Cameroon:Human rights defender targeted and harassed
The arrest of a respected human rights lawyer underlines a consistent pattern of intimidation and harassment of human rights defenders in Cameroon, Amnesty International have said.
* News Release Issued by the International Secretariat of Amnesty
International *
17 January 2002
AFR 17/001/2002
10/02
The arrest yesterday of a respected human rights lawyer
underlines a consistent pattern of intimidation and harassment of
human rights defenders in Cameroon, Amnesty International said
today.
Abdoulaye Math, President of the Mouvement de la défense
des droits de l'homme et des libertés (MDDHL) - Movement for the
defence of freedom and human rights - was arrested on 16 January
2002 in Yaoundé, Cameroon, by officials of the Centre national
de recherche extérieure (National Centre for External Research),
a body composed of members of the security forces from the
police, the gendarmerie and the army.
Abdoulaye Math was travelling to Dublin, Ireland, where
he was to speak on the human rights situation in Cameroon at the
international Platform for Human Rights Defenders, attended among
others by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights,
Mary Robinson, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Human
Rights Defenders, Hina Jilani, and the Irish Prime Minister
Bertie Ahern.
After his arrest, Abdoulaye Math was taken to a police
station where he was detained for five hours and his passport and
all the documents he had on him were confiscated. He was
released at around 1:00 am by a police officer who told him that
"You can go to your hotel since we know that we have all your
papers with us". He had an appointment with the Director of the
National Centre for External Research today, 17 January 2002,
where he pleaded for his papers to be returned to no avail.
"The temporary arrest of Abdoulaye Math and the
confiscation of his documents on the eve of his participation in
such an important international human rights conference are a
clear sign of the continuous contempt by the Cameroonian
government for human rights defenders and activists in the
country," Amnesty International said.
"This incident is further testimony of Cameroon's clear
disrespect for international standards protecting human rights
defenders," the organization added. Such standards include the
Johannesburg Declaration on Human Rights Defenders in Africa of
1998, and the non-observance of the United Nations 1998
Declaration on the Right and Responsibility of Individuals,
Groups and Organs of Society to Promote and Protect Universally
Recognized Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms.
Amnesty International is once more urging the Cameroonian
government to put an end to a practice which violates the freedom
of movement and the freedom of expression of Cameroonians and to
respect international standards for the protection of human
rights defenders.
Background
Attempts to actively harass and silence human rights defenders
from the MDDHL and other human rights organizations have been
ongoing in Cameroon.
On 27 August 2001 Abdoulaye Math was arrested in
Ngaoundéré, Northern Cameroon, by officials of the National
Centre for External Research. He was taken to a Police station
and was forced to undress by a superior officer (Commissaire de
police) who also confiscated all the documents he had on him. In
spite of protests the documents were not restituted.
On 29 October 2001, the office of the MDDHL in Hardé,
Maroua, North Cameroon, was vandalised and important documents
were stolen from it together with written testimonies from
victims of human rights violations.
Despite appeals by human rights defenders in the region
and Amnesty International for the respect of human rights by
security forces, the Cameroonian government has failed to take
any action.
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