An Op-ed by Zena Crenshaw-Logal, Esq.*
The plight of political prisoners likely seems insignificant when compared to the impact and continuing threat of Islamic extremists. Yet imagine becoming persona non grata; a citizen wrongfully imprisoned, doomed to watch your oppressors command fights for justice, liberation, and peace. Your life stands still while the world and nauseating charades continue.
The U.S. Friends of Marafa Committee (USFMC) is an association of American taxpayers who are personal allies of former Secretary-General at the Presidency of Cameroon, Mr. Marafa Hamidou Yaya. The committee is an outgrowth of Marafa Watch.
True, life and government go on. Our members and supporters desire nothing less than a swift, effective response by the Republic of Cameroon when the headline is “Boko Haram Shoot, Burn To Death Dozens Of Civilians In Cameroon”. But we seethe as essentially the same rationale for U.S. efforts to free Marafa Hamidou Yaya is summoned by Cameroon's Information Minister Issa Tchiroma Bakary to justify international force against Boko Haram.
Reportedly officials from the United States, France, Russia, Britain, the European Union, and the U.N. peacekeeping department were present last week in Yaoundé, Cameroon when Tchiroma explained, “(w)e consider Boko Haram to be a cancer, and if the international community does not focus its mind on this disease it will spread not only in Central Africa but other regions, all over the continent”. Is that not true of the instability attendant to Cameroon’s President Biya making a political prisoner of Marafa to dash his rise as a successor to the presidency?
“Avid Marafa supporters need only realize that world stability, peace, and development are the cost of idly watching prospective agents of positive, global change linger in prison based on specious criminal charges and convictions.” It is nearly a year since that point was made in an Op-ed by Dr. Andrew D. Jackson, a coordinator for the U.S. Friends of Marafa Committee (USFMC). Dr. Jackson’s article references the 2012 and 2013 U.S. State Department reports on human rights practices in Cameroon. Both prestigious reports deem Marafa a political prisoner, and the latter notes he “remain(s) in detention.”
How appropriate, but ironic is Tchiroma's referenced appeal to U.S. leaders among others when this time last year, “(s)peaking and acting for their government, high ranking Cameroon officials (including a voluble minister of communications) . . . denigrated the Voice of America.” Such was the report in February 2014 of Gail Jefferson, another USFMC coordinator. Her corresponding Op-ed appeals in vain for an end to President Biya’s “acts against humanity” including the continued imprisonment of Marafa, former Secretary-General at the Presidency of Cameroon. Marafa remains in prison as Biya wages war against barbarianism only less subtle than the terrorism he regularly sanctions as Cameroon’s Head of State.
The plight of political prisoners likely seems insignificant when compared to the impact and continuing threat of Islamic extremists. Yet imagine becoming persona non grata; a citizen wrongfully imprisoned, doomed to watch your oppressors command fights for justice, liberation, and peace. Your life stands still while the world and nauseating charades continue.
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Attorney Zena Crenshaw-Logal* is a 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”.
*Bar admissions limited to the 7th Cir. C.O.A.