Request of Rev. Father Eric akue-goeh, a Jesuit missionary from the Republic of Benin, and assistant parish priest of the Our Lady

7.6.1 This document eventually served as the rallying point for Anglophones at the

Tripartite Conference in Yaoundé in November 1991, when four learned Anglophone

jurists, namely, Barrister Sam Ekontang Elad, Dr. Simon Munzu, Mr. Benjamin Itoe, and

19

Dr. Carlson Anyangwe (EMIA) were appointed to serve on the Technical Committee for

7.6.2 The four submitted a Memorandum on the Anglophone Problem

document)

over the years have been done to English-speaking Cameroonians through a succession of

fraudulent and abusive manipulations of the country’s constitution which has generated a

sense of bitterness and revolt among Anglophones of all ages, geo-ethnic origins, all

social, intellectual and professional backgrounds”. The four

the Committee’s consciousness of the problem, of its magnitude, and of the pressing and

inescapable need to find a satisfactory and lasting solution to it from the awareness that

the cohesiveness of the Cameroonian nation in the years to come will, to a large extent,

depend on how the public authorities of the country handle the grievances which

Anglophones have expressed and continue to express”.

7.6.3 The memorandum recommended “the restoration of Anglophone Cameroon to its

statehood within a Federal Republic of Cameroon comprising the two states that unified

in 1961, each of which may be divided into two or more provinces / regions with

decentralised powers to administer themselves in certain areas of jurisdiction”.

7.6.4 It is regrettable, indeed unfortunate, that the Francophone members of the TCDC,

and particularly Professor Joseph Owona, the Committee’s Chairman, chose to show the

most blatant hostility, contempt, intransigence and insensitivity to reason towards the

proposals put forward as a basis for the satisfactory resolution of the Anglophone

Problem. To them the ‘unitary form of the state was immutable and no longer debatable’.

7.6.5 It is also unfortunate that Francophones have tended to treat the legitimate

aspirations of the Anglophones for a return to the Territory’s statehood then as a bid to

secede, thus confirming our contention that the West Cameroon State was indeed annexed

in 1972 by East Cameroun and integrated into the territory of the latter. To francophones,

federation is synonymous with secession. Even then, West Cameroon was not condemned

to remain annexed to East Cameroun on some ill-conceived notion of national integration

or any other pretext.

7.7 The 4 Anglophone members of the TCDC refused to succumb to Professor Owona’s

tactics of intimidation and blackmail. This indeed was the genesis of the ALL

ANGLOPHONE CONFERENCE that held in Buea, the historic capital of the Southern

Cameroons, from April 2 – 3, 1993.

7.8 In December 1991, the CAMEROON ANGLOPHONE MOVEMENT (CAM), the

watchdog of the Southern Cameroons struggle for her inherent and inalienable right of

20

self-determination and independence, was born with Chief Dr. H.E.N. Enonchong as its

to Constitutional Reform

length and breadth of the territory, and forwarded it to the (TCDC) Technical Committee

for the Drafting of the Constitution. CAM was renamed the Southern Cameroons

Restoration Movement (SCARM) in 1996 and since October 2003 joined the protagonists

for the total independence of the UN Territory of Cameroons formerly under United

Kingdom administration co-ordinated by Professor Martin CHIA ATEH.

Memorandum Relative, signed by 3904 Southern Cameroonians throughout the

8. THE ALL ANGLOPHONE CONFERENCES, AAC I & AAC II

8.1 The blatant confiscation and usurpation of the presidential election results that had

been clearly won by an Anglophone through a democratic process was the immediate

cause of the ALL ANGLOPHONE CONFERENCE of April 1993. The conference was

convened by the 4 Anglophone members of the Technical Committee for the Drafting of

the Constitution (TCDC) appointed by the Tripartite Conference in Yaoundé in November

1991. The Conference brought together in unprecedented numbers a cross section of

Anglophone Cameroon without concerns as to tribe, religion, political party affiliation

and social status, from the nooks and corners of the Territory for the purpose of preparing

Anglophone participation in the announced National Debate on Constitutional Reforms.

8.2 The Conference elected a Standing Committee and produced THE BUEA

DECLARATION. It declared the preparedness of Anglophones to participate in the

announced Constitutional Talks. It reiterated:

.

- that Anglophone Cameroon shall not be bound by undertakings given at the

Standing Committee;

- That the Anglophone delegation at the said Talks shall conduct negotiations in

close observance of the terms of the Anglophone Draft Proposals regarding the

return to the Federal Form of government;

- That the imposition of the Unitary State on Anglophone Cameroon in 1972 was

unconstitutional, illegal and a fraudulent fundamental breach of faith;

- that the only redress adequate to right the wrongs done to Anglophone

Cameroon and its peoples since the imposition of the Unitary State was a return

to the original form of government of the reunified Cameroon;

- that the survival of Cameroon in peace and harmony depended on the

attainment of this objective to which we mutually pledge our lives, well-being,

careers and freedom

8.3 The Standing Committee of the All Anglophone Conference produced

Constitutional Proposals

21

Technical Committee for the Drafting of the Constitution, but was summarily rejected by

8.4 The Second ALL ANGLOPHONE CONFERENCE (AAC- II) held in Bamenda from

29

the Conference from holding. The Conference replaced the Standing Committee with the

PROCLAMATION

”.Draft Federal, which were also translated into French and submitted to theth April to 1st May, 1994, despite frantic intimidating efforts by the regime to prevent

BAMENDAwhich:

- “noted with a deep sense of dissatisfaction that the Biya Government had

remained totally indifferent to the Buea Declaration as concerns the preplebiscite

accord, the Constitution of Cameroon, road infrastructure and checkpoints

in Anglophone Cameroon, the policy of divide-and-rule pursued in respect

of Anglophone Cameroon, the marginalisation of Anglophones, human rights

abuses, the violation of civil liberties and the disregard of the due process of law,

discrimination against Anglophones in education and training, Francophone

exploitation and domination of Anglophones and the international isolation of

Anglophone Cameroon”.

- “reiterated its view that any union between Anglophone Cameroon and

Francophone Cameroun would not last, develop and prosper unless it is built on

a solid foundation and sustained in a clear atmosphere of openness, trust, mutual

respect and a sense of belonging by all”.

- reaffirmed its attachment to the Buea Declaration and warned that “should the

government either persist in its refusal to engage in meaningful constitutional

talks or fail to engage in such talks within a reasonable time, the Anglophone

Council shall so inform the Anglophone People by all suitable means. It shall,

thereupon, proclaim the revival of the independence and sovereignty of the

Anglophone territory of the Southern Cameroons and take all measures necessary

to secure, defend and preserve the independence, sovereignty and integrity of the

said territory”.

- To this end, the Conference adopted THE BUEA PEACE INITIATIVE (BPI) as

our negotiating position with la Republique du Cameroun in keeping with the

motto: “THE FORCE OF ARGUMENT, NOT THE ARGUMENT OF FORCE”.

8.5 In August 1994, the Anglophone Council transmuted to the

CAMEROONS NATIONAL COUNCIL (SCNC)

Cameroons as the nation state that it is rather than simply the linguistic expression of a

people in bondage.

SOUTHERNto better situate the Southern

9. President Paul Biya Convenes his rubber-stamp Constitutional Consultative

Committee

22

9.1 On December 15, 1994, Mr. Biya convened what he called a Constitutional

Anglophone Delegation, as defined by the Buea Declaration, was not invited.

Anglophones invited to the Committee as independent personalities included the late Dr.

John NGU FONCHA (the architect of the unification of the British Southern Cameroons

and

person generally believed to have sold the Anglophones to Ahidjo for ‘thirty pieces’ of

Douala), the Right Reverend Henry Anye AWASOM (the Moderator of the Presbyterian

Church), Barrister Bernard A. MUNA (a former president of the Cameroon Bar Council),

and Barrister Luke K. SENDZE (the then incumbent Bar Council President). All these

personalities withdrew from the Committee charging that ‘the composition of the

Committee and its terms of reference fell far short of the aspirations of a majority of the

Cameroonian people in general and the People of Anglophone Cameroon in particular’.

Also invited was the SDF Chairman, Ni John FRU NDI, who turned down the invitation.

9.2 However, surrogate Anglophones belonging to the ruling Cameroon Peoples

Democratic Movement (CPDM) party, without the mandate of the peoples of Anglophone

Cameroon, took part in the Committee which also ignored the Draft Proposals for a

Federal Constitution already submitted by the ALL ANGLOPHONE CONFERENCE

(the Southern Cameroons Peoples Conference). The Committee went on to adopt an

integrationist constitution ignoring with arrogance and total impunity guarantees for

Anglophone Cameroon’s autonomy as demanded by the Commonwealth Summit in

Limas sol, Cyprus, in October 1993 as a condition for Cameroun’s admission into the

Commonwealth. The Committee was chaired by Honourable Simon Achidi ACHU, a

collaborative Anglophone and Prime Minister at the time. As expected, the regime later

dumped him after using him to further enslave the peoples of the Southern Cameroons.

10.

Summit in 1989. At the Harare Summit in 1991 when the Harare Principles on

democracy, good governance and Human Rights were enunciated, the regime’s record

was, to say the least, appalling on all counts. In June 1993 the Commonwealth Secretary-

General, Chief EMEKA ANYAOKU, paid his first official visit to the Cameroons during

which the dictatorship only permitted him a whistle-stop visit to the Southern

Cameroons. But before he left London for Yaoundé the Cameroon Anglophone

Movement’s (CAM) application for Membership for the former British Southern

Cameroons was on his desk. During the Commonwealth scribe’s whistle-stop visit to the

Southern Cameroons, he was denied all contact with the AAC I Standing Committee

and CAM leaders; but this did not prevent the leadership of these organizations

ambushing him at the SONARA Club in Bota and handing him their petitions opposing

:

la Republique du Cameroun), the late Honourable Solomon TANDENG MUNA (theAppeals to the Commonwealth.

la Republique du Cameroun’s

army of occupation notwithstanding, the populations of the territory turned out in their

23

numbers with placards denouncing the annexation of the territory by

the end of his visit the Commonwealth scribe acknowledged at a press conference that he

had received two applications from the Cameroons for membership of the Gentlemen’s

Club.

delegation made up of Barrister Sam Ekontang Elad and Dr. Arnold Boh Yongbang,

lobbied and persuaded Commonwealth Heads of Government to make Cameroun’s

admission conditional on the regime in Yaoundé introducing constitutional reforms that

would guarantee the autonomy, specificity and cultural distinctiveness of the nearly

6 million English-speaking peoples of the Southern Cameroons who were the ones

interested in Commonwealth membership in the first place, improving the appalling

human rights situation in the country and generally abiding by the terms of the Harare

Declaration on democracy, human rights and good governance. As a people who have

suffered the most at the hands of francophone leaders in

result of human rights abuses, state terrorism and political marginalisation, we saw the

Harare Declaration as a powerful tool to be used to force

membership of the Commonwealth. The presence of thela Republique duand France and asking for Commonwealth membership for the Territory. Atla Republique du Cameroun as a

la Republique du Cameroun’s

compliance with the Limas sol conditionality before Commonwealth admission could be

considered.

10.3 During the Commonwealth Eminent Persons fact-finding Mission to the Cameroons

in July 1995 to assess

conditionality’s, they recognized, even by Baroness Lynda Chalker’s own account to the

House of Lords on 19

needed such as, constitutional reforms, local elections, press freedom, human rights and

the independence of the judiciary”. In spite of this evident non-compliance with the

Limas sol conditionality’s, the Commonwealth Secretariat, with the complicity of

Baroness Chalker and the Canadian Government conspired to admit

Cameroun

staunch advocate of

imperialism” at their Mauritius summit in October 1993, to the Auckland CHOGM. Such

demonstration of callous insensitivity to the very complex and highly explosive political

situation which prevails between the Southern Cameroons and

Cameroun

Southern Cameroons a second time by the same Tory Government that messed up

Southern Cameroons independence 46 years ago.

10.4 And after crooking its way into the Gentlemen’s Club, the regime in characteristic

Machiavellian style has trampled underfoot the Harare Declaration dishing out spiteful

doses of undemocratic and anti-Commonwealth rhetoric again with arrogance and

impunity. The annexation of a people violates not only the letter and spirit of the Charter

24

of the United Nations, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the AU Charter on

democracy, human rights and good governance.

10.5 In light of such serious and persistent violations of the fundamental rights of the

People’s of the Southern Cameroons by

up to the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group (CMAG) and the CHOGM to

destitute

the seat to the Southern Cameroons whose right it was to that membership in the first

place.

Commonwealth to strengthen her annexation and stranglehold on the Southern

Cameroons and to frustrate our aspirations to re-assert our inherent and inalienable right

of self-determination and independence and to confiscate Commonwealth largess for the

benefit of francophones…

la Republique du Cameroun’s compliance with the Limas solth October 1995 “areas where further improvements were stillla Republique du, with glaringly dubious credentials, into the Commonwealth with fanfare; andla francophonie, which “declared war on Anglo-Saxon culturalla Republique duwas not intended to culturally de-isolate the Southern Cameroons. We clearlyla Republique du Cameroun, the challenge wasla Republique du Cameroun of its membership of the Commonwealth and return

La Republique du Cameroun has never shown any acceptance of Commonwealth

11. Appeals to the Organisation of African Unity/African Union (OAU / AU):

11.1 In November 1994 and April 1996, an SCNC delegation met with Dr. Salem Ahmed

Salem, then OAU Secretary-General, in Yaoundé respectively during his first official visit

to the country and in the run up to the July 1996 OAU Summit when Mr. Paul Biya

would assume the Chairmanship of the organisation. The OAU Secretary-General

underscored the legitimacy and justice of a return to the two-state federation where the

interests of the two peoples and cultures would best be realised and protected as is the

case in his own country Tanzania (between Tanganyika and Zanzibar). When he raised

the Anglophone Problem with the President, Mr. Paul Biya accused him of meddling in

the internal affairs of Cameroun. In fact Mr. Biya became an absentee-chairman of the

OAU during his tenure of office because he was avoiding Dr. Salem Ahmed Salem who

kept reminding him about the Anglophone Problem.

12. Appeal to the United Nations against Annexation

12.1 On June 1, 1995, a 9-man delegation of the Southern Cameroons National Council

(SCNC) and the Southern Cameroons Restoration Movement (SCARM) led by none

other than the late Dr John Ngu Foncha, the man who, as Premier of the Southern

Cameroons, was pressured by the United Nations and the United Kingdom into an unholy

union with

independence in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations, filed a petition at the

United Nations Headquarters in New York against the annexation of the Southern

Cameroons by

the Southern Cameroons the independence that was denied her in 1961. Dr. John Ngu

25

Foncha, at the ripe age of 84 years, was back at the United Nations to personally bear

:la République du Cameroun against his government’s demand for full

·

Kingdom into pushing his government in 1961 had not worked and will never work;

·

were taking the risk of freedom, asking to be given a place in the social, political

beings;

·

and inalienable right of self-determination to free themselves from the bondage of

that the peoples of the Southern Cameroons had decided to exercise their inherent

République du Cameroun

and France.

13. The Conspiracy to annex the British Cameroons to its contiguous neighbours:

13.1. The conspiracy of the United Nations, the United Kingdom Government, France

and

the territory to its two contiguous neighbours have all been highlighted. His Honour J.O.

1960, to Mr. Iain Macleod, British Colonial Secretary, assessed the situation as follows:

“

Republic, they do not want to have anything to do with a French-trained army or

the French language, they do not want to risk being pushed around by Republic

officials and they do not want policy dictated to them by Republic politicians. Least

of all, do they want the British connection to be completely severed or to be cut off

from British help. … They fear being pushed into Nigeria as much as they fear being

pushed into the Republic”.

13.2 The conspiracy began to unfold when the 994

General Assembly met to adopt the Trusteeship Council Fourth Committee’s Draft

Resolution A/C.4/L.685 on the implementation of the results of the Plebiscite. The United

Nations General Assembly went out of its way to amend that draft leaving out any

reference to the Commission of experts and the Federal character of the Union.

13.3 In 1972, the Federal State for which the people of the Southern Cameroons had

voted was unilaterally, unconstitutionally, illegally, fraudulently, and unceremoniously

abolished by President Ahmadou Ahidjo, by decree N°. DF72-270 of February 6, 1972,

instituting a unitary state, which he named the

26

13.4 On February 4, 1984, President Ahmadou Ahidjo’s hand-picked successor, Mr. Paul

unceremoniously again changed the name of the country from the United Republic of

Cameroon to simply

assumed when it became independent on January 1, 1960, and was admitted to

membership of the United Nations Organisation. By that wanton act Mr. Biya

th Plenary of the United NationsUnited Republic of Cameroon.

Republique du Cameroun

13.5 The high regard given by the Organisation of African Unity/African Union

(OAU/AU) to territorial boundaries “existing on their achievement of national

independence” includes the territorial divide between the former British Cameroons and

the Federation of Nigeria on one hand and between the former British Cameroons and

Republique du Cameroun

of the union accords in December 1960, has exhibited callous bad faith and breaches of

trust. Having seceded from the union with the Southern Cameroons in 1984,

Republique du Cameroun

Apartheid regime in South Africa, which has caused unspeakable hardships for the

peoples of the Southern Cameroons – all in an attempt to intimidate and subdue,

subjugate and dehumanise, exploit and impoverish, annex and assimilate the peoples and

their territory in keeping with their hidden agenda.

from the Union with the Southern Cameroons.laon the other. La Republique du Cameroun, since the signing

laresorted to state gangsterism and terrorism reminiscent of the

14. THE SIGNATURE REFERENDUM:

14.1 When the SCNC delegation returned home from the United Nations on 28 June

1995, it carried out a countrywide tour of the two Anglophone provinces representing the

Southern Cameroons in the union. The massive popular support received throughout the

territory made it imperative that the support should be harnessed for the record.

14.2 Everywhere the delegation went they heard speeches calling for the total and the

immediate independence for the Southern Cameroons and a review of their relationship

with

la République du Cameroun. The Cameroon Anglophone Movement (CAM)

decided to conduct a Signature Referendum throughout the territory with financial

support from compatriots in the Ivory Coast (

compatriot Nfor Nwayuke Susungi then with the African Development Bank (ADB) in

Abidjan, The question put to referendum was:

Cote d’Ivoire) through the good offices of

“DO YOU WANT THE SOUTHERN CAMEROONS TO ACHIEVE FULL

INDEPENDENCE BY PEACEFUL SEPARATION FROM LA RÉPUBLIQUE DU

CAMEROUN?”

14.3 An analysis of the results shows that a total of 315.000 signatures were collected

from the peoples of the Southern Cameroons of voting age through out the territory.

Considering the fact that the voter turn-out at the January 1996 Municipal Council

27

Elections was 419.000 in the territory (the turn-out had been 420.000 for the presidential

voter participation. Only 100 signatories said NO to independence: 99.97% voted in

favour of independence.

Cameroons for their independence.

to the African Commission on Human and Peoples Rights in Banjul, The Gambia, in the

case by the Southern Cameroons Peoples Organisation (SCAPO) and the SCNC against