Francis Wache & Azore Opio With Field Reports
3 March 2008
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In Kumba troops moved into quarters, beating and arresting those suspected of being involved in looting and destruction of properties. They visited places like Fiango and Hausa Quarters were most of the demonstrators were suspected to have come from.
Buea, like other towns, was also paralysed with troops and the youths occasioning destruction, theft and torture. In all, about ten youths sustained wounds from gunshots, while one died of a bullet wound at the Buea Hospital Mortuary. Others are still nursing their wounds in various hospitals after being severely tortured by troops.
Those arrested were about fifty, most of them teenagers picked at random. They are now incarcerated at the Mobile Intervention Unit, GMI, waiting for the Governor to seal their fate.
On their part, troops went amok breaking into private homes, beating its occupants and looting whatever they could. They looted cell phones, money etc, and destroyed TV sets, electronic gadgets and other valuables.
Hordes Of Looters To Serve Jail Terms
In Yaounde, about 400 alleged looters, who were judged and convicted at the Legal Department, have been transferred to the Kondengui Maximum Prisson where they are to serve a two-year jail terms each.
Most of the arrests were arbitrary as the troops swooped on passers-by and took them away. They even ransacked homes arresting those they found there. The convicts were transferred in four trucks on Friday, February 29, under the mournful eyes of parents and relations who were helpless at such convictions without ample evidence.
According to the family of Baba Abdoulaye, one of the supposed looters, in the 'Derriere Combatant' neighbourhood, their son, was sleeping in the house when a group of children who ran into their house for safety, woke him up.
When the police invaded the house, they whisked him away with others and no amount of pleas could make the police release him.For Fabrice Kamdem, who resides at Polytechnic, when violence started on Tuesday, he decided to park the CD plates he was selling in the usual place before heading home.
He said his friend decided to eat before going home. As the friend was leaving the restaurant, the police asked him to identify himself. Although the friend produced his ID card, the policeman yelled, "c'est vous" (you are the ones). Then he was bundled him into the truck.
Children who flocked to the streets out of curiosity were also arrested. Some of the kids sent on errands by parents were whisked to detention cells. Civil rights and other observers describe the arrest, trial and incarceration of the putative looters as a violation of human rights and a blatant disrespect for the new Criminal Procedure Code.
Those who were lucky to escape the detention cells had to buy their freedom after being beaten and bruised. They were subsequently released after paying sums ranging from FCFA 10,000 - FCFA 80,000. Those whose mobile phones were seized never got them back.
In Limbe, soldiers arrested a human rights activist, Djibril Ngeve Nyeke, at the Mile I neighbourhood and accused him of encouraging mob action. But The Post learned that Ngeve had been trying to dissuade some of the boys from perpetrating violence. A 16-year-old welder, Clinton Ngwa, was also brutalised by soldiers as he went to pick his younger brother from school.
Meanwhile, in Kumba, over 30 youths have been arrested and detained at the Gendarmerie and police cells. Although they were arrested indiscriminately, they were accused of orchestrating looting, violence and destruction of properties.
Death Toll
When reinforcement arrived from Koutaba Military Base in the West Province, a bloody confrontation ensued in Bamenda. At the end of it, six youths were shot to death. These included; Emmanuel Che, 24, of Ndamukong Street who was shot at Mile Two Junction, Ashley Fontoh, 14, student of GTC Bamenda, shot at Ntarikon Junction, Devoline Awah was shot in the head at Brassieres Junction, and Bernard Ngwa was shot on Che Street, Ntarikon.
Among the several youths shot with live bullets and currently receiving treatment at the Bamenda General Hospital are; Gerald Nichia and Janet Nimbong.
Kumba recorded one of the highest death tolls in the Southwest Province, with seven youths shot to deaths. Crates of beer killed three others as they looted beer from Les Brasseries regional office.
In Limbe, soldiers deployed to quell demonstrations shot dead a petty trader, Richard Tangie Nwonfor, 32, about three hours after President Biya's address.Tangie had sallied out to observe youths, irked by the President Biya's declarations, battle with the police and the military. The troops shot him around the hips and ran before collapsing on the campus of UNICS Secondary School, where he died.
The long and short of the transporters' strike is that it ignited a heap of smouldering grievances among the youths and other Cameroonians; those who see Brasseries du Cameroun as a 'drug' industry, PMUC as drain on the economy as well as fuelling corruption amongst the armed forces, vacillating politicians who tell youths blatant lies and voracious tax collectors who feed fat from both the government and taxpayers.
Some of the grievances, however, were not addressed during the protests - the medical corps, the judiciary, businessmen, teachers and just the ordinary Cameroonian looked on as the youths attempted to send their messages home.
The damages, human, material and financial losses caused by the strike have left painful gaping wounds in the economy and the society. In nearly all the places where the strike reached, there was a recurring refrain; trigger-happy troops, with the police to bear most of the blame, toyed with tear gas and live ammunition, dropping unfortunate youths to their untimely deaths. The government did its best to stifle any sort of protest with batons, tear gas and water canons.
By press time, the prices of essential commodities that had started creeping upwards even before the idea of the strike had formed in the minds of the transporters, had at the weekend doubled up - a cup of garri in most scantily attended markets sold at FCFA 100, rice went at FCFA 100 a cup, a fresh tomato FCFA 50, a loaf of bread (blockade) FCFA 350 and so on and so forth.
*With Field Reports By Chris Mbunwe, Peterkins Manyong, Kini Nsom, Walter Wilson Nana, Leocadia Bongben, Willibroad Nformi, Francis Tim Mbom & Ernest Sumelong
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