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afrol.com, 7 November - Reports from Cameroon confirm the finding of a mass grave with at least 36 bodies close to Douala's International Airport. Suspicion has fallen on a paramilitary unit set up in June to fight the rising crime, according to the BBC. The mass grave was first found on Friday, in the inhospitable mangroves close to the International Airport of Cameroon's economic capital, Douala. More and more bodies have been uncovered continuously. Cameroonian Government still have not commented on the finding, and accusations against Paul Biya's poor human rights records are mounting. The security forces, including the military forces, remain under the effective control of the President, the civilian Minister of Defense, and the civilian head of police. The security forces are reported to commit numerous serious human rights abuses, according to US human rights agencies, including large numbers of extrajudicial killings. The correspondent of the BBC says there are "unconfirmed reports of people being murdered in the southwest and northwest provinces - the stronghold of Cameroon's main opposition party the Social Democratic Front." It has repeatedly been documented that Cameroonian security forces commit extrajudicial killings. They reportedly were responsible for disappearances, some of which have been politically motivated. However, the Government has prosecuted some of the most egregious offenders. Policemen during the last years have been convicted and sentenced to prison terms for several extrajudicial killings, although the sentence in at least one case was reduced greatly on appeal. The mass grave found outside Douala, however, is of an unheard of dimension, even in Cameroon. In a similar case last year, in the far north province of Maroua, local human rights groups reported about a large but undetermined number of extrajudicial killings perpetrated by a special antigang gendarmerie unit tasked with combating highwaymen. This unit was created under the direct authority of the Minister of Defense and operated outside the normal chain of command for law-and-order units. There were credible reports that several of the victims had been executed summarily. Local groups estimated that between 300 and 800 persons had been killed in Maroua in 1998 and 1999. In Douala, outrage is spreading over the newly found mass grave. The reactions have been channeled by the city's outspoken Bishop, Cardinal Christian Tumi, addressing the "blatant excesses" of the police unit. In an interview he gave to a local newspaper, he alleged that about 500 people had been killed in Douala, in addition to those missing in other provinces. Tumi does not doubt that Government officials are behind these killings.
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