British Lords Lobby Picks Up Ambazonia Case File
By Ning Gaston in Yaounde
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| Lord Paul Boateng raised the Anglophonecrisis in the UK House of Lords |
The crisis rocking the two English-speaking regions of
Cameroon was the subject of heated debate at the British House of Lords, last
week.
It was the first time that the issue was raised at the UK
Upper House of Parliament since the Crisis in Anglophone Cameroon began.
It was
Labour party politician, Honourable Lord Paul Boateng who raised the issue.
During
the session, the British lawmakers had urged the country’s authorities to take
urgent steps towards ending a conflict which they say is fast becoming a full
blown civil war.
They
said it was time the UK government moved from mere words to “concrete actions”
in order to help resolve the lingering crisis which they regretted has now left
about 3.3 million people in the two troubled regions in dire need of
humanitarian assistance.
“…Cameroon is in the grip of a humanitarian
disaster that threatens to affect it and indeed the whole sub region…This
crisis has its origin in a plebiscite of 1961…which was of significance to
members of this house. It was a flawed referendum… because the people
(Anglophones) were not given the choice to form their own independent state”
said Lord Boateng.
On some
of the consequences of the ongoing crisis, Boateng, who once served as UK High
Commissioner to South Africa, recounted: “My lord, we live with the legacy of
that plebiscite in the plight of the peoples of Cameroon and the
English-speaking people of the country in general, to this day...
And the
horrific figures speak for themselves: 460,000 people displaced, 3.3 million
people in need of humanitarian assistance, hundreds of innocent civilians
killed, countless separatist fighters and government forces murdered in
horrendous circumstances…
Atrocities
have been committed on both sides. As we speak, people are held without trial;
many have disappeared. This is a dirty war. And the question, my Lord, is what
should be done. The answer surely is we have to engage”.
According
to Lord Boateng, the time has come for the UK government to engage “with
specific purpose” in finding solutions to the Cameroon crisis.
“We have heard numerous expressions of concern
on the situation by Her Majesty’s government. Concerns are welcome but that’s
not enough. The time has come for the UK government to engage with some
specific purpose. That purpose has to be initiating a genuine national dialogue
to handle some of these grievances which are real. The situation has been
deteriorating for the past two years” he told parliament.
In no
other country in the world, he said is a linguistic minority discriminated
against like it is in the Cameroons.
“As
holders of the mandate that led to the creation of a federal Cameroon after
independence, regardless of our responsibility; how can we stand by and see
English peoples discriminated against in this way?” he questioned rhetorically
before stating that “…So what we want to hear from the government tonight are
practical steps that it intends to take in order to address this problem. How
will the UK High Commissioner in Cameroon be supported with additional
resources in order to handle the situation?”
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