GCI interns arbitrarily detained
Kumba, August 24, 2009
Two of Global Conscience’s International interns August 24 suffered over six hours of detention on the orders of the Senior Divisional Officer for Meme before released without any charges. Their camera memory card is however withheld by authorities of the territorial surveillance police in Kumba.
Brendan Fletcher and Barbara Schuler were arrested at the premises of the SDO’s office as the witnessed a strike action by redundant defunct National Produce Marketing Board workers agitating against the non payment of their redundancy dues government recently announced had been disbursed.
Brendan and Barbara were accosted by the SDO’s police aide as the took photographs of the demonstrators from within the premises of the SDO’s office and they deleted the pictures from their camera. The aide however took the interns to the SDO who invited the territorial surveillance authorities to take them away.
No statements were recorded from the interns at the police station but the officer retained the memory card of the Camera. They asked the interns to go home and come back the next day.
When Brendan asked what his offense was, one of the arresting officers simply replied that he could communicate with their bosses and the administrative hierarchy and Global Conscience will be closed.
Brendan has made a complaint to the legal department in Kumba illegal detention and retention of property.
GCI’s Chief Executive Officer, who drove into Kumba from Buea upon hearing about the arrests, said GCI is disturbed with the harassment of its staff/interns as this jeopardizes the human rights protection mandate of the organisation.
“Cameroon is a state of law and GCI respects all the laws in Cameroon and constituted authority”, said the human rights activist. “If our interns have committed an offense then we would like for due process of law to be applied so that their treatment is not seen as arbitrary”.
GCI is however consulting with key administrative authorities to ensure that the situation is corrected as soon as possible.
