State Crime in the Cameroon / Eitay Mack

The lockdown imposed because of the Coronavirus, should be a good opportunity to raise awareness to the political and military lockdown and siege under which citizens in many parts of the world have been living, while the international community is turning a blind eye to the suffering of these citizens or even supporting politically, economically and militarily the regimes that are responsible for their human rights violations.

One such place in the world who needs the urgent attention, is the English-speaking part of Cameroon – its south-western and north-western provinces (near the border with Nigeria) – where 5 million residents have been under lockdown and attack since October 2016.

In October 2016, attorneys from the anglophone provinces of Cameroon went on strike. They demanded that the state’s laws be translated into English, criticized the takeover by the Continental legal system, and the appointment of French-speaking judges to preside over courts in these regions.

The attorneys’ strike and protests gained wide support and aroused public interest in the ongoing discriminatory treatment of the state’s anglophone regions. Teachers began striking and demonstrating as well, after the appointment of teachers who do not speak English and the attempt to oust the British education model from their school and university systems.

The teacher and attorney protests triggered a “snowball effect” in the anglophone regions regions as calls to return to a federal system or for full independence resumed, and separatists armed groups increased their operations.

The Cameroon security forces, among them the dictator’s private commando unit, called BIR, set out to crush the opposition in anglophone regions of Cameroon. Installing curfews,  Firing live ammunition at demonstrators and unarmed citizens, burning businesses and dwellings, invading university campuses, beating up citizens, raping women and students, and arresting the political leaders. The security forces transformed the comparatively prosperous anglophone provinces into military zones.

The school system was shut down for lengthy periods of time, and even the internet was blocked from time to time, impacting numerous businesses. At least few tens of thousands fled to refugee camps in Nigeria, and many deserted their home villages and are hiding in the bush and the forests. Hundreds of thousands of citizens became internally displaced.

 

The Israeli Unit

BIR is nicknamed “The Israeli Unit” in Cameroon, since according to reports, its soldiers are not only trained and advised by Israelis, but ex-officers of the Israeli army have actually commanded this unit, and still does. The first Israeli who was reported to established and to commanded this unit, was the former head of the Israeli Duvdevan Commando Unit during the first intifada (among other thing, this unit involve in counter-terror and in what is called in the Israeli jargon “targeted killing“), Avi Sivan. He died in a helicopter crush in Cameroon, during 2010, and another Israeli ex-officer replaced him.

From photos and videos of BIR, that appeared in the media or were collected by Cameroonian human rights activists, it has become evident that its men use Israeli weapons, including the Galil-Ace and Tavor rifles, and Negev machine guns. In December 2018, a gag order was placed on a petition I filed to the Israel Supreme Court along with 76 Israeli human rights activists, demanding to halt Israeli ‘defense’ exports to the BIR unit.

The unit was created in 2001, with the formal and initial intention of fighting criminal organizations. In reality, along with the presidential guard, BIR is meant to secure the rule of Cameroon’s dictator Paul Biya, primarily because he distrusts the army and fears a military coup.

Later, with aid from the US and Israel, BIR was upgraded and has been leading the fight against the terrorism of Boko Haram in northern Cameroon. Reports suggest that the unit has been involved in collective punishment and human rights violations, which appear to have generated popular support for the terrorist organization.

Even if the allegations of BIR’s involvement in crimes against civilians in Northern Cameroon were unsubstantiated, an anti-terror military unit, skilled in counter-insurgency, is certainly not the body that should be handling a legitimate civil protest by lawyers, teachers, journalists and students in the country’s English-speaking regions. The decision to send it there discloses the true purpose of the 86-year old dictator.

 

How the West Supports Dictators

Biya fears that the protest will spread to other regions in the country whose economic and political state is just as severe. Already, on March 16, 2018, he called for a rare cabinet meeting (first since 2015) and promised to continue the military ‘operation’ in the English-speaking regions until its separatist movement breaks. In a new year message, published on January 2, 2020, Biya repeated this promise. According to reports, several hundred soldiers of the Cameroon security forces have been killed or wounded in these regions so far, but this is no justification for collective punishment of the entire population there.

Biya could not have continued to rule Cameroon for so many years without the political, military and economic aid of the EU, US and Israel. As long as he continues to send soldiers to fight Boko Harm, making the presence of more European and American ground forces in the area unneeded, and as long as he serves their economic interests and supports their positions in international and regional forums – they do not care what happens in the English-speaking regions of Cameroon. They are uninterested enough in the violence or into whose pockets American and European aid money lands. Nor is it their concern that after nearly 40 years of Biya’s rule, 39% of the national population lives below the poverty, and the state is rated 150th in the UN’s world development index.

Biya has learned a lesson from other African leaders. For decades, the international community ignored the crimes and corruption of the Angolan dictator Jose Eduardo dos Santos. Only after his retirement from political life did EU states look into the billions of dollars that he stole from the country’s coffers. Biya realizes that as long as he is in charge, the international community will not touch him or his lackeys.

Cameroon’s leader is no fool. The means of oppression he uses are selective and restricted compared to those deployed in South Sudan or Burundi. He does not incinerate entire cities nor massacre tens of thousands, understanding that such actions could mobilize international public opinion against him, and cause unease among his supporters in Washington, Jerusalem and the European capitals.

Paul Biya is Cameroon’s leader, but he is also a product of colonialism and neo-colonial policies. Blocking the support, he receives from outside will be a first step towards helping the Cameroonian people create a democratic horizon.

In recent months, Biya has rarely been seen in public and has not been managing the Corona-virus crisis, but the Cameroonians have grown accustomed to their leader “disappearing” for months on end, frequenting fancy hotels in Geneva, Switzerland, at their expense.  Is there even a chance that the visas granted by the EU to Biya and his closest circle would be annulled and that they would be forced to give up their Alpine holidays?

 

Attorney Eitay Mack is a human rights activist specializing in the issue of Israel’s arms trade.

The article was translated from Hebrew by Tal Haran