CI-NEWS

Resolution of Anglophone crisis: African Bar calls for ICJ adjudication if…

2020-01-15

No: 466

Resolution of Anglophone crisis:

African Bar calls for ICJ adjudication if…

The African Bar Association has called for Truth, Justice and the Rule of Law as a way forward in the resolution of the Anglophone crisis.

In a letter addressed British Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, it said a solution imposed by Cameroon or by the international community will not be sustainable.

For the Bar Association, “the best and most transparent and democratic solution would be a UN-organised referendum in the British Southern Cameroons for its people to pronounce themselves on whether they wish to continue to live under Cameroon; to form some kind of association with Cameroon documented by treaty or to govern themselves within their own internationally defined territory.”

However, the letter further noted, should any of the major powers oppose a UN-organised referendum, “the next best solution would be to refer the matter to the ICJ for an opinion on whether the territory of the Southern Cameroons belongs to the Republic of Cameroon or to the people of the British Southern Cameroons.” Following is the letter in its entirety:

The Hon. Boris Johnson,

Prime Minister of Great Britain

10 Downing Street London,

United Kingdom

Dearest Prime Minister,

THE INJUSTICE IN SOUTHERN CAMEROUN

On behalf of the Governing and Executive Councils of the African Bar Association, I bring you greetings and warm Solidarity from the entire Lawyers in Africa and use this medium to congratulate you and your party for winning the confidence of the people of your country and gaining an emphatic election victory at the last General Election in the U.K.

It is my hope Mr. Prime Minister and the hope of thousands of African Lawyers and Millions of ordinary Africans particularly those of the Commonwealth of Nations that have Common heritage with the U.K that your tenure will be especially successful in proffering solutions to a myriad of socio-economic and political problems facing Africa especially the Anglophone Zone.

Sir, the severe civil conflict in Cameroun which has been on for almost four (4) years now and which has festered into full blown carnage of indescribable magnitude has been of serious concern to the African Bar Association as early as its roots.

The inability of dictatorships to see a country governed by Law rather than by fiat and self will is mostly responsible to the dangerous dimension which the civil war in Cameroun has assumed with the massive and merciless killings of men, women, children, the old and people with disability are not left out.

Trenches have been dug and the Government in Cameroun has been encouraged to kill and imprison more as the United Nations, the Commonwealth of Nations and Great Countries like Great Britain which handled Southern Cameroun to Francophone Cameroun have refused to speak decisively and hold the Cameroun Government accountable for the crimes committed against the defenceless Citizens of Southern Cameroun.

The position of the African Bar Association has always been and will always be dialogue that accords with the Rule of Law, respect for the Constitution of Cameroun, respect for plural opinion, fundamental freedoms and right to self determination. The African Bar Association is not interested in the politics of Cameroun but in the just determination of the destiny of a people.

As a Bar Association, we have been caught in the draconian and irresponsible behaviour of those who run the Cameroun Government. Apart from numerous harassment of our officials, the illegal arrest and deportation of our members, the Cameroun Government early in 2017 attempted to use its Security Forces to intimidate the Governing Council meeting which was held in Buea in 1917, later on our Vice President for Central Africa Mr. Felix Nkongho who was also President of the Anglophone Lawyers was forcefully abducted from his house in Southern Cameroun, taken to Yaounde to face Military Tribunals on Trumped-up charges of treason and terrorism. He spent almost 2 years in the Gulag of the Camerounian despots until our international campaign and Legal challenges rescued him and a few others from the jaws of death.

Today, there are hundreds in illegal despicable detention with no hope yet the world is silent but we appeal Mr. Prime Minister that Great and mighty Britain cannot be silent in the face of these atrocities on the Government of President Paul Biya. It is my respectful view that by reason of historical facts and accidents of modern history, the U.K. has a very big and decisive role to play in the urgent rescue of the brutalized but not vanquished people of Southern Cameroun.

The African Bar Association is a willing party in the restoration of peace and the right to self determination of the people of Southern Cameroun.

Mr Prime Minister Sir, for a better understanding of history of this struggle, the facts below may come to your aid. Honourable Prime Minister, as you are very much aware, the conflict in Cameroon has become a major concern for the international community and in particular to Africa and the African Union. Unfortunately, there is no end in sight. The killings and atrocities are only increasing. The international community has been calling for dialogue without pre- conditions between the two sides to go to the root causes and resolve the problem, and the Swiss Government has offered to mediate. So far however, only the so-called separatists have declared their full willingness to participate; the Cameroon government is still to make its intentions known. The African Bar Association, in the meanwhile, has been doing some background research and has found the following which may serve as guidelines for a way forward:

1. Pursuant to UNGA Res. 1352 (XIV) 16 October 1959, a UN-organised Plebiscite was conducted in the British Cameroons on the 11 and 12 February 1961; in the Southern Cameroons on the 11 th and Northern Cameroons on the 12 th .

2. The questions in the Plebiscite as contained in that Resolution were: “(a) Do you wish to achieve independence by joining the independent Federation of Nigeria?” “(b) Do you wish to achieve independence by joining the independent Republic of the Cameroons”?

3. The terms of Res. 1352 (XV), contrary to those of UNGA Res. 1350 (XIII) of 13 March 1959 on Northern Cameroons and the Plebiscite in British Togoland, show that the British Southern Cameroons Plebiscite was not about the integration of the British Southern Cameroons into the Republic of Cameroon but about independence, although in association with either Nigeria or Cameroon.

4. Cameroon did indeed agree, as contained in the Plebiscite document called the “Two Alternatives” that should the vote go in favour of British Southern Cameroons achieving independence in association with Cameroon, the union would be a “federation of two states equal in status”. This same commitment had been made by the then President of Cameroon Amadou Ahidjo before the 4 th Committee in 1959 when he said: “We (French Cameroons) are not annexationists. If our brothers of the British zone wish to unite with independent Cameroon, we are ready to discuss the matter with them, but we will do so on a footing of equality”.

5. The result of the vote in the Southern Cameroons was in favour of achieving independence in association with the Republic of Cameroon.

6. In pursuance of the promise of independence by joining, the UN adopted Res. 1608(XV) on 21 April 1961 in which it called (para 5) for a tripartite conference of the Government of the Southern Cameroons, the Administering Authority and the Republic of Cameroon to urgently work out the terms of the proposed union.

7. As we write, there is no shred of evidence anywhere that the Administering Authority ever implemented that Resolution or that the tripartite conference ever held.

8. The UN actually followed up the promise of “independence by joining” and did conduct a vote on Southern Cameroons independence on 21 April 1961, which came out overwhelmingly in favour: 64 votes for, 23 against and 10 abstentions.

9. The UN General Assembly set the date of Southern Cameroons independence to be 1 October 1961, close to two years after the Republic of Cameroon had her own independence on 1 January 1960. Upon achieving independence the Southern Cameroons would join with French Cameroon.

10. Very surprisingly, Cameroon voted against Southern Cameroons independence in Res. 1608(XV) of 21 April 1961.

11. The determining resolution governing decolonization under the UN system was Res. 1514 (XV) of 14 Dec. 1960, which declared unconditional independence for all trust and non-self-governing territories, whether big or small.

12.Again, we find no evidence that the Administering Authority, the UK, ever complied with Res. 1514 with regard to the Southern Cameroons.

13.The greatest shortcoming on the part of the UN is that while it adopted Resolution 1608(XV) calling for a tripartite conference to work out the terms of association between the British Southern Cameroons and the Republic of Cameroon, it never created any mechanism to monitor and report on the implementation of that Resolution. Consequently, the idea that the Southern Cameroons actually achieved independence on 1 October and then joined the Republic of Cameroon were all assumptions, which turned out not to be true.

14. Without the implementation of Resolutions 1608(XV) and the landmark Res. 1514, no union was achieved, no terms of the relationship were worked out and the British Southern Cameroons became a prey to Cameroon, even though Cameroon voted against union with the Southern Cameroons!

15.On 30th September 1961, the UK, for an unknown reason, ignored both the elected and functional government of the Southern Cameroons headed by Dr. John Ngu Foncha as well as the British Southern Cameroons House of Assembly and transferred the British Southern Cameroons to the Republic of Cameroon, which took possession and has been in control ever since.

16. Some opinions have suggested that the Republic of Cameroon’s seat at the UN also represents that of the Southern Cameroons. We note that the Republic of Cameroon joined the UN on 20th September 1960, at a time when the British Southern Cameroons was still a Trust Territory of the UN. There is no miracle by which Cameroon’s seat can represent the two countries given the fact noted above.

Remarks

1. It is to be noted that this matter falls squarely within international law. Both parties were and are subjects of international law; the British Southern Cameroons was a trust territory of the United Nations; it has international boundaries separating it from the Republic of Cameroon; those boundaries have never been adjusted under Article 102 of the UN Charter; it had an elected and functional government at the time it was surrendered by the UK to the Republic of Cameroon. The House of Assembly of the British Southern Cameroons never passed any law to form a federation with the Republic of Cameroon.

2. The result of the fact that the famous Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples (Res. 1514), was never implemented is that the Southern Cameroons was never decolonised! It was a fundamental condition of that Resolution that for decolonisation to have been considered as effective, power should be transferred by the colonial power to the indigenous population. However the Administering Authority transferred power to a third party without any terms having been worked out. The transfer deprived the British Southern Cameroons of the opportunity to work out the terms of union by herself. As a trust territory of the UN, decolonisation could not occur without any witness from the UN.

3. The UN and the Administering Authority (the UK) were mere custodians over the territory and people of the British Southern Cameroons. They had no competence to transfer the territory to any third party, nor could any such purported transfer be valid.

4. The African Bar Association has not found a single article of the UN Charter, UN Resolution or the African Union Constitutive Act nor any instrument of international law which gives the Republic of Cameroon jurisdiction over the Southern Cameroons!

5. We have also found no evidence that any real federation was created between the two countries, since what was called a federation was simply an amendment of the internal law of the Republic of Cameroon, law No. 64/21, declaring the formation of a federation with the British Southern Cameroons.

6. Article 47 of the so-called federation declared that no idea to ever change the federal form of the state could be accepted.

7. A few years down the road, in 1972, Cameroon got the population of French Cameroon, which was four times that of the British Southern Cameroons, to participate in a vote to abolish the federation. Of course it was abolished, meaning in effect that the People of the British Southern Cameroons ceased to have any say in matters concerning their future and destiny.

8. The African Bar Association would like to draw your attention to this very pertinent point: all African countries have agreed on one fundamental principle: that only by respecting boundaries inherited from colonisation can there be peace in Africa. This was emphasized in the Cairo Declaration of July 24 1964; the Algiers Declaration of July 1999 and is entrenched in the African Union Constitutive Act, Article 4(b). Cameroon has ratified the African Union Constitutive Act, meaning that her treaty obligations compel her to respect her boundaries acquired at independence, on 1 January 1960.

WAY FORWARD

The African Bar Association calls for Truth, Justice and the Rule of Law as a way forward.

1. The conflict in Cameroon is not a conflict that can be settled by guns. It is not a conflict that can be settled by ignoring the facts, by ignoring justice, truth and the rule of law. Any solution that purports to ignore these factors would simply be preparing for future wars. The mistake that was made in 1961 by ignoring the wishes of the people of the British Southern Cameroons should not be repeated after close to 60 years of additional knowledge on human relations. Rather, the present war should be looked upon as a golden opportunity to correct the injustices that led to this war.

2. A solution imposed by Cameroon or by the international community will also not be sustainable. Even if Cameroon were to win the war, that would not be a solution. What is certain is that the awareness of the people of the Southern Cameroons; their determination to continue the resistance after successfully resisting Cameroon for the last 58 years; their financial, social and economic power will only grow, leading to new wars. They are acutely aware of the injustice they are suffering. Thus no amount of persuasion and blackmail will cause them to give up the struggle.

3. The double standards that say that territory is more important to Cameroon than to the people of the British Southern Cameroons; that Cameroon has a right to rule its own territory and cross over and rule that of the British Southern Cameroons; that territorial integrity applies only to Cameroon and not the people of the British Southern Cameroons with a territory of their own; that everything should be done to keep the two people together, knowing fully well that that is only to encourage domination and subordination of one people by another contrary to the Articles 19 and 20 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights, are not solutions at all. They are apartheid being promoted for absolutely spurious reasons. They neither serve Cameroon nor the people of the British Southern Cameroons; they just keep them fighting each other forever. Africans are acutely conscious of the dangers of promoting such double standards and apartheid, which have generated nothing but conflicts in Africa.

4. The African Bar Association is also fully aware that once justice and restitution are done, there will be peace between the two peoples. They will become the best of friends, as we have seen with all colonial masters and their colonies, despite their bitter past. Injustice is the cause of wars and enmity; once justice, is done both sides always become happier.

5. Given all these considerations, the African Bar Association is of the strong opinion that rather than let third parties suggest solutions for a problem which they are not suffering, the best and most transparent and democratic solution would be a UN-organised referendum in the British Southern Cameroons for its people to pronounce themselves on whether they wish to continue to live under Cameroon; to form some kind of association with Cameroon documented by treaty or to govern themselves within their own internationally defined territory. Scotland, Quebec, New Caledonia, Bougainville, the UK itself with the European Union, South Sudan and many other countries have resorted to referenda to settle such supreme matters of interest to their people. There is no reason to deny the people of the Southern Cameroons a similar opportunity for this supreme matter. We firmly believe that the people should be given a chance to speak for themselves. This would automatically lead to a ceasefire. The conditions for such a referendum can be worked out to ensure transparency and fairness.

6. If however any of the major powers is not comfortable with a UN- organised referendum, the next best solution would be to refer the matter to the ICJ for an opinion on whether the territory of the Southern Cameroons belongs to the Republic of Cameroon or to the people of the British Southern Cameroons. Claims over territory in Africa cannot be assumed; they must be proven using Article 4(b) of the African Union Constitutive Act as a basis for all claims.

7. The African Bar Association notes that it is extremely strange that the Republic of Cameroon seems to be avoiding the Swiss Mediation. The Swiss Mediation or any other third party mediation is a golden opportunity for the Republic of Cameroon to prove to the world its claims and show that the so-called separatists have no case. Instead however, it is Cameroon that is avoiding the opportunity. Both of these solutions would settle the matter conclusively and on a lasting basis. However, the referendum solution is by far quicker and less subject to any external distortion than going to the ICJ. The African Bar Association, like the rest of the international community, is anxious to see a quick and decisive end to this brutal conflict so that at last the killings may stop, children may go to school and the people may come out of the bushes. We believe that there will be no stability for Cameroon and the gulf of Guinea as long as the rights of the people of the Southern Cameroons are suppressed. But resolving this conflict on the basis of truth, justice and the rule of law would be the happiest day for the two parties. Once again, on behalf of the African Bar Association, I thank you for taking prompt action on this letter.

Yours faithfully,

Hannibal Uwaifo President

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Resolution of Anglophone crisis: African Bar calls for ICJ adjudication if…