Minister Marafa Hamidou Yaya
An OpEd by Gail Jefferson . . .
As much as the U.S. Friends of Marafa Committee (USFMC) commends Cameroon's President Biya on commuting the prison sentences of some victims of Opération Epervier, our members and supporters are far from appeased. More work remains to be done, and the USFMC will not hesitate to mobilize its grassroots organizations to insist on reasonable progress as well as to combat Cameroon’s acts against humanity that directly affront American taxpayers!
As the first anniversary of
“Marafa Watch” draws near, the U.S. Friends of Marafa Committee (USFMC) was encouraged by news that on February 18, 2014, Cameroon’s President Biya signed a decree commuting the sentences of a number of prisoners.
Marafa Watch is a U.S.-based grassroots movement for international review of the conviction and corresponding imprisonment of Mr. Marafa Hamidou Yaya, former Secretary-General (Chief of Staff) at the Presidency and Minister of Interior for the Republic of Cameroon. Minister Marafa was arrested on April 16, 2012; sentenced to 25 years imprisonment on September 22, 2012 for supposed “intellectual complicity” in the misappropriation of public funds; and subsequently declared a political prisoner by the 2012 U.S. State Department Report on Human Rights practices in Cameroon. Marafa Watch launched on April 16, 2013.
On the eve of the commemoration of the golden jubilee of the reunification of the two Cameroons, formerly under French and British trusteeship respectively, President Biya pardoned former Secretary-General at the Presidency, Titus Edzoa, and the Franco-Cameroonian, Thierry Atangana. Both of these gentlemen have been the subject of sustained international attention and were also recognized as political prisoners in the referenced U.S. State Department report.
While the USFMC commends the Cameroon President for taking steps in the right direction with regard to Edzoa and Atangana, this act of presidential grace falls short of the legitimate expectations of many of Cameroon’s friends in the United States. We note with great regret that another political prisoner, Marafa Hamidou Yaya, whose incarceration has raised eyebrows among many of Cameroon’s external partners, including the United States, is not a beneficiary of this act of
noblesse oblige.
One would have thought that a presidential decree, issued on the eve of festivities marking fifty plus years of living together as one people and one nation, commuting the sentences of persons imprisoned under the much criticized and discredited “Opération Epervier”, would have been the perfect opportunity for Biya to make a bold gesture to his countrymen and the world at large. A gesture that would quiet his critics by demonstrating that Opération Epervier is not what many say it is, i.e., an excuse to eliminate his political rivals, but a genuine and sincere effort to cleanse the Augean stables!
Opération Epervier was reportedly conceived and perceived to be a vehicle for recovering and, if need be, repatriating purloined state funds; the goal being to bring those responsible to justice after a fair, just, and transparent trial. Instead, the campaign veered dangerously off course and apparently became an instrument for capturing and persecuting political opponents. After years of being a rumored political rival of President Biya and his allies, Minister Marafa was arrested as part of Opération Epervier and a scandal dubbed the “BBJ-2 Affair”, less than eight (8) months after America’s Embassy at Yaoundé aligned him in a leaked cable message with our interests in Cameroon’s political future. Surely the U.S. is obliged to press for Marafa’s release and Marafa Watch, the USFMC, and its delegation of NGOs are an outgrowth of that obligation.
The U.S.A. and Cameroon have enjoyed strong and fruitful ties throughout the fifty-three years of Cameroon’s modern political history. As with all such relations between and among States in the international community, those that link Cameroon to the United States are also founded on the enduring principles of comity and mutual respect. Under the umbrella of Marafa Watch is the USFMC and the “USA-based NGOs for the Freedom of Minister Marafa Hamidou Yaya” connecting tens of thousands of grassroots citizen-activists whose tax dollars help sustain the long-standing bilateral ties between the U.S. and the Government and people of Cameroon. Our Constitution empowers us to monitor the foreign relations of our Government and to take citizen-action through letters and appeals to our congressional representatives to ensure that relations with our external partners, like Cameroon, do not betray the fundamental values on which American democracy is built.
Lest it be remiss, the USFMC must emphasize positions taken by the Government of Cameroon in connection with this Opération Epervier that appear to our members and supporters, ordinary American citizens, as undermining the foundation of comity and mutual respect between the U.S. and Cameroon. Speaking and acting for their government, high ranking Cameroon officials (including a voluble minister of communications) have denigrated the Voice of America. They have disregarded judgments of American federal courts, especially a 2006 Settlement Agreement issued by the Federal Bankruptcy Court in Oregon, that should have put to rest the whole BBJ-2 Affair ostensibly prompting Marafa’s imprisonment.
With bellicose language, Cameroonian authorities dismissed offhand the U.S. State Department’s 2012 human rights reports -- built on a universally acknowledged tradition of fairness and impartiality -- because it dared to designate Marafa as a political prisoner. As much as the USFMC commends President Biya on commuting the prison sentences of some victims of Opération Epervier, our members and supporters are far from appeased. More work remains to be done, and the USFMC will not hesitate to mobilize its grassroots organizations to insist on reasonable progress as well as to combat Cameroon’s acts against humanity that directly affront American taxpayers!
USFMC reiterates its previous recommendation to President Biya to declare a moratorium on
Opération Epervier, release
all of Cameroon’s political prisoners, and return to the drawing board by appointing an impartial Blue-Ribbon Commission to conduct a thorough review of
Opération Epervier and make recommendations. Another good take-off point would be for President Biya to start enforcing Article 66 of his own Constitution which requires all high-ranking officials (all of whom are appointed by President Biya) to declare their assets before and after service. Mind you, Minister Marafa is languishing in prison for the misappropriation of more than $30 million dollars that prosecutors never once traced to his personal assets. What a travesty!
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Gail Jefferson served as Human Interest Correspondent, International Affairs Analyst, and Investigative Reporter for The Oregon-Cameroon Connection and is now a coordinator for the U.S. Friends of Marafa Committee (USFMC). NGOs under The Law Project umbrella are part of the “USA-based NGOs for the Freedom of Minister Marafa Hamidou Yaya”.