Yaoundé: Rights campaigners in Cameroon accused authorities of covering up for the security forces during a string of killings in the country's political unrest in February 2008, said a report obtained on Monday by Agence France Presse (AFP).
Members of the security forces opened fire indiscriminately on civilians, using automatic rifles and even light-machine guns mounted on pick-up trucks, said the report by National Observatory of Human Rights (ONDH).
But the authorities put pressure on hospital directors to cover up crimes committed by the security forces by hiding evidence, it alleged.
Click here to read or download the 34-page ONDH report of the February 2008 repression (French).
In February 2008 President Paul Biya sent troops on to the street following violent protests over the cost of living that included a road haulage strike over the price of fuel.
The protests were also directed against a revision of the constitution that allowed Biya to run for a third term.
New trouble and repression
The president blamed the protests on a campaign to overthrow him.
The ONDH report called on the government to publicly acknowledge and condemn the excessive force used by the security forces during the violence.
It dismissed the official toll of 40 dead for last year's violence, saying the true figure ran to at least 139.
Other rights groups have also put the figure at more than a hundred.
"Even if the situation today is stable, the possibility of new trouble and repression remains real, notably with the approach of the 2011 presidential election," said the report.
Despite citizens' complaints the government had failed to set up a commission of inquiry into the violence to establish where the blame lay, the report said.
Culture of impunity
And while thousands of people had been arrested during and after the riots and taken through the courts, no one from the security forces had faced any sanctions.
The ONDH, an alliance of several local rights groups, also called for a judicial inquiry into the violence.
In January, a report by Amnesty International condemned what it called a culture of impunity in Cameroon that allowed the security forces to carry out incessant human rights violations.
"Cameroonian security forces routinely use excessive and unnecessary lethal force," said the report. "The perpetrators have almost always enjoyed impunity."
Biya has ruled Cameroon since 1982.
(c) AFP
Click here to read or download the 34-page ONDH report of the February 2008 repression (French).
This is Government for Paul Biya by the military To paul Biya !O God save my people in Cameroon
Posted by: martin | February 26, 2009 at 02:01 PM
We have many Cameroonian international Human rights lawyers both in and out of Cameroon..I think is high time we donates money if they are organized to drag Paul biya to the Hague.Just like what they are about to do to the president of Sudan!For how long can we allow our people to suffer?
Posted by: martin | February 26, 2009 at 02:12 PM
This image is horrendous! This is de-humanizing!
To see black people (kids for the most part) being herded and subjected in such a humiliating spectacle by this so-called African government calls for more than outrage!
Well, lucky Paul Biya. Helas, la Republique du Cameroun is not Zimbabwe, in which case this image would have probably been the lead in the BBC's multimedia newscasts to show the world what a depraved rogue Mugabe is.
Posted by: SJ | February 26, 2009 at 02:44 PM
Oh god! what a horrific image. It looks like a slave ship. My god!
Posted by: UnitedstatesofAfrica | March 04, 2009 at 07:22 PM
I agree with Martin - drag Paul Biya to the Hague to be prosecuted for crimes against humanity! This is ridiculous. Incompetence and corruption in the Cameroon government begins with him and trickles all the way down to his cronies who are stealing our country's resources. He says the protests are part of a plot to overthrow him? He is paranoid because he knows all the atrocities he has committed and knows he should not be in power - he should be in jail or in exile!
I shudder to think of what will happen in 2011. God save my people!
Posted by: Enanga | March 11, 2009 at 01:30 AM
we should start preparing for the worst since that power thirsty old man has decided he who die in power but i have a dream that one day the would be peace and not relative peace as it is today in cameroon
Posted by: nchamukong | May 10, 2009 at 11:23 PM