What will Cameroon, a former German colony expose during the expo 2000 in Hannover ? Paul Biya the tyrant and his neo-colonial Masters ?

The long history of Cameroon’s human rights abuses is a cause of concern within the national and international community. Reports from national and international non-governmental organisations show the high rate of torture, unjust and illegal imprisonment, extrajudiciary executions and the maltreatment of normal prisoners, political prisoners,and prisoners on death row; in the represive regime of Paul Biya which has oppressed since 1982 and the late president Ahmadou Ahidjo who ruled from independence in 1960 to 1982.

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The misappropriation of state funds and embezzlement by government officials have increased and gone undisputed and state bribery and corruption has made Cameroon the most corrupt country in the world (1999 report of Transparency International).

Security officials from the Police, Gendarmerie and Military have been linked with cases ofdeath through torture and extrajudiciary killings and have gone unprosecuted by the law. Members of opposition parties, journalists, human rights activists, students and minority group movements like the anglophone’s SCNC (Southern Cameroons National Council) and their co-ordination networks are being persecuted everyday by the government. There are long term imprisonment without trials and the Military is being used as a tool to brutalise and prosecute civilians.

The economic sector is under the hands of multinational concerns like the German SIEMENS and MERCERDES companies who do nothing but promote and support the present dictatorial regime of President Paul Biya who has been in power for 18 years. The Cameroon Rain forest is in the threat of collapsing because of the indiscriminate exploitation of Timber by foreign companies. The Chad - Cameroon pipeline project will be a sign of another Ogoniland in Cameroon and the unending oil exploitation of the South coastal rich black gold regions with no benefits to the inhabitants of this region who live in poverty has become the plight for minority anglophone groups to fight for their self-rule.

The conditions of state-runned and private prisons is appalling with over-population in prisons and high mortality rate of prisoners due to torture, maltreatment and poor sanitary conditions. Prisons made for 800 prisoners contains 2500or more prisoners. More than 10 political prisoners died in the years between 1997 to 1999 because of torture and maltreatment (Amnesty international report,Feb. 2000). Political prisoners are held incommunicado with no access to lawyers, doctors or relatives.

These are what Cameroon and the Biya regime is going to expose and this is how the World Bank supports it.

Report from Africa News Agency
World Bank Approves Financing for Chad-Cameroon Pipeline

(Lagos)
June 9, 2000

Lagos - The World Bank board of directors on Tuesday agreed to help finance a highly controversial oil pipeline project across parts of Chad and Cameroon.

Board backing for the project came despite sharp criticism from environmental and human rights activists in Chad and elsewhere, who warned that the project could cause serious harm to the local population.

In May 1999, non-governmental organisations in Chad asked the bank to declare a two-year moratorium on the project to allow time for the country to establish a legal framework assuring fair compensation for residents.

The bank said in a statement, it would lend 39.5 million dollars to Chad and 53.4 million dollars to Cameroon to help build a 1,070 kilometer (670 mile) pipeline to carry oil from the Doba field in Southern Chad to loading facilities off Cameroon's Atlantic coast.

In addition, the International Finance Corporation, the bank unit making loans to the private sector, will lend 100 million dollars to the joint venture pipeline and mobilise up to 300 million dollars from commercial banks.

Participating oil companies, banks and export credit agencies would provide the remaining 3.2 billion dollars.

The total cost of the project has been estimated at 3.7 billion dollars to develop the Doba fields and build the pipeline.

US firms, Exxon, Mobil and Chevron are participating with 40 and 25 per cent stakes respectively, as is Malaysia's Petronas, with 35 per cent.

The Bank estimates that the project would generate two billion dollars for Chad and 500 million dollars for Cameroon over a 25-year period.

The bank said that in addition to its pipeline investments, the board approved two credits worth 29.5 million dollars on confessional terms to help bolster Chad and Cameroon's environmental management and petroleum-sector monitoring capacities.

"While some may still have doubts, I believe that the hard work of specialists from t he Bank Group, the private companies and the two countries, combined with the strong participation of civil society within Chad and Cameroon and around the world, have made this a better, stronger project," said World Bank President, James Wolfensohn.

But according to San Francisco-based Rainforest Action Network, it will have "serious, irreversible environmental repercussions," destroying rainforest areas and threatening animal species and indigenous peoples such as the pygmies.

"It's a risky project," said Andrea Dubin of the environmental group Friends of the Earth in an interview on Monday.

"The pipeline traverses key water systems, key river systems in Chad and Cameroon and the potential for leakage is quite serious," she said.

Opponents argue that Chad and Cameroon have a well-documented history of human rights abuses and corruption, making it unlikely that any of the expected benefits will reach the population at large.

"Before the bank supports any new oil development, it should first support the establishment in Chad and Cameroon of democratic reforms to ensure that citizens benefit from this project and are not harmed by it," said Daphne Wysham of the Washington-based Institute for Policy Studies.

The bank points to a law approved by Chad in 1998 stipulating that 10 per cent of project revenues are to be held in trust for future generations.

Eighty per cent would go for education, health, social services and rural development with the remaining revenue earmarked for regional programs in the pipeline area.

Report partly written and compiled by Cornelius Yufanyi,

For The VOICE Campaign for the freedom of political prisoners in Cameroon.