Former Africa Heads of State must speak and act more now on the genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes in the Southern Cameroons. This should occur prior to any symposium or conference intended to provide lasting solutions to the internationally recognized violations and injustices suffered by Southern Cameroons for the past fifty-eight years. Convening a conference as they are alleged to have done, without first coming out to condemn and urge an end to the atrocity crimes taking place in the Southern Cameroons may call the purpose of the conference or symposium into question.
The intensity of the atrocity crimes and the systemic policy underlying the culture of impunity with which they are committed calls for very urgent action and not merely a symposium which the perpetrators of these crimes may not even attend, and it they attend, they may not have a reasonable representation. If they do attend, they may do so to attempt to transform the symposium into an avenue to legitimize the genocidal platform of one and indivisible Cameroun which the so-called major national dialogue failed to attain. God forbids!
Root causes and negotiations without pre-conditions have been identified by key international actors- the UN, EU, Commonwealth of Nations, AU, USA and the international community- as a sole basis on which an everlasting solution to this 58-year culture of international criminality may be found. The announced conference has sadly not identified a clear roadmap that clearly identifies the problem. It may be reasonably presumed that the Forum has enough representation which it solicited, to enable it to identify the problem and the objective they hope their symposium will attain.
I am unpersuaded by the speculation that they may not be aware of the state policy driving the genocide, widespread and systematic crimes and war crimes in the Southern Cameroons. If in doubts, they should consult the public record to access and listen to the statements made by the President of Cameroun himself and his predecessor and those of his civilian and military commanders that justify the urgent call for action prior the symposium. The civilized world has endorsed the Swiss Peace Initiative which Former African Leaders are strongly called upon to endorse.
The voice of Former African Presidents Forum has hardly been heard on continental conflicts and crisis. The Forum has an opportunity to assert its relevance and its moral authority to mobilize the world to stop the ongoing carnage and the savagery of humanity on their watch. For over 58 years, high crimes and international violations have occurred while they looked the other way and acted as if they did not know, did not see and did not see. Recent history establishes how some of them were complicit by action or omission in failing to use preventive diplomacy to prevent or resolve the conflict.
Nigeria which for historical and geopolitical reasons would have been the natural mediator in the crisis has on occasion, facilitated the violations by abducting Southern Cameroons leaders who were legally in her national territory under the protection of international law and handing over to a court-martial where they were jailed for life in a night politico-judicial ritual. The abduction officially established a transnational front for the perpetuation of impunity escalated by the deportation of hundreds of thousands of civilian victims across the border to Nigeria where through cross-border facilitation by Nigerian authorities on occasion or territorial violation, the helpless victims are abducted, disappeared or massacred.
The former Heads of State Forum that ordinarily should include about five from Nigeria ( Banbangida, Shonikon, Abdulsalam Abubaker, Jonathan and Obasanjo, Shagari unfortunately died) and Tebo Mbeki from South Africa who handed over a peace award to the Cameroun President despite his public record of violations against the victims of the Southern Cameroons genocide, should have first used their diplomatic clout to pressurize the President of Cameroun to stop the war, call his forces to the barracks as a sign of good will for their intervention to be meaningful. This has not occurred. Therefore, their symposium will take place while the pogrom continues.
How can the victims participate in such a forum when their security is not guaranteed in their ancestral homes, in their countries of refuge and other parts of the world? How has impunity taken over and controlled the conscience of humanity? How has Africa become the butchery of Africans in order to safeguard the economic interests of colonial and neo-colonial powers and massage the egos of supposed leaders?
My message to the Former Africa Presidents’ Forum is that if the purpose of the symposium is to come out with a Press Release which will be misrepresented or manipulated to strengthen the hand of tyranny, arrogance of power and impunity, then they should spare the Southern Cameroons the nightmare and the agony. Southern Cameroonians are doing the best they can to defend themselves. They are so far hopeful and grateful to the international endorsement of the Swiss Initiative and the critical voices from the civilized world in the Security Council that are more and more calling for urgent international intervention to halt the genocide and bring its masterminds and perpetrators to account for their crimes.
The Africa Former Presidents or Heads of State Forum can lead the push at the UNSC and AU to halt the massacre and genocide and for a referral to the ICC or establish a transitional justice mechanism to investigate and punish the perpetrators. They can lead the push for accountability and the humanitarian efforts to save millions of lives at risk. They can pressurize Cameroun to hasten to honour its commitment to the Swiss Initiative. They can ask the Security Council to hold Cameroun accountable to its universal obligations under the United Nations Charter in the realization of the universal goals of attaining world peace and security. Doing all these gives the forum muscle and authority to act as the moral voice of the troubled continent.
Do I support, the Forum of Africa former leaders? Absolutely I do. Do I recognize their authority to intervene in African conflicts? I do unreservedly. What then is my concern and hopefully that of many Southern Cameroons victims and people world-wide? It is their inability or reluctance to engage and use the international and regional framework which many of them established or worked within while in power, to halt the bloodletting and atrocity crimes in the continent and the Southern Cameroons in particular in a timely and effective manner. They do not require a symposium or a conference to play this role. Do they need these at all? Yes indeed. This can only be a component of prompt action, diplomatic initiatives and publicly stated positions leaving no one in doubt where they stand rather than undertake actions, laudable as they may but which may be short to credible results.
By Charles Taku
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