By Kini Nsom
The excitement that gripped many Cameroonians when government announced that the new Criminal Procedure Code would be applicable as from August 1, died down June 30, when Parliament adopted a bill carrying forward the application of that law to January 1, 2007.
The bill that government tabled last week, barely one day to the end of the June Parliamentary session, indicated that government needs more time to sensitise stakeholders on the new law.
The harmonised Criminal Procedure Code was promulgated into law in July 27, 2005.
Given that the harmonisation of the law was hinged on the Common Law principle of habeas corpus, many Cameroonians were happy that the arbitrary arrests and detention practised by some members of the security forces was going to end on August 1.
The code upholds the principle that any accused person can only be considered guilty if it has been proven so by a competent court of law. That is why many Cameroonians see the postponement of the application of this law, as a disappointment.
Reacting to the issue, Hon. Paulinus Jua expressed disappointment that the application of such an important law was made to suffer undue delay.On the other hand, Hon. Paul Abine Ayah who qualified the code as a revolution welcomes the postponement.
According to him, the new law has new elements, which Anglophones of the Common Law origin and Francophones of the Civil Law culture are yet to master. Hon. Ayah argued that the people who need to be sensitised and schooled on the new Criminal Procedure Code are ordinary Cameroonians and not jurists, magistrates or judicial police officers.
He said legal practitioners have the capacity to read the law and fully understand it while ordinary Cameroonians do not have to. While adapting the law in June 2005, MPs recommended that government should organise a series of workshops in order to get Cameroonians acquainted with the new elements of the harmonised code.
Hon. Ayah, a magistrate by training, took great exception to the fact that the series of seminars the Vice Prime Minister in charge of Justice and Keeper of the Seals, Amadou Ali, was not meant for ordinary Cameroonians.
"The people who need to be sensitised on the law are ordinary people. They should be able to know what to do in a situation where there is no lawyer," the MP argued.
The just ended Parliamentary session that adopted five bills witnessed a dramatic scene in which the main parliamentary opposition, the SDF MPs, walked out of the Constitutional Laws Committee.
The SDF duo, Hon. Joseph Mbah Ndam and Hon. Emmanuel Yoyo quit the committee, arguing that government had surreptitiously amended some provisions of the two bills bordering on the organisation of senatorial and regional council elections.
According to these two, there was an insinuation in the amendments that was interpreted to mean that the management of elections will still remain in the hands of the Ministry of Territorial Administration and Decentralisation, at a time when Cameroonians are expecting an independent electoral commission.
But CPDM MPs scorned this point of view, accusing their SDF colleagues of staging a senseless drama and playing to the gallery. Going by Hon. Ayah, the SDF walkout could only be justified as a political action.
"I think those who walk out might have done so on political grounds, not on parliamentary grounds, much less legal grounds. What they said was completely outside the bill that was under examination," Ayah said. Yet, the SDF boycotted the adoption of the new bill and walked out of the hemicycle last week.
The bill on the amendment of the 1990 law on social communication that resurfaced during this session remained in the coffers of the National Assembly, and was not discussed.The draft bill the Communication Minister had earlier tabled during the March session was heavily criticised as a jinx to press freedom.
The draft law provides that the Minister of Communication has the right to ban a journalist from practising, if he or she is found guilty of violating professional ethics.
Following the avalanche of criticism on the bill, The Post learnt, President Paul Biya once more ordered for its withdrawal.
Some two bills the government equally tabled during this session, bordered on the creation of the administrative courts and the decentralisation of the audit bench of the Supreme Court. These were not scrutinised.Speculations about the tabling of the bill on the creation of an independent electoral commission came to naught.
But given the pressure from the international community, The Post learnt, government is contemplating convening an extraordinary session of Parliament to table a bill on the creation of an independent electoral body.
I am particular dissappointed that the much celebrated harmonised criminal procudure code will only be implemented come january 2007.
This is a clear message to the international community that The Biyas government operates a state with impunity and no respect for international human rights conventions ratified.A glipse of Cameroons human rights records as published annually by the US state Department,Amnesty International tells the entire story of genocide perpetrated by the cameroonian government.Torture has been institutionalzed as the case in which police inspector Ngu Stephen burnt Afuh Bernard Weriwo to death a bicycle thief suspect in Kumba and government shamelessly told the Human Rights Council that police inspector Ngu Stephen was setenced to only five years,.Again now assistant commissioner of police in Limbe Nkengasong Henry who tortured more for writing about his corrupt practices,extortion and torture of Nigerian aliens in Ekondo Titi enjoys immunity for impunity but I have filed a suit at the UN Human Rights Committe against the state of cameroon for redress.See the extra-judicial killings of two students in the university
of Buea,government keeps a sealed lips and no body talks about the rule of law on the issue.
My humble advise is that cameroonians who are torture victims should keep good records of their ordeals so that they file their cases to UN Human Rights Council where cameroon is a member and not look unto the new criminal procedure code as salvation for impunity.What can one expect from a head of state who has never won elections?
A head of state who fosters slavery like the NEO monitors who observed his rigged electioons in 2004 and until date have not been paid?
I would advise justice minister Mr.Amadou Ali to resign with the entire government.
The code is not needed in cameroon,simply implement international human rights conventions ratified such as UN Convention Against Torture etc. stop fooling yourselves.
Shame,shame ,shame.
NJARU PHILIP
TORTURE VICTIM.
HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDER
Posted by: NJARU PHILIP | Friday, 07 July 2006 at 01:42 PM
french cameroun must be contented with its laws just gabon,congo,chad ivory coast etc. there no good for trying to blind fold the
international community ,by juxtaposing french jurisprudence with anglosaxon common law.that southern cameroons practise, for its just doing work ,water and oil never mix
Posted by: dango tumma | Saturday, 08 July 2006 at 12:15 AM