Communication to International Criminal Court regarding War Crimes in Southern Cameroons

Ebenezer Akwanga Human Rights & Humanitarian Institute P. O. Box 1252

Upper Marlboro, MD 20773 United States of America

www.eahrhi.org

1 | P a g e E A H R H I t o I C C r e : R e p u b l i q u e d u C a m e r o u n ( P a u l B i y a )

August 5, 2013

Ms. Fatou Bensouda

Prosecutor

International Criminal Court

Post Office Box 19519

2500 CM, The Hague

The Netherlands

Re: Communication pursuant to Article 15 of the Rome Statute

requesting the investigation and prosecution of high-level

Republique du Cameroun (LRC) officials including President Paul

Biya for war crimes and crimes against humanity that have been

committed against Anglophones in the territories of Southern

Cameroons & Bakassi.

Dear Ms. Bensouda,

It is with utmost concern that we write to you on behalf of the

Ebenezer Akwanga Human Rights & Humanitarian Institute (EAHRHI)

an organization dedicated to the promotion and defense of human

rights in Africa. We urge your office to initiate an

investigation and prosecution of high-level Camerounaise

officials for the war crimes and crimes against humanity that

have been carried out in the territories of Southern Cameroons

and Bakassi in recent months, in accordance with the principles

of direct and superior responsibility as laid out in Articles 25

and 28 of the Rome Statute.

Such is the seriousness of the humanitarian crisis in Southern

Cameroons, and such is the extent of the crimes that have been

committed by the LRC gendarmes and affiliated forces, that the

International Criminal Court is an appropriate and proper forum

for ensuring accountability for these extremely serious human

rights violations. For this reason we are providing you with



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this preliminary communication, with a more detailed complaint

to follow upon direct investigation by our human rights team.

I. The Ebenezer Akwanga Human Rights & Humanitarian Institute is

firmly committed to helping the Office of the Prosecutor in its

preliminary examination, investigation, and prosecution.

The undersigned attorney works with and represents the Ebenezer

Akwanga Human Rights & Humanitarian Institute, a non-profit

organization with a worldwide membership that was formed in

order to counter human rights abuses taking place in Africa and

promote human rights and civil society in Africa. One of its

missions is to advocate on behalf of underrepresented

individuals in the conflict zones of Africa. Its members include

Africans, the African Diaspora and all concerned individuals and

organizations. We are all mindful of the pressing need to bring

human rights offenders to justice and prevention of

international war crimes, and will commit all available

resources in aiding the Office of the Prosecutor with its

preliminary examination, its investigation, its aid to victims

and its prosecution.

The Ebenezer Akwanga Human Rights & Humanitarian Institute is in

a position to investigate human rights abuses in Southern

Cameroons and neighboring regions and has a team on the ground

to collect eyewitness and survivor testimony, to assemble expert

opinions, and to furnish the type of evidence of widespread

violations that could prove invaluable in the decision to

prosecute. The Ebenezer Akwanga Human Rights & Humanitarian

Institute members have already been cataloguing human rights

violations in the earnest hope that their work will prove of

some value in holding the alleged criminals culpable for their

crimes, so that these types of crimes can be properly

investigated and if warranted prosecuted. We are able to work

directly with all interested civil society parties involved in



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Southern Cameroons including SCAPO (Southern Cameroons Peoples

Organization), SCYL (Southern Cameroons Youth League), SCNC

(Southern Cameroons National Council), GoSC (Government of

Southern Cameroons), UNPO (Unrepresented Nations & Peoples

Organization), BAMOSD (Bakassi Movement for Self-Determination)

,NwS (Nations without States) and OEAS (Organization of Emerging

African States).

Recalling that it is within your power to initiate an

investigation proprio motu under Article 15 of the Rome Statute,

the Ebenezer Akwanga Human Rights & Humanitarian Institute is

willing, able, and determined to assist the Office of the

Prosecutor in the process of establishing that a reasonable

basis exists upon which to proceed with an investigation into

the matter at hand. An extensive complaint is being prepared,

one which will detail the background to and nature of the war

crimes and crimes against humanity that have recently been

committed by the LRC and their allied military groups. Given the

current situation on the ground, however, a preliminary

communication was deemed appropriate to alert your office.

II. The ICC has jurisdiction over the situation presented, and

is the correct forum for the investigation and prosecution of

the crimes outlined above.

In accordance with Article 5 of the Rome Statute, the conduct in

question constitutes criminal activity within the jurisdiction

of the Court, meeting the criteria for classification as war

crimes and crimes against humanity, those most serious crimes

of concern to the international community [which] as a whole

must not go unpunished. Article 7 of the Rome Statute provides

for jurisdiction over crimes against humanity, which may include

acts like murder, extermination, deportation or forcible

transfer of population, rape, persecution against any

identifiable group or collectivity on political, racial,

national, ethnic, cultural, religious, gender, and other

inhumane acts of a similar character intentionally causing



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great suffering, or serious injury to body or to mental or

physical health, when committed as part of a widespread or

systematic attack directed against any civilian population, with

knowledge of the attack. The LRC and its proxies have committed

all of the above acts, as discussed above, and as will be

demonstrated further in the forthcoming complaint.

Under Article 8(1) of the Rome Statute, meanwhile, the Court

shall have jurisdiction in respect of war crimes in particular

when committed as part of a plan or policy or as part of a

large-scale commission of such crimes, the likes of which has

been pursued by LRCs President Paul-Barthelemy Biya bi Mvondo.

Article (8)(2)(a) includes such acts as willful killing,

torture or inhuman treatment, willfully causing great

suffering, or serious injury to body or health, extensive

destruction and appropriation of property, not justified by

military necessity and carried out unlawfully and wantonly, and

unlawful deportation or transfer or unlawful confinement

within the definition of war crimes.

Article (8)(2)(b) likewise includes intentionally directing

attacks against the civilian population as such or against

individual civilians not taking direct part in hostilities and

intentionally directing attacks against civilian objects, that

is, objects which are not military objectives as further

examples of war crimes. These are acts that, as we have shown

and will continue to show, have taken place on a daily basis in

Southern Cameroons as carried out by LRC forces.

The ICC has jurisdiction over the conduct in question, in

accordance with the Statute's preconditions to the exercise of

jurisdiction contained in Article 12(2)(a) and (b). Cameroun has

accepted the jurisdiction of the court.



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As will be set forth in far greater detail in subsequent

communications, there is ample evidence demonstrating that high-

level Camerounaise officials have been orchestrating the

commission of widespread human rights abuses with an eye to

crushing any Southern Cameroons political movements. The war

crimes and crimes against humanity that have taken place are not

the result of misfeasance but of outright malfeasance, and must

be addressed as such. For far too long have these individuals

and those under their command been able to operate with

impunity. Owing in no small part to the potential jurisdiction

that the ICC can exercise over them, there is hope that their

actions can be brought to an end.

III. War crimes and crimes against humanity have been committed,

and continue to be committed, by the LRC forces and its allies

in the regions of Southern Cameroons and Bakassi

Bakassi Region

On April 4th, 2013, the Government of Southern Cameroons (GoSC)

declared a State of Emergency in Bakassi after Camerounaise

(LRC) gendarmes launched a massive attack on unarmed civilians

at the town of Efut Obot Ikot. There were several dozen

casualties and deaths and over ten thousand refugees crossed the

border into Nigeria. The Camerounaise gendarmes went on a

rampage of summary execution, rape, arson, and looting with the

object of further terrorizing the populace. EAHRHI and its

partners have dispatched teams to take victim statements,

provide humanitarian aid and assess the damage however our

people are subject to summary arrest and imprisonment should

they be intercepted by the Camerounaise military.

The unprovoked attack in Bakassi is but a prelude to the larger

ethnic cleansing we fear will come. The Bakassi Peninsula is

thought to be oil-rich and La Republique du Cameroun has signed

contracts with Addax Petroleum, a division of the Sinopec



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Company. Our investigation is not yet complete; however we are

attaching some of the raw affidavits we have been able to obtain

in the field indicating an organized effort to ethnically

cleanse Anglophones from Bakassi and depopulate areas in advance

of oil exploration.

University of Buea Southern Cameroons

An unknown but significant number of striking students most of

them of Southern Cameroons origin have been summarily executed

assaulted and detained by LRC gendarmes this year. The students

have been branded criminals and are treated as such by military

forces when in fact they are only seeking academic freedom. An

estimated 4 dozen students have been detained and are being

processed as criminals or civil miscreants and at least one or

more murdered by police, and some sentenced to prison terms a

process which lacks the very tenets of innocent until proven

guilty. A typical affidavit collected by EAHRHI from student

witnesses is attached.

Summary Arrest and Detention of SCNC Activists at Kumbo,

Southern Cameroons

On Saturday 27th July 2013 at about 2.30 pm a combined contingent

of armed gendarmes and policemen invaded the premises of Mama

Monica in Kumbo where over 120 delegates from the National

Territory of Southern Cameroons were attending an SCNC National

Council Meeting, chaired by Nfor Ngala Nfor, the Acting National

Chairman of the Southern Cameroons National Council (SCNC). The

meeting had barely begun when the Security Men swept on the

attendees and ransacked the home of Mama Monica. Nfor Ngala Nfor

was recovering from surgery and requires emergency medication

and nutritional support in the recovery process.

The SCNC Members who were taken to different directions were

finally dropped at 3 different locations for incarceration. At

one prison, 30 men and 20 women have been cramped into one tiny



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cell with no ventilation and water. The detainees were assaulted

and tortured.

Amongst the arrests is Pa Solomon Ngong (age 82) who is sick

with no medical attention since his arrest. Mme Evelyn Angum who

is heavily pregnant and under distress because of the tight room

and poor sanitary facilities. We fear she may loose her baby if

urgent medical attention is not provided.

So far the Security and Administrative Authorities have not made

any statement. It is a common phenomenon that each time such

wanton arrests are made; members of the SCNC and other Southern

Cameroons Movements and Organizations are usually subjected to

many weeks or months of detention without charge or trial and

held incommunicado.

The meeting in question was organized to fill vacant positions

in the National Executive Committee (NEXCO) and to organize a

memorial mass at the St. Theresa Catholic Cathedral in Kumbo to

honor Southern Cameroons activists who have dedicated their

lives and work to the restoration and sovereignty of the

Southern Cameroons nation.

The Southern Cameroons National Council has made it their

mission to bring autonomy to the Southern Cameroons nation and

seek restitution for the ongoing persecution at the hands of the

Camerounaise central government. Exactions by the State against

the SCNC are numerous and recurrent, and often result in

indefinite detention periods and postponed court hearings.

The SCNC has obtained the names of eight detained Southern

Cameroons activists, not including Mr. Nfor Ngala Nfor.

1) Ntungia Michael, SCNC Northern Zone Chairman.

2) Tita Joseph, SCNC National Treasurer

3) Amadou Ndam



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4) Priscilia Khan [Her father was previously arrested, brutally

tortured, falsely imprisoned, his toes chopped-off and left to

die in jail without medical attention.]

5) Divine Dzekem

6) Pascaline Kinyuy Ndi

7) Steven Mounyo

8) Vivian Tangwa

It is expected that some of the detainees will not survive the

ordeal. The SCNC is a strictly non-violent organization whose

motto is Force of Argument not Argument of Force and is of no

threat to civil order. The SCNC however is one of several

organizations and movements that advocate on behalf of Southern

Cameroonians in a peaceful manner and is being persecuted for

its belief that Southern Cameroonian Anglophones are entitled to

equal civil and political rights.

IV. Conclusion

Since 1960, Southern Cameroonians have been discriminated

against and subject to arbitrary arrest, torture, and murder at

the hands of the Camerounaise governments military. The African

Commission on Human and Peoples Rights has previously offered

its good offices to settle the dispute but has been turned down

by LRC. (See ACHPR case no. 266/2003 Re: Kevin Ngwane Ngumne)

In recent months the worsening situation in Southern Cameroons

has intensified; due to internal Camerounaise political issues

there is grave danger that the LRC government will initiate

increased police actions against the Southern Cameroonians

unless checked by international pressure. Additionally there are

complicating factors in Bakassi in which the nationals of

Southern Cameroons and Nigeria who call the Peninsula their Home



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have been given a deadline to accept Camerounaise citizenship or

be forcefully deported from the stretch of islands.

All inquiries, communications, and notices in this regard may be

made through the undersigned counsel. Thank you in advance for

your attention to this increasingly urgent matter.

Sincerely,

Dr. Jonathan Levy, PhD. Attorney for:

Ebenezer Akwanga Human Rights & Humanitarian Institute

International Criminal Bar/ Barreau Pnal Member No. 100465

Brimstone & Co.

Attorneys & Solicitors

1629 K Street NW Suite 300

Washington DC 20006 USA

Tel/Fax 1-202-318-2406

[email protected]

CONFIDENTIAL ATTACHMENTS: Witness Statements

Documents

Communication to International Criminal Court regarding War Crimes in Southern Cameroons