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Rights Groups Doubt Cameroon Military's Massacre Investigation

Moki Edwin Kindzeka

   YAOUNDE - Rights groups in Cameroon doubt the military's claim it will
   properly investigate the latest alleged massacre of civilians by its
   troops.'¯Activists and witnesses say the military killed 10 villagers
   Sunday, including women and children, while attempting to fight
   separatists.'¯Cameroon's military denies it was responsible, a line
   that has been questioned in past cases.

   Thirty-seven-year-old teacher Jacob Mende says he fled Cameroon's
   southwestern village of Mautu after witnessing the military on Sunday
   shooting civilians.

   "Cameroon military invaded the village of Mautu," he said, speaking via
   a messaging application from the coastal town of Limbe. "They were
   shooting indiscriminately. United Nations, African Union, they are
   killing our people in cold blood. They invaded Mautu, they invaded our
   villages, killed our young guys. These are civilians. The world should
   see."

   Activists and witnesses quoted in local media say troops killed 10
   villagers, including women and children.

   Cameroon's military on Monday acknowledged clashes at Mautu village but
   said reports that troops killed civilians were unfounded.

   In a press release, a military spokesman accused Anglophone rebels of a
   massacre and trying to blame the military.

   The statement by Army Captain Cyrille Serge Atonfack Guemo said troops
   surprised a group of armed men in the village, killing some, while
   others fled.

   It gave no casualty figures and said a military investigation was
   ordered to uncover every detail.

   But Cameroon activists poured doubt on the military conducting a proper
   investigation of yet another alleged massacre by its own troops.

   Felix Agbor Balla is a human rights lawyer and founder of the Center
   for Human Rights and Democracy in Africa.

   "There is a need for a fact-finding mission, a commission of inquiry to
   ascertain whether all the victims were civilians and if there were
   civilians who were not taking any active part in hostility in the
   conflict, then the military is supposed to be held accountable for the
   indiscriminate shooting and killing of civilians," he said.

   In December, three Cameroon soldiers were charged with killing
   villagers, including women and children, while fighting rebels last
   year in the northwestern village of Ngarr-buh.

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