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afrol.com, 24 November - "Torture still seems to be widely practised" in Cameroon, was the conclusion of the UN Committee against Torture, reviewing the human rights situation in the country. It especially asked the government to "consider dismantling special forces created to combat banditry," as these units have been accused of extra-judicial executions of hundreds of people. The UN Committee against Torture issued its conclusions and recommendations on torture in Cameroon yesterday afternoon. The Committee strongly recommended "that Cameroon carry out energetic investigations into all allegations of human-rights violations," which have been accumulating over the last years. The Committee cited among its main matters of concern the "numerous human-rights violations attributed to the action of two special corps, the operational command and the intervention group of the national gendarmerie (GIGN)." In a well documented case in the city of Maroua in Northern Cameroon, a large but undetermined number of extra-judicial killings have been perpetrated by a special antigang gendarmerie unit tasked with combating highwaymen. Local groups estimate that between 300 and 800 persons had been killed in Maroua in 1998 and 1999. In a similar, more recent case, mass graves were found outside Cameroon's biggest city Douala earlier this month. They most likely cover the remains of victims of on a paramilitary unit set up in June to fight the rising crime. There are up to 500 people missing in Douala alone, and there is fear that these will be found in the mass graves. This para-military unit has been created under the direct authority of the Minister of Defense and operate outside the normal chain of command for law-and-order units. Further, the Committee recommended that Cameroon "carry out energetically investigations already begun into allegations of human-rights violations, and, in cases not yet investigated, that it begin immediate, impartial investigations and inform the Committee of their results." It should also introduce in its legislation "provisions prohibiting the use in court of any information or confession obtained through the use of torture." Specially addressing the well documented problems of torture and violence in state prisons, the Committee also recommended that Cameroon should "consider transferring control of the administration of prisons from the Ministry of the Interior to the Ministry of Justice." Francois-Xavier Ngoubeyou, Permanent Representative of Cameroon to the UN Office at Geneva, said his Government considered the Committee's conclusions "to be quite balanced, although certain points indicated the Government needed to make additional efforts," and it wondered if these were absolutely essential. Cameroonian President Paul Biya, effectively halting the country's democratisation process, claims to be highly dedicated to human rights issues. That is to say, he prefers a re-definition of what are the most important human rights. Speaking in international forums, he emphasizes on the "right to development" having primacy to other human rights. At the UN Millennium Summit, Biya was quoted asking "How can we speak of human rights without the right to development?" Parallel statements were made by the Cameroonian Government to the Committee against Torture, which firmly replied that "no exceptional circumstances could be used to justify torture."
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