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WASHINGTON, April
12 – As Cameroon's 36 year
president Paul Biya has
cracked down on Anglophones,
the UN has largely stayed
quiet. UN Secretary General
Antonio Guterres stopped by in
October 2017 and smiled,
accepting from Biya a golden
statue. His Deputy Amina J.
Mohammed was in Abuja when
Nigeria illegally refouled
47 people to Cameroon and said
nothing. On April
10 Inner City Press went
to the US State Department
briefing and asked
spokesperson Heather Nauert
about it. Video here
from 32:59. She said,
I'll take your question and
get back to you. And UNlike so
often the United Nations, she
did. On April 12, this
response arrived, from a State
Department
official:
"With respect to your question
from the State Department
press briefing on Tuesday, the
following is attributable to a
State Department official: 'On
February 5, the Department of
State issued a press statement
on Cameroonian Anglophone
Detainees, in which the United
States condemned the ongoing
violence in Cameroon’s
Anglophone regions. We
called on the Government of
Cameroon to respect the human
rights, including due process,
of the 47 Cameroonians
forcibly returned from
Nigerian custody to the
Cameroonian authorities on
January 26. Many of
those forcibly repatriated had
reportedly submitted asylum
claims in Nigeria. We
continue to urge the
Governments of Cameroon and
Nigeria to adhere to their
obligations under
international law to refrain
from forcible repatriation of
asylum-seekers back to their
countries of origin. We expect
the Cameroonian government to
afford these, and other
individuals previously
detained, all the rights and
protections enshrined in
Cameroon’s constitution,
consistent with the nation’s
international obligations and
commitments. We
regularly engage with the
Cameroonian government
regarding our concerns about
the protection of human rights
and fundamental freedoms, and
we urge all sides in the
conflict to act with restraint
in response to acts of
violence when they
occur. We also continue
to appeal to all sides to
enter into meaningful,
broad-based dialogue as the
only path toward a resolution
of legitimate
grievances.'" On April
12, Inner City Press asked
Amnesty Interntional about
those of the refoulees facing
treason charges being subject
to the death penalty. But
that's another story. Again,
the April 10 video:
From the US' April 10 transcript:
Inner City Press:
Matthew Russell Lee.
MS NAUERT: Okay.
Inner City Press:
Yeah. So I wanted --
MS NAUERT: Nice to meet
you.
Inner City Press: it’s
something that I haven’t seen
the Department comment
on. Maybe you’ll have –
maybe it’s in your binder, or
maybe it isn’t. But
there’s been 47 Cameroonians
were in Nigeria and they were
picked up and sort of
illegally returned, or
refouled, back to
Cameroon. And it’s been
– it’s been months that people
haven’t seen them. And
I’m wondering: Is the
U.S. aware of this? Are
they aware of this conflict,
the conflict or tensions in
the Anglophone zones of
Cameroon, and what do they
intend to do about it?
MS NAUERT: I’ll have to
take your question on that and
get back with you. And
there are things that are not
contained in the binder that
we are aware of as well.
At least
some response, hopefully with
more to come - on the same
day, the UN refused to answer
a single one of Inner City
Press' three questions, after
having evicted
and still
restricting Inner City
Press. We will continue to
cover this. For now, this
Periscope video just after the
State Department briefing.
Watch this site.
***
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