By:  M. Brandon Maggiore
Impunity Watch Senior Desk Officer, Africa

YAOUNDE, Cameroon – At least 17 people have been killed in protests in Cameroon in which youths are fighting with police. The opposition says the unrest is due to the rising costs of fuel and food while the president of Cameroon, Paul Biya, accused his political rivals of creating the unrest in order to depose him. The violence started as a nationwide transport strike because of fuel costs and turned into anti-government demonstrations. Preisdent Biya has been in power for twenty-five years and has suggested amending the constitution of Cameroon so that he can run for president again in 2011, another source of anger amongst the protesters.

Biya says he will use all legal means to end the violence in which boarding schools have been targeted by mobs of young men demanding they join the protesters. The boarding schools may have been targeted by the youths because the children of the Cameroonian elite are students there. Teachers managed to prevent the taking of most of the students except for about two-hundred. There is fear that the students were taken to be used as human shields. Some children are still unaccounted for after most returned to their homes or boarding schools within several hours. However, it is believed that a teenage boy was shot dead in Bamenda.

The main journalist’s union in Cameroon accused the government of trying to silence media coverage of the riots. A privately owned radio station in Yaounde was shut down by armed law enforcement on Thursday after callers to the radio station criticized the President’s handling of the protests. This shutdown followed the shutdown of a radio station in Biya on Tuesday. Reporters Without Borders has also expressed its concern over the media crackdown in Cameroon and has called on the government to return all equipment removed from the radio station in Yaounde and to permit it to resume broadcasting.

Cameroonian writers, both from inside Cameroon and abroad, signed a letter sent to deputies in the government urging them not to modify the country’s constitution. The letter used strong language stating a “single foul play with the constitution could plunge the entire nation into insurmountable chaos.” The letter also criticized members of parliament saying “The President has availed himself of the de facto majority accorded him in the national assembly by you, CPDM parliamentarians, to trample on the constitution of this land. Worse still, he has had recourse to armed elements of the police force to silence those dissenting voices that have dared to openly object to his scheme.”

For more information, please see:

BBC News – Deadly violence rages in Cameroon – 29 February 2008

Reuters – Cameroon govt accused of muzzling media over riots – 29 February 2008

afrol News – Cameroon writers warn MPs – 29 February 2008

Reporters Without Borders – Private radio suspended, independent newspapers prevented from appearing – 29 February 2008

NAIROBI, Kenya – The lawyers for Rwanda’s leader Paul Kagame are demanding the suspension of the trial and investigation against Kagame. President Kagame and his Tutsi rebels are credited with halting the 1994 genocide that killed some 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus within 100 days.

Judges in France and Spain has called for the prosecution of Kagame and 40 of his associates for the killing of thousands of civilians including nine Spaniards. In November 2006, a Paris anti-terrorist judge issued a summons for Kagame to stand trial for the murder of his predecessor, Juvenal Habyarimana, whose death instigated the genocide. Kagame has denied the claims.

France and Spain could not prosecute Kagame since he has immunity as a head of state. Peter Erlinder, head of the Defense Lawyer’s Association, requests an independent investigation by the U.N. Security Council of manipulation of the prosecutor’s office. Defense lawyers claim the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) should cease investigations because it is biased.

For more information please see:

Yahoo News (Reuters) – Lawyers Try to Halt Rwanda Genocide Tribunal – 27 February 2008

NAIROBI, Kenya – Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki and rival Raila Odinga, the leader of the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM), have signed an agreement that will create a new coalition government.The agreement comes after more than one month of negotiations brokered by Kofi Anan. The agreement, which is expected to be released later today, will detail the plans for the sharing of power between members of the current government and opposition leaders.

For more information, please see:

BBC News – Kenya rivals agree to share power – 28 February 2008

Impunity Watch – Update: Anan Calls for Break in Kenyan Negotiations – 26 February 2008

By Ted Townsend,
Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa

PARIS, France – Representatives from rights groups, including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, pressed French President Nicolas Sarkozy not to “cover up” the actions of Chadnian President Idriss Deby (“Deby”). Deby is accused of playing a role in the February 3^rd disappearance of members of political opposition groups, as part of a crackdown against political opponents after a failed coup. Further investigation by Human Rights Watch has determined the opposition politicians were taken by state security forces, despite Chadnian claims to the contrary.

The Chadnian Government denies any role in the disappearances, and stated that “an official inquiry had been unable to locate Ibni Oumar Mahamat Saleh (Saleh) . . . and Ngarley Yorongar (Yorongar).” Both men are vocal members of the political opposition; Saleh a spokesman for a coalition of opposition parties, and Yorongar a prominent member of the opposition in Parliament.

Further, Chadnian Interior Minister Ahmat Bachir suggested that since the men were seized while rebels controlled the N’Djamena neighborhoods they lived in, they were likely rebel captives. Chadnian Foreign Minister Ahmad Allam-Mi also added that Yorongar was “hiding” in N’Djamena, and that Yorongar’s sister and chauffer said he was going to resurface and speak to the press soon. The chauffeur refutes this, claiming he has not heard from Yorongar since February third.

Multiple eyewitnesses told Human Rights Watch researchers that Chadnian government soldiers took each man into custody, forcing their way into each man’s home and removing him forcefully. The eyewitnesses detailed each arrest, claiming that ten soldiers in Chadnian army uniforms took each man away in beige Toyota four-wheel drive vehicles, the type of vehicle that is standard issue in the Chadnian army.

Human Rights Watch African Director Georgette Gagnon believes the “Chadnian Government should publicly acknowledge the whereabouts of Yorongar and Ibni.” “They should be released immediately, or charged with a crime and accorded all their rights.” An Amnesty International representative added “These men are at grave risk of being tortured. The French Government should not cover up the excesses of the Chadnian Government.”

The pressure this week is focused on France because President Sarkozy is visiting the former French Colony this week. Many see the French in the best position to effectuate the release of the prisoners given the relationship between the two countries. President Sarkozy, for his part, claimed “he would ask Deby to set up an independent inquiry into the disappearances.”

 

For more information, please see:

Human Rights Watch – Chad: Account for ‘Disappeared’ Opposition Leaders – 25 February 2008

IOL.com – Opposition Figure Still Missing – Colleague – 27 February 2008

VOA News – French President Visits Chad as Rights Groups Urge Pressure on Chadian Leader – 27 February 2008

AFP – Sarkozy urged to press Chad on fate of opposition members – 27 February 2008

Impunity Watch – Amnesty International Claims Chadian Government is Violating Human Rights – 22 February 2008

UDNAIROBI, Kenya – Kofi Anan called for a break in the Kenyan Negotiations because the two sides are at an impasse. Anan said it is time for the principles, Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki and rival Raila Odinga, the leader of the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM), to get directly involved in the negotiations. Anan Plans to meet with them to try and overcome the current stalemate over the details of a power-sharing deal involving the creation of a new prime minister post which is to be occupied by Odinga when first established. The impasse came on the same date the African Union chief Jakaya Kikwete arrived in Kenya to try and support the negotiations.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said that there is no excuse for further delay in the two sides reaching an agreement. Foreign Minister Moses Wetangula said that Kenya’s “international friends” an make suggestions to aid the negotiations but that that they cannot impose solutions.

For more information, please see:

Agence France Press – Annan suspends talks with Kenyan crisis negotiators – 26 February 2008

Reuters – Rice demands action as Kenya talks stall – 26 February 2008

Impunity Watch – Brief: Kenyan Peace Talks Faltering – 25 February 2008