstances made us postpone it many times. Then, a group of elites in Buea prompted by Dr. Carlson Anyangwe (founding member of CAM), jumped on the idea and launched it.
Two of the convenors of the AAC, Dr. Anyangwe and Dr. Munzu, contacted us and requested that CAM should take a low profile at the Conference. They requested us to put our network at their disposal to make AAC a success. We agreed. And I signed a circular to all CAM activists asking them to put their weight behind AAC but to consider that we, CAM, we are not the convenors of the event.
We agreed to this arrangement because of one compelling consideration. A large section of the Southern Cameroonian “elite” was still afraid of the dry and hard language of CAM and still considered us as too “extremist.” We therefore felt that if we supported the convenors to say the same thing, which we had been saying since CAM, was born, the struggle would advance. The convenors had some amount of public stature at the time and were not as threatening as CAM. They could, we thought, rally the elite to the struggle more than we could at the time.
And so it came to pass. The entire network of CAM was mobilised. And those who were not members of CAM joined the organisational effort. AAC was a huge success. The “elite” turned up in their numbers representing the entire spectrum of the Cameroon Anglophone elite – the clergy, traditional rulers, political leaders, elder statesmen, ministers, members of the armed forces, and the grassroots.
At the end of the Conference, a 55-member Standing Committee was created, with equal representation from the Northern and Southern Zones of the territory of the Southern Cameroons, to undertake the tasks which the Conference conferred upon it. The Executive Council of the Standing Committee was made up of: Barrister Sam Ekontang Elad (Chairman); Mr. Augustine F. Ndangam (1st Vice Chairman); Mme. Victoria Ndando (2nd Vice Chairperson); Dr. Carlson Anyangwe (Secretary-General); Mr. A. Yana Zumafor (Deputy Secretary-General); Mr. Emmanuel Fai Visha (Minutes Secretary); Dr. Simon Munzu ( Spokesman); Dr. Arnold Boh Yongbang (Treasurer); Chief Dr. S.B. Mbene (Assistant Treasurer); Mr. Sylvester Teh (Financial Secretary); Mrs. Beatrice Wamey (Assistant Financial Secretary); Mr. Vincent Feko (Co-ordinator, Douala); Barrister Rex Ntuba (Co-ordinator, Southern Zone); Dr. Kevin N. Gumne (Co-ordinator, Northern Zone); Ambassador Henry Fossung (Adviser); Ambassador Martin Ekwoge Epie (Adviser); Barrister Luke Sendze (Legal Adviser); and Justice A.N.T. Mbu (Legal Adviser). Seven members of the National Executive Bureau of CAM were also members of the Standing Committee of the AAC.
It was at this stage that frictions developed between CAM and the AAC. But, we in CAM, recognising that the Standing Committee was strategic to our struggle, managed, more than the non-CAM members of the Committee, to downplay the frictions and maintain the Committee.
The frictions developed because the AAC tried to create its own organisation on the field whereas it was supposed to be an umbrella organisation for all Southern Cameroons organisations. So, when the Standing Committee was born, we faced this singular situation where we went to the people to collect funds while some Standing Committee people went to the same Southern Cameroonians to collect funds. It was an odd situation because both the AAC and CAM were pursuing the same goal.
There was a wish that CAM should dissolve and yield leadership of the struggle to the AAC. This, we considered, was not a reasonable proposal because the AAC was supposed to serve as an umbrella group in which CAM was simply one of the ‘Liberation’ Movements, much like the PLO has been an umbrella organisation for all Palestinian fighters. But what really made us not to dissolve was a realisation that most members of the Standing Committee were opportunists: they were not tough enough to fight and were there simply to position themselves for public office or to seek public attention. Others came there thinking they could use the AAC to reinforce their political parties. The Committee was too weak; it could be destroyed by la Republique’s usual methods of corruption and violence. CAM does not yield to threats of violence and most of our Executives do not seek to use CAM for the purpose of appointments to public office in la Republique du Cameroun. If we folded up and gave leadership to the AAC, then it would be difficult to reconvene CAM when the government shall have destroyed the AAC. So we stuck to our guns, managed the internal contradictions of the AAC excellently and stopped la Republique’s efforts to exploit the CAM/AAC frictions.
So accurate was our analysis of the AAC Standing Committee that one year later, the struggle entered a phase of trouble. The Standing Committee, after deciding to convene AAC II, developed cold feet. It postponed AAC-II twice. CAM moved forward after the second postponement and put the maximum pressure possible on the Committee. It was a tough fight from within. And as we expected, the Standing Committee (or what was left of it after one year of activities) was split. So, it was a thoroughly reduced and limping Standing Committee of the AAC-I which chaired AAC-II at the end of April 1994. And again, it was CAM which shouldered the responsibility for the organisation. The excitement of 1993 was no longer there: people had realised that the struggle was not a bed of roses or a picnic.
At the end of AAC-II, the Standing Committee, now called the Anglophone National Council (ANC), continued with the error of the Standing Committee by trying to develop its own organisation, despite failures registered in the past year. We had become used to this; so it caused no more problems. We continued to act within the ANC to put across the CAM line whenever the opportunity arose.
In August 1994, the All Anglophone Conference transformed itself into the Southern Cameroons Peoples Conference (SCPC). The Standing Committee of the Anglophone National Council became the Southern Cameroons National Council (SCNC) and a new structure, the Southern Cameroons Advisory Council (SCAC), emerged. The SCPC, the SCNC and the SCAC – all put together, have the same profile of the Standing Committee. But CAM continues to be represented in it; we continue to protect it from the damaging effects of power struggles; but we continue to act as an autonomous organisation.
The Southern Cameroons Advisory Council (SCAC) is made up of political party leaders of Southern Cameroons origin, senior Statesmen and distinguished traditional rulers. So in SCAC, we have, for example, personalities such as Ni John Fru Ndi, Chairman of the Social Democratic Front (SDF); Mola Njoh Litumbe, Chairman of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP); Professor Victor Julius Ngoh, Chairman of the Peoples Action Party (PAP); etc, as well as Hon. John Ngu Foncha, Senior Statesman, Ambassador Epie, Senior Statesman and National Chairman of CAM, the Fon of Bali, Chief Agbor Tabi, Chief Namata Elangwe, Fon Anyangwe and Mrs. Gertrude Joe.
The Southern Cameroons National Council (SCNC) is the large body which replaced the ANC. Six members of the National Executive Bureau of CAM are members of the SCNC. In addition, four members of the CAM National Executive Bureau are also members of the Executive Bureau of the SCNC. These are: Dr. Yongbang, Mr. Zumafor, Mr.Vincent Feko and myself.
In summary, please retain that CAM and the SCNC are pursuing the same goal. But CAM continues to preserve its organisational identity, its initiatives and its plans, much as our affiliated organs do. But as we operate independently, so too do we seek to coordinate with the SCNC. Dr. Arnold Yongbang is the CAM Executive who, very informally, serves as the information belt between CAM and the SCNC.
The Southern Cameroons Peoples Conference is the legitimate representative of the people of the Southern Cameroons, just like the PLO, umbrella organisation of all Palestinian Organisations, was the legitimate representative of the people of Palestine. We maintain this as a firm principle despite our fears of the internal weaknesses of the SCNC.
CAM is not in contradiction with the SCNC. We are part and parcel of the SCNC. That is why we send SCNC documents to CAM organs abroad and at home. We do not wish to give conflicting signals to the people of the Southern Cameroons nor to foreign friends of the Southern Cameroons.
This does not mean that we may never come into conflict with the SCNC. It is possible, but very unlikely, that when CAM assesses the situation of preparedness, we may put pressure on the SCNC to declare the end of the “reasonable time” accorded la Republique du Cameroun through the Bamenda Proclamation. Our lobby effort with the SCNC may fail. At that time, we may decide to strike an independent path towards liberation. And that may be the point of conflict. We are still far from that point, however. Besides, even if we get to that point, we may simply experience what happened on the eve of AAC-II: solid elements of the SCNC may go along with us while the weaker elements fall by the wayside.
Fellow compatriots, do not allow the confusionists of la Republique du Cameroun to sow confusion on the relationship of CAM and the SCNC as they attempted, with some temporary success, in doing during the period of the Standing Committee. I appeal to you to understand, that apart from serving exclusively as an umbrella organisation, the SCNC, through some of its members, seeks to create field structures alongside CAM and other organisations which it is supposed to cover. We in CAM have welcomed such initiatives since 1993 and have worked closely with the field structures of the SCNC especially in Tiko and Bui. Let it therefore not be heard, in London or anywhere else in the world, that the SCNC is fighting with CAM, or that CAM is fighting with the SCNC! Do not let provocateurs foment such disagreement between us. CAM does not seek power; we seek results.”
The Liberation Movements and their Focus
a) Fon Gorji Dinka’s Ambazonia (Nationalist-Independentist-Restorationist): About the oldest unit in the struggle, Ambazonia is anchored on a Ruling No HCB/28/92 ordering the president of Cameroun comply with the meaning in law his Decree 84/01 announcing the re-creation of La Republique du Cameroun and thereby seceding from the partnership with Southern Cameroons. Ambazonia won this case when Cameroon authorities duly admitted the case and postponed it twice only to fail showing cause as demanded by the Order to Show Cause why the inserted Judgment should not hold, on and from the stipulated date. HCB/28/92 contained the following paragraphs:
i. That the nation once described as British Southern Cameroons (which with British Northern Cameroons constituted British Cameroons) is now the Republic of Ambazonia, with Fon Gorji-Dinka as its Head of State.
ii. That Cameroon rule of Ambazonia is an act of continuing aggression.
iii. That Cameroon must quit Ambazonia.
iv. That public servants of Ambazonian origin (Civil and Military) are discharged of the duty of obedience, loyalty and allegiance they owed to Cameroon; and are thus to answer to Ambazonia and its Head of State.
Furthermore, Fon Gorji Dinka got the United Nations Human Rights Committee to adjudge and condemn La Republique du Cameroun. By Judgment (UNHRC) of March 17, 2005, the UNHRC held that the remedy to the persecution which drove Ambazonia’s Head of State Fon Gorji-Dinka into exile, lies in complying with law 84/01. The UN body then ordered Cameroun to pay a compensation ($30 Million) for abuses to his person. Furthermore, the UN body demanded that Cameroon was to supply the UN with information within 90 days on the steps taken to make the above decision effective. Ambazonia remains active as a restorationist and nationalist movement. In fact, some members of Ambazonia have created ALIP, the Ambazonian Liberation Party to speed up the process.
b) The Southern Cameroons restoration movement SCARM (Nationalist-Independentist-Restorationist): Formerly the Cameroon Anglophone Movement, SCARM, was created as a socio-cultural organisation with the initial goal of speaking out for the marginalized Anglophones in Cameroon. Since then, SCARM has transformed as the Southern Cameroons Restoration Movement with an oversight over all the other liberation movements. SCARM is the brain and the watchdog over all the liberation movements. SCARM’s incisive policies have contributed to the success of the AAC / SCNC/SCPC’s aggressive diplomatic offensive notably:
The SCPC/SCNC’s attendance of the Commonwealth Summits in Limassol, Cyprus, in October 1993, and in Auckland, New Zealand, in November 1995;
The SCPC/SCNC mission to the United Nations in June 1995,
The conduct of the Signature Referendum exercise in September to December 1995 and ferrying the results out of the country for compilation and safe keeping;
The holding of AACII in Bamenda in 1997;
The concretisation of Southern Cameroons membership of the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organisation (UNPO) in December 2004.
c) The Southern Cameroons Peoples Conference (SCPC) and its Governing Organ, SCNC (Nationalist-Independentist-Restorationist): The Southern Cameroons Peoples Conference is the umbrella organisation of the struggle and the Southern Cameroons National Council (SCNC) is its governing organ. The SCPC was formed out of the Standing Committee of the various All Anglophone Conference. Differences over strategies have created the following groups out of the SCPC:
The Fossung Group (Nationalist-Independentist-Restorationist): Ambassador (rtd) Henry Fossung is about the only properly elected Chairman of the SCNC. Fossung was elected in 1996 to replace Prof. Kofele-Kale who retired after being elected in Buea. Fossung’s strength is in his many diplomatic coups, notably getting the US Congress to speak for the SCNC and getting the UN to take an official stand on the Southern Cameroons Question. HRES 503 IH 109th CONGRESS 1st Session. Congress RES. 503. strongly condemns the actions taken by the Government of the Republic of Cameroon against Ambassador Henry Fossung, his family, his house guests, and the members of the Southern Cameroons National Council;
The Ayamba-Nfor Ngala Group (Nationalist-Independentist-Restorationist): This group is said to be the mainstream SCNC. Beyond an extra-high activism in the North West especially, this group represents Southern Cameroons at the Unrepresented Peoples Organisation, UNPO. Mr Nfor Ngala Nfor, SCNC Vice Chairman is one of the vice presidents of UNPO.
The Ebong Group (Nationalist-Independentist-Restorationist): In the night of December 31st 1999, Justice (Mr) Frederick Alobwede Ebong led a group into the premises of Radio Buea. The group then cause the broadcast of a declaration announcing the restoration of the sovereignty and independence of the Federal Democratic Republic o Southern Cameroons.
d) The Southern Cameroons Peoples Organisation, SCAPO, (Nationalist-Independentist-Restorationist): SCAPO was created ahead of a Southern Cameroons case tabled at the Nigerian High Court in Abjua in 2002. SCAPO took the Federal Government to the Federal High Court in Abuja to demand that the Federal Government honors its obligations under the African Charter of Human and Peoples Rights by taking up the case of the self-determination of the people of the former Southern Cameroons to the International Court of Justice and to the United Nations General Assembly. After a very passionate debate on the admissibility of such a case brought by a foreign group, Justice Rosaline Ukeje finally ruled the case admissible and went on to hear the substance. Justice Rosaline Ukeje finally issued a landmark ruling a on March 5, 2002 demanding that:
The Federal Republic of Nigeria shall institute a case before the International Court of Justice concerning the following:
Whether the Union envisaged under the Southern Cameroons Plebiscite 1961 between La Republique du Cameroun and Southern Cameroons took effect as contemplated by the relevant United Nations Resolutions particularly United Nations General Assembly Resolution 1352 (XIV) of 16th October 1959 and United Nations Trusteeship Council Resolution 2013 (XXIV) of 31st May 1960.
Whether the termination by the Government of the United Kingdom of its trusteeship over the Southern Cameroons on 30th September 1961 without ensuring prior implementation of the Constitutional arrangements under which the Southern Cameroons and La Republique du Cameroun were to unite as one Federal State was not in breach of Articles 3 and 6 of the Trusteeship Agreement for the Territory of Cameroons Under British Administration approved by the General Assembly of the United Nations on 13th December 1946, the United Nations General Assembly Resolutions 1352 of 16th October 1959; 1608 of 21st April 1961, and United Nations Trusteeship Council Resolution 2013 (XXIV) of May 31 1960 and Article 76 (b) of the Charter of the United Nations;
Was the assumption of the Sovereign Powers on 1st October 1961 and the continued exercise of same by the Government of La Republique du Cameroun over Southern Cameroons (after termination by the Government of the United Kingdom of its Trusteeship over the territory) legal and valid when the Union between the Southern Cameroons and La Republique du Cameroun contemplated by the Southern Cameroons Plebiscite 1961 had not legally taken effect?
Whether the peoples of Southern Cameroons are not entitled to self-determination within their clearly defined territory separate from La Republique du Cameroun;
Whether it is the Southern Cameroons and not La Republique du Cameroun that shares a maritime boundary with the Federal Republic of Nigeria;
The ruling ordered the Federal Republic of Nigeria to take any other measures as may be necessary to place the case of the peoples of the geographical territory known as at 1st October 1960 as Southern Cameroons for self-determination before the United Nations General Assembly and any other relevant international organizations. The Ruling also banned past, present and future governments of the Federal Republic of Nigeria from considering Southern Cameroons as part of La Republique du Cameroun. The Obasanjo regime seemed to be ignoring the above ruling. SCAPO
In 2003, SCAPO also filed a case in the African Commission on Human Rights of behalf of Southern Cameroons. DR. GUMNE & MEMBERS OF THE SCNC AND SCAPO (for themselves and on behalf of the People of the Southern Cameroons) Versus LA REPUBLIQUE DU CAMEROUN took the case from a Human Rights angle. The substance of the complaint (Per COMMUNICATION NO 266/2003 is that the rights recognized to peoples under the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights have, for the people of the Southern Cameroons, been suppressed by Republique du Cameroun (the Respondent State) through domination and colonization in violation of the Charter; and that Republique du Cameroun is guilty of a series of gross, massive, continuing and reliably attested human rights violations in respect of named citizens and groups of citizens of the Southern Cameroons. and the SCNC 37th Session of the African Commission on Human & Peoples Rights.
Consequently, the Commission is requested to find Republique du Cameroun (the Respondent State) guilty of these violations; to reaffirm the inherent, unquestionable and inalienable right of the people of the Southern Cameroons to self-determination, and thus to the enjoyment of all the rights recognized to peoples under the Charter; to reaffirm the right of the people of the Southern Cameroons to live in peace and security as a free people; to call on States parties to the Charter to assist the people of the Southern Cameroons in their liberation struggle against the foreign domination of Republique du Cameroun; to call on Republique du Cameroun (Respondent State) to end its continuing violation of the human rights of individual Southern Cameroons citizens; and to find that victims of human rights violations by Republique du Cameroun are entitled to adequate compensation.
The complainants were:
Dr. Kevin Ngwang Gumne
Augustine Feh Ndangam
Dr. Martin Ngeka Luma (Deceased)
Chief Ayamba Ette Otun
Mr. Nfor Ngala Nfor
Humphrey Mbinglo
Mr. Albert Womah Mukong ( Deceased)
Isaac M. Sona
Dr. Emil Mondoa
Dr. Tayoba Ngenge
Dr. Stephen Shemlon
Dr. Martin Ayim
Dr. J Asongu
Mrs. Regina Mankefor (Deceased)
Ms Melissa Nambangi
Mr. Andrew Edimo
Tum Tafon
Dennis Atemkeng
The complainants were represented by Prof. Carlson Anyangwe, as lead Counsel and the law firm of Akinlawon & Ajomo of Lagos, Nigeria. The complaint recites that La République du Cameroun is guilty of violating the rights of hundreds of citizens of the Southern Cameroons and the collective rights of the People of the Southern Cameroons.
e) The Southern Cameroons Youth League, SCYL (Nationalist-Independentist-Restorationist): The youth arm of the Southern Cameroons liberation movements has, as is common with youths, often been at variance with the “Force of Argument” posse of the SCPC-SCNC often preferring the “Argument of Force.” The SCYL is credited with great achievements like the 1997 attacks all over Southern Cameroons, the “collapse” of the Mungo Bridge and the spectacular escape of its leader Ebenezer Mbongo Akwanga from the Yaounde-Kondengui Maximum Security Prison.
The Real Issue, the Real Focus of the Struggle
It can be said that struggle to restore the independence and sovereignty of Southern Cameroons has grown with its own history and discoveries. In 1985, Gorji Dinka and others proposed a restoration of the Federation thanks to the New Social Order. At AACI in Buea in 1993, the issue was still the restoration of the Federal Republic. How exactly the Anglophones thought Mr. Biya was sincere when he asked for proposals on constitutional changes in Cameroun to be sent to the Joseph Owona Tripartite Commission by “fax, phone and letters,” beats the imagination. The insincerity of the regime, however, told Anglophones one thing – The Biya regime was not interested in dialogue. In 1997, after AACII in Bamenda, The late Foncha and Muna addressed memos to the same Biya Paul in the 1980s, again to no avail. In the 1980s also Fon Dinka addressed at least three memos to Biya Paul. They were ignored. In the 1970s Southern Cameroons elites and students separately addressed memoranda to Biya Paul, again to no avail. In the 1960s, Dr Fonlon appealed to Ahidjo, but was rebuffed. Southern Cameroons have thus gone through 45years of patient petitioning, to no effect. And in fact, the response to each petitioning has always been increased repression, violence, torture, and more deaths. In the circumstances, the requirement of exhaustion of local remedies is bound to be a futile exercise.
This recourse to local remedies was based on a critical misunderstanding of the source of the problem. For 24 years, all Southern Cameroons liberation movements without exception, beginning with the Ambazonia Movement of Fon Gorji Dinka, through CAM / SCARM to SCNC, SCYL and now runner-up SCAPO, misconstrued the implications of the non-implementation of Article 76.b. of the UN Charter. These movements also misunderstood the meaning of the non-implementation of UN Resolution 1608 (XV) of 21 April 1961 of the 994th Plenary Session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) on the Future of the United Nations Trust Territory of the Cameroons under United Kingdom Administration in international law. Years later, the fact is now clear that Southern Cameroons have a problem with the UN and International Law: Not with Great Britain or with the Francophone regime.
On 21 March 2003, in a letter (updated in October 2004) to the Secretary-General of the United Nations Organisation, Professor Martin Chia Ateh, the Scientific Ambassador to Germany and Africa (since 1987), of the International Institute of Philosophy (IIP), called the attention of the UN to the violation of the UN Charter and various UN Resolutions on Southern Cameroons. Professor Chia, a scholar with an inside knowledge of the workings of the United Nations system, was writing in his capacity as a concerned citizen and elite of the Southern Cameroons. The letter was prompted by the misleading judgement of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) of 10 October 2002 over the Southern Cameroons territory of the Bakassi Peninsula. Professor Chia had revisited the Southern Cameroons dossier and brought into very sharp focus, for the very first time, the glaring fact that the Non-Execution of UNO Resolution 1608 (XV) of 21 April 1961 on the future of the Cameroons under United Kingdom Administration. Professor Chia letter, which was supported by UNESCO pointed out that the UN violated the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations Organisation.
It violated specifically:
Article 102 (1 & 2) of the Charter in that No Treaty of the Union between the then Government of the Southern Cameroons and La Republique du Cameroun on the one hand, and between the Northern Cameroons and the Federation of Nigeria on the other, was ever worked out;
Article 73: Declaration regarding Non-Self-Governing Territories;
Article 76.b on the basic objectives of the trusteeship system;
UNGA Resolution 224 (III) of 18 November 1948 on the Administrative Unions Affecting Trust Territories;
UNGA Resolution 226 (III) of 18 November 1948 on the Progressive Development of Trust Territories;
UNGA Resolution 1514 (XV) of 14 December 1960 Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples; and
UNGA Resolution 1803 (XVII), 17 U.N. GAOR Supp. (No.17) at 15, UN. Doc. A/5217 (1962) on Permanent Sovereignty over Natural Resources.
The Absence of a Treaty of Union
UN Resolution 1608 (XV) of 21 April 1961 required that a “TREATY of UNION” between the Governments of the Federation of Nigeria and of the Northern Cameroons with the United Kingdom as Administering Authority of the Northern Cameroons Trust Territory be worked out before 6 June 1961; and between the Governments of La Republique du Cameroun and of the Southern Cameroons with the United Kingdom as Administering Authority of the Southern Cameroons Trust Territory before 1st October 1961. The TREATIES were to protect the interests of both the Northern Cameroons and the Federation of Nigeria on the one hand, and the Southern Cameroons and La Republique du Cameroun on the other. The Northern Cameroons Territorial Assembly and the Parliament of the Federation of Nigeria would have ratified the worked out TREATY on the one hand, and by the Southern Cameroons Territorial Assembly and the Parliament of La Republique du Cameroun on the other. The TREATIES should have been registered and copies deposited at the Secretariat of the Secretary-General of the United Nations Organisation in application of Article 102 (1) of the Charter of the United Nations.
Article 102 (1) reads:
.“Every Treaty and every international agreement entered into by any member of the United Nations after the present Charter comes into force shall as soon as possible be registered with the Secretariat and published by it.”
Article 102 (2) reads:
“No party to any such Treaty or International Agreement which has not been registered in accordance with the provisions of paragraph 1 of this Article may invoke that treaty or agreement before any organ of the United Nations”.
In light of this, and in the absence of a Treaty of Union between the Southern Cameroons and La Republique du Cameroun, La Republique du Cameroun had no locus standi in taking the Federation of Nigeria to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) over the Southern Cameroons Territory of the Bakassi Peninsula. Consequently, the ruling of the ICJ over the Bakassi Conflict on 10 October 2002 was misleading and null and void ab initio in international law.
The United Nations and its Responsibility
The non-execution of UN Resolution 1608 (XV) of 21 April 1961 on the future of the UN Trust Territory of the Cameroons under UK administration means that the territory became and remains a United Nations Territory from 6 June 1961 under International Law. Northern Cameroons also became a UN from 1 October 1961. Consequently, the UN should have been, indeed should be, administering the Territory. The absence of a “Treaty of Union” to be worked out between the Governments of the Northern Cameroons and the Federation of Nigeria on the one hand, and the Governments of the Southern Cameroons and La Republique du Cameroun on the other, in the presence of the then Administering Authority of the Trust Territory, the United Kingdom puts the contentious territories directly under UN Trust.
Ambassador (rtd) Fossung, Professor Martin Chia Ateh, SCAPO, among others, have introduced the plight of the UN Territory of the Cameroons formerly under United Kingdom Administration into the UN system. The UNO is making the necessary adjustments to accommodate our demands. These adjustments will take time; they cannot be rushed or hurried; they are also irreversible. What is required of us is a proper understanding of the UN system, and understanding of how to run a state, patience, and a sense of working together for a common purpose. Talking at cross purposes, the way the liberation movements are doing now, only dissipates energies and scarce resources, and ridicules us in the eyes of the international community who see us as a bunch of inexperienced, untrained, naïve and bungling leaders who do not even know their country let alone what they really want for their people.
The Way Forward: Leadership with focus and a clear Agenda.
On May, May, 1959, writing from Lagos, Mr. John K. Emmerson, American Consul-General, to the US State Department sent this dispatch to his government about the Southern Cameroons and its leaders:
“The Southern Cameroons is a frontier, exposed ... to communist-inspired influences, which can become a danger of serious magnitude. This reason, not to speak of its great potentialities, makes the Southern Cameroons an area of serious concern to the United States. ... The present government in the Southern Cameroons, made up of almost totally inexperienced and naive ex-primary schoolteachers with good intentions, is incapable of grappling with the tremendous problems which face it. ... Leadership in the Southern Cameroons is inexperienced, untrained and naive. ... The logical conclusion would seem to be that the Southern Cameroons, with its remoteness from Lagos, its complexities, and its vulnerability, deserves increased attention on the part of the United States”;
Forty-eight (48) years later, the challenge presented to present purported leadership of the Southern Cameroons is to show proof that they are not inexperienced, untrained and naïve like their peers of 1959; that they are indeed capable of grappling with the tremendous problems that the Territory faces. Despite their good intentions, the Southern Cameroons Liberation movements have indeed shown signs of being “totally inexperienced and naïve and incapable of grappling with the tremendous problems which face our peoples and our territory.”
In the eagerness to liberate the peoples of the Southern Cameroons from annexation, oppression and bondage by successive evil regimes of La Republique du Cameroun and France, the leaders have all overlooked the fact that the Southern Cameroons is a minority territory of the United Nations Trust Territory of the Cameroons formerly under United Kingdom Administration. Southern Cameroonians had been induced into that blunder by the fact that the Southern Cameroons had been an autonomous full self-governing region with a Southern Cameroons Constitution-Order-In-Council.
Southern Cameroonians cannot allow ourselves to be consumed by our petty differences any more. Southern Cameroonians must be united in the common effort and our common interests. Southern Cameroonians are fighting for freedom, not only from tyranny, oppression, persecution and exploitation but also from annihilation by La Republique du Cameroun and France. Southern Cameroonians are fighting for the right to live, to survive, and to exist.
This is where Fon Gorji Dinka’s Republic of Ambazonia, Justice Frederick Ebong Alobwede’s the Federal Democratic Republic of Southern Cameroons, and the other SCNC factions, BRISCAM, the Provisional Administration of the SCNC-NA, the INTERIM government of the Southern Cameroons Youth League, and SCAPO’s Republic of Ambazania of Dr. Kevin Ngwang Gumne, all find themselves.
The time has come for all the liberation movements to have the same focus. SCARM did, in October 2003, try to build a Coalition of our Liberation Movements around this ‘fresh thrust’ in the struggle by initiating a coming together of representatives of our various liberation movements. The first of such workshops held at Pa Luma’s Residence in Tiko. All the liberation movements and their factions answered present for the first two workshops. It was based on the coalition that the delegation to the UNPO Steering Committee Meeting at The Hague was planned in December 2004.
Already efforts have been made to educate the masses of Northern Cameroons and Southern Cameroons about the meaning of UN Resolution 1608 (XV) of 21 April 1961. Seven workshops, expanded to include our compatriots from the Northern Cameroons have been executed. The Northern Cameroonians have used their dynamism to bulldoze their way from the Northern Cameroons, informing and educating both Nigerian and La Republique du Cameroun security and administrative officials, as they regularly make their way to the workshops in Bamenda.
A 29-person strong delegation from Northern Cameroons attended one of the workshops at the Presbyterian Youth Center in Bamenda on Tuesday, 24 October 2006. This workshop was held on UNITED NATIONS DAY and received the encouragement of the UN Secretariat. The Northern Cameroons delegation (mostly peasant farmers), including four women, was detained by the gendarmes in Kumbo as they drove down through Ngembu with valid immigration and customs documents. The delegation had refused to offer any bribes and so the group was detained. Professor Martin CHIA ATEH immediately informed the UN who intervened and they were released; but not before they had taught the gendarmes, the SDO, the Governor, the Legion Commander and the Procureur de La Republique some hard lessons about UNO General Assembly Resolution 1608 (XV) of 21 April 1961.
This largely peasant delegation from the Northern Cameroons UNO Territory has been educating both Nigerian and La Republique du Cameroun authorities about UNO Resolution 1608 (XV) of 21 April 1961, the significance of its non-execution, and their rights under the Charter of the UNO and in international law. These officials learned about Resolution 1608 (XV) for the first time, and were dump-founded; and that from farmers who have effectively also launched the debate in both Nigeria and La Republique du Cameroun.
On Saturday, 10 February 2007, on the eve of another workshop billed for Sunday, 11 February 2007, another delegation from the Northern Cameroons en route to the workshop in Bamenda was again stopped in Kumbo. Professor Martin CHIA ATEH was invited by the Legion Commander in Bamenda supposedly to discuss the detention. He was detained on charges of false propaganda and that of being a “secessionist” – charges which the illegal administration has not been able to substantiate in their own court. The Northern Cameroons delegation was released after 15 days and taken by the gendarmes to the border with Northern Cameroons.
Professor Martin CHIA ATEH has since been released on bail. Reports about the illegal detentions have been filed with the UN Secretary-General, the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) and the President of the International Court of Justice (ICJ).
His Majesty’s Government in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland signed only ONE Trusteeship Agreement with the United Nations Organisation on 14 December 1946. That agreement was to administer her part of German Kamerun in trust for the United Nations. Consequently, the independence of the UN Territory of the Southern Cameroons cannot be separate from the independence of the UN Territory of the Northern Cameroons. This is in accordance with UN Resolution 224 (III) of 18 November 1948 on the Administrative Unions Affecting Trust Territories and international law.
The conspiracy of the cold war allies to set aside this resolution and the Charter of the United Nations and to annex the British Cameroons respectively to Nigeria and to La Republique du Cameroun was specifically to prevent this territory, with its great potentialities, its complexities and vulnerability, from falling into the hands of Communist-inspired influences that could become a danger of serious magnitude to the allies. See dispatch from Mr. John K. Emmerson, American Consul-General, Lagos, Nigeria, dated 11 May 1959, to the US State Department.
The allies violated the Charter of the United Nations and the Resolutions of the UNGA and their decision was illegal then, and remains illegal today. Note should also be taken of the fact that at the time of the so-called re-unification, La Republique du Cameroun was engulfed in a communist-backed insurrection by Union des Populations du Cameroun (UPC) and One Kamerun (OK), its ally, in the Southern Cameroons.
On the subject of Southern Cameroons Sovereignty, the UN Under-Secretary for Political Affairs, on 12 February 2007, had this to say in reply to Ambassador Fossung’s correspondence: “I write to acknowledge your previous correspondence on the above subject and to inform you that, as you rightly know, the issues they raised are sensitive and they require a great deal of careful, full and fair evaluation and consideration. Please be assured that this is being done at the moment…. I will encourage you to continue to use your good offices as Chairman of the SCNC to continue to pursue the dialogue and non-violent approach to addressing all outstanding issues. We all engage in the search for a peaceful and just resolution of this important matter.”
The status and rights of Southern Cameroonians, as a people, are guaranteed and protected under the Charter of the United Nations Organisation and International Law. The new facts now coming to light in the past four years means that ALL Southern Cameroons Liberation Movements, without exception, failed to grasp the implications of the failure to implement UNO General Assembly Resolution 1608 (XV) of 21 April 1961on the Future of the Territory in accordance with the principles and purposes of the Charter of the United Nations Organisation. That failure to implement meant that the Trust Territory of the Cameroons formerly under United Kingdom Administration, became a UNO Territory with effect from 6 June 1961 (in the case of the Northern Cameroons), and with effect from 1 October 1961 (in the case of the Southern Cameroons). Southern Cameroonians all engaged the struggle by a demand for a return to the con-federation our people had voted for in the February 1961 plebiscite - a federation that never was in international law.
This colossal blunder might have been excusable in 1959; given the calibre of leaders, we had at the time and who were regarded as being “made up of almost totally inexperienced and naive ex-primary school teachers with good intentions” according to Mr. John K. Emmerson, American Consul-General in Lagos in 1959. It is totally unacceptable and inexcusable, indeed indefensible, in the 1985s – 2003s with all the manpower resources and expertise Southern Cameroons boasts of, that none of our experts paid any attention to Article 102 of the Charter of the United Nations Organisation. If Southern Cameroonians had looked at Article 102 of the Charter of the UN, they could not have engaged the struggle for the restoration of our statehood from the false premise that there had been a federation in the first place. Just one look at the Article and the message hits you right in the face like a technical knockout blow. Yes, Southern Cameroonians read the United Nations Charter with eyes that could not see and with minds that did not comprehend.
Southern Cameroon liberation movements engaged in the struggle from the wrong perspective. A wrong diagnosis of a disease unavoidably results in the wrong prescription and of course the wrong treatment and its attendant consequences to the patient. The same is true of any problem: the wrong diagnosis of the cause of a problem and we end up with the wrong solution to the problem. Forty-eight (48) years down the road and Southern Cameroonians still have not arrived because the leaders led our people down the wrong path. The true path and the truth are now clear.
That pathway involves the following activities:
Efforts by all movements at home and in Diaspora to broaden their outreach and work for the total independence of the UN Territory of the Cameroons formerly under United Kingdom Administration;
Efforts at home and in Diaspora to support the focus on the UN as the key organ in the struggle for the independence of the Cameroon Territory of the UN in accordance with the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations.
Workshops on the principles and purposes of the Charter of the UN organised with delegations from the Northern Cameroons UN Territory aimed at informing and educating the grassroots on the UN system and the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations Organisation.
Efforts to invent a veritable Coalition of Liberation Movements of the Southern Cameroons, one focussed on the source of the problem.
Efforts at inventing and executing any other innovative method and strategies towards the total independence of the UNO Territory of the Cameroons formerly under United Kingdom Administration (86,214 sq. km).
I WILL LIKETO THANK THOSE OF OUR LEADERS THAT ARE FIGHTING HARD FREE US IN THE HANDS OF THE DEVEL FRANCOPHONES WE ARE FED UP UNTILL GUN START THAT IS WHEN THE SO CALL UN WILL COME IN THANKS VERY MUCH FOR THE FANTASTIC JOB YOU AL ARE DOING GOD BLESS YOU ALL
Posted by: SIMON DAIGA GANA | May 31, 2009 at 06:36 AM
I basically applaud the work done by our compatriots in the total liberation of the Southern Cameroonians.
I feel us in the dispora should collectively join hands to make this our duties to liberate ourselves from the bondage of the La Republique du cameroun.
I proposed we in our various exile Countries should demontrate in the High commission or embassies for the people of our various host countries to know our concerns.
There is now an SCNC branch in South Africa.
Lets all make a strong solidarity to foster our freedom.
Together we can.!!Viva Southern Cameroons Viva!! Viva!!
Posted by: lumumba | June 04, 2009 at 06:35 AM
people of my beloved fatherland ambazonia, southern cameroon.wake up from sleep and fight for your rights. REMEMBER you are not important to the U N or E U.you are not isreal.so you have to do it yourself.Think of this......WE MUST STAND UP NOW OR NEVER
Posted by: T dans | June 17, 2009 at 12:59 PM
This magazine should do more to sell itself
b/c it has very valuable material for readers who have questions b/c the answers are here.The quality of this magazin is very high.For all those fighting for the restoration of the state of southern cameroons we are behind you.
Posted by: nkolo kangkolo | December 29, 2009 at 12:36 PM