By DOH JAMES SONKEY
Communication Minister and Government Spokesman, Rene Emmanuel Sadi has expressed indignation over the 2019 edition report titled “Cameroon, Events of 2018” of the international NGO, Human Rights Watch in which Defence and Security Forces are accused of “exactions and other serious human rights violations directed against civilian targets.”
Justifying his accusation at a press briefing last April 2, 2019 at the Ministry of Communication, Minister Sadi said “It is clear that in its presentation of the situation on the ground, the NGO Human Rights Watch betrays an obvious bias in favour of armed gangs, by relativizing or even reducing the responsibility of these groups for the atrocities committed in the North West and South West Regions. The Government considers it absolutely irrelevant, if not unhealthy, to seek to place on the same footing, on the one hand, those who, embodying public power, make legitimate, thoughtful and measured use of force, and on the other hand, the outlaws, who illegally use force for destructive, malicious and harmful purposes.
According to the government spokesman, “it is undeniable that the most blatant atrocities, intimidation, kidnappings of innocent citizens, the putting ablaze of infrastructure, particularly hospitals, such as the recent one in Muyuka, threats of all kinds that impose ghost towns, the closure of many schools, with all the imaginable damage to children’s education, are not, and cannot be, the work of the Cameroonian Defence and Security Forces, but indeed, the work of the lawless and totally perishing armed gangs.”
Minister Rene Emmanuel Sadi while first of all, denouncing a systematic tendency of certain humanitarian organizations like Human Rights Watch etc to discredit the public authorities, stressed that “the Cameroonian Government categorically refutes these accusations, made recklessly against Republican Forces, engaged in a struggle for the preservation of the territorial integrity of the State and the protection of persons and property, in the North-West and South-West Regions, in accordance with their sovereign obligations, in strict compliance with international human rights conventions, and fully aware of their responsibility.”
He said “the operations of the Defence and Security Forces in the North-West and South-West Regions mainly target the camps and other hiding places of secessionist armed gangs that have taken the peaceful populations hostage.”
Minister declared at the occasion that “the security situation in the North West and South West regions is not deteriorating at all, but, on the contrary, it is gradually getting under control by the National Defence and Security Forces.