Ben Muna lambast, accuses Gov’t of cultural genocide on Southern Cameroonians

The erstwhile President of the Cameroon Bar Council, Barrister Ben Muna, has accused the Biya Government of cultural genocide on Southern Cameroonians.

The legal luminary made the accusations in Yaoundé, May 19, while addressing executives of an international watchdog association called International Crisis Group.

The group, which is on a fact-finding mission in Cameroon bordering on the on-going Anglophone Crisis, paid a curtsey visit to the Barrister’s office.

Citing article 2 of the Geneva Convention, the former National Chairman of the Alliance of Progressive Forces (APF) asserted that the former British Southern Cameroons and French Cameroons voluntarily came together on an equal basis, and that repeated attempts to assimilate Southern Cameroonians is tantamount to cultural genocide.

The lead Counsel for the detained executives of the outlawed Anglophone Civil Society Consortium said the on-going Anglophone Crisis has been triggered by pent-up resentments of decades of marginalisation, poor governance, corruption, nepotism and tribalism.

Barrister Ben Muna told Dr. Richard Moncrieff, Hans de Marie Haungoup, who led the Crisis Group to Cameroon that the Anglophone Crisis remains a potential danger because young Southern Cameroonians, who have never experienced war may lose patience and become cantankerous.

To the politician, the fragile peace which Cameroon enjoys today is thanks to the level-headed and ever patriotic Southern Cameroonians, who have, for close to five decades, refused to pick up arms against a Francophone-dominated Government.

According to him, this non-violence stand taken by the Anglophones was to avoid the gory and bitter experience they led during the 1960s UPC upheavals against the Ahidjo regime.

The human rights advocate prescribed genuine and inclusive dialogue as the only way to get Cameroon out of the current crisis.

“Violence will not help anybody, but will further plunge the country into chaos,” Muna averred.

Dr. Richard Moncrieff and Hans de Marie Haungoup will continue their findings, after which, they will write and present a report to international human rights bodies about the Anglophone Crisis in Cameroon.