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 The Southern Cameroons National Council (SCNC) will hold a demonstration outside the Council of the European Union at 2:00 pm on Friday, 16 May 2008.
Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization
On behalf of:
SOUTHERN CAMEROONS NATIONAL COUNCIL
Announces a DEMONSTRATION
Friday, 16 May 2008 – 2:00pm to 3:30pm
Council of the European Union, Rue de la Loi, 175 B-1048
Brussels, Belgium A petition for European Union (EU) intervention and leadership in ending state-sponsored repression and achieving autonomy for the people of Southern Cameroons will also be delivered to the President of the European Council, Mr. Janez Jansa. Southern Cameroons National Council (SCNC)
The Southern Cameroons National Council (SCNC) is the representative body of the Southern Cameroons, an internationally unrecognized nation of approximately six million inhabitants, bordering Nigeria to the west and north-west, La Republique du Cameroun to the east and the Atlantic Ocean to the south.
SCNC has been a Member Organization of the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization (UNPO) since 2004. Southern Cameroons
In a 1961 UN-sanctioned plebiscite, British-colonized Southern Cameroons voted to become a union with French-colonized Cameroun, enjoying autonomous status under a federal system. However, in 1972, the Republique du Cameroun effectively annexed Southern Cameroons by holding another plebiscite that made Cameroon a unitary, rather than a federal state, transferring all power to the central government in Yaounde and dividing Southern Cameroons into two new administrative provinces of this unitary state, effectively disenfranchising Southern Cameroons as a political entity.
Repression and gross human rights abuses by the central government against the Southern Cameroons have since ensued. The repression includes, but is not limited to, arbitrary detention and execution, economic, cultural and linguistic repression and lack of freedom to assembly and expression.
The EU has shown leadership in mediating between de facto and sovereign states, including Kosova, the Kurds in Turkey and other minority regions within sovereign states in Europe. Furthermore, the current situation in Southern Cameroons is in part a product of German, British and French colonization in the region. The decolonization process is clearly not complete. It is therefore appropriate that the EU take a lead role in redressing this unjust situation.
The issues that the demonstration will focus on are the following:
1) Mediation by the EU in the political conflict and assistance in brokering peace between the two peoples and nations by ending annexation and colonial occupation.
2) The release of all SCNC prisoners of conscience by la Republique du Cameroun.
3) Respect for the rights of Southern Cameroonians to freedom of assembly and expression by la Republique du Cameroun proconsuls.
4) Defence of the rights of the oppressed Southern Cameroonians to autonomy by the EU and all its member nations. • For media enquiries, please contact: UNPO Secretariat, tel. +32 (0) 488 684 267, e-mail:
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• For more information on the Southern Cameroons National Council (SCNC), please consult: http://www.scncforsoutherncameroons.net
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