URGENT
MEMORANDUM
To: Mr. Zang III,
The
Senior Divisional Officer for Fako
Limbe, Fako Division
South West Region
Cameroon
Cc: -Mr. Ngoni Njie
The General Manager
Cameroon Development Corporation
Bota, Limbe
South West Region, Cameroon
From: Barrister Mbella
Ikomi Ngongi, Esq.
Date Thursday, June 6, 2013
Subject: Land Surrender by CDC to the indigenes of
Fako: The Obligation and Challenges
of Preserving Fako Ancestral Lands for Fako Indigenes and Posterity
Introduction:
This
morning, we heard over the news on CRTV Radio, Buea, your announcement inviting
many chiefs of Fako Division to a meeting at the Limbe Council Hall at 10 AM
tomorrow, Friday June 07, 2013, to discuss issues relating to lands surrender
in Fako Division, by the Cameroon Development Corporation (CDC), your
administrative jurisdiction. Having
heard some of your recent public pronouncements and admonitions regarding the
reckless and illegal sale of Fako lands by some Fako chiefs, we think this
meeting is very appropriate and timely; maybe long overdue, but welcome and
much appreciated.
The
Problem and Context
Today the peoples of Fako are faced with the
challenges of the overwhelming influx of economic migrants, who pose a considerable
threat to their very survival as minorities in their own ancestral lands. Coupled with this is the reckless and illegal sale by FAKO chiefs of
indigenous lands surrendered by CDC. The obvious absence of any strategy by the people of Fako who are faced
with this very serious and increasingly intractable problem, is evidenced by
the way they are increasingly marginalized in the management of the affairs of
the Division - politically, economically, socially, and, to a certain extent, even culturally.
The
Government of Cameroon has an obligation to protect the indigenes of FAKO who
are the innocent victims of this reckless and illegal disposition of their
ancestral lands by some irresponsible chiefs.
This task, at the Divisional level, lies on your shoulders as the Senior
Divisional Officer of Fako. Your recent
public statements decrying the practices of the illegal sale of Fako land by some
Fako chiefs bolsters our efforts to redress this problem with the urgency it
demands. Your concerns are legitimate and we applaud you for the efforts you
manifest in this regard to the benefit of the many hapless indigenes of Fako
Division.
International
Law, to which Cameroon law is subject, addresses the critical issue of protecting
national and ethnic minorities all over the world.
The United Nations Declaration on the
Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic
Minorities, adopted by the General Assembly Resolution 47/135 of 18 December
1992, takes cognizance of this responsibility that States have towards
their minority populations and exhorts Governments to take all appropriate
measures, under the law, to guarantee their protection. The situation in Fako today, where the
reckless and illegal disposal of indigenous lands by some Fako chiefs, with the
complicity of some government officials, occurs on a daily basis, calls for URGENT
and DECISIVE actions, on the part of Government, the Judiciary and Civil
Society – actions that would put an immediate stop to this continuing and
insensitive abuse and criminality.
The loss of Fako ancestral lands through this
reckless and illegal sales and acquisition, or even theft, by some chiefs and
government officials, seriously threatens and undermines the identity and very
existence of the people of Fako.
Article
1 of the United Nations Declaration states, inter
alia:
1. States shall protect the existence and the national or
ethnic, cultural, religious and linguistic identity of minorities within their
respective territories and shall encourage conditions for the promotion of that
identity.
2. States shall adopt appropriate legislative and other measures to
achieve those ends.
Article 2 states, inter alia:
2. Persons belonging to minorities have the right to participate
effectively in cultural, religious, social, economic and public life.
With the clear intention of ensuring that no recriminations are wrought on minorities who seek to assert their rights to protection under the law, the Declaration further states:
Articles 3:
No disadvantage shall result for any person belonging to a minority
as the consequence of the exercise or non-exercise of the rights set forth in
the present Declaration.
Article
4:
1. States shall take measures, where required,
to ensure that persons belonging to minorities may exercise fully and effectively all their human rights and fundamental
freedoms without any discrimination and in full equality before the law.
The principles and rights set forth in this United Nations Declaration on
the Protection of Minorities are the offshoot, in spirit and letter, of those
embodied in The United Nations Charter (1945), The Universal Declaration of
Human Rights (1948) and The International Covenant on Economic, Social and
Cultural Rights (1976), all of which the State of Cameroon is signatory
to. By virtue of these international
instruments to which Cameroon is signatory to, and their principles which the
State has made a commitment to honor, the Government of Cameroon has an
obligation - a duty - to ensure that the peoples of Fako are not robbed of
their cultural, social and economic heritages, which underlie their fundamental
human rights and freedoms.
When a people are deprived of their very fundamental source
of livelihood, nay, existence, - their land - they cannot, under any
circumstance, effectively participate in the economic, social, cultural,
religious or public life in their country. The indigenous peoples of Fako face
the real and present danger of suffering this fate if the current surrender of
ancestral lands by the Cameroon Development Corporation (CDC) continues in the haphazard,
uncontrolled, maybe opaque, manner, style, and speed in which it has been done in
the past and until today. In furtherance of our fervent desire to ensure the protection, enhancement and sustainability of the fundamental human rights and freedoms of the peoples of Fako, we are, hereby, proposing a change in the current and past practices of land surrender by Cameroon Development Corporation (CDC) to Fako indigenes.
This memorandum is the first of a series we will submit for your appraisal and action.
We, as a Think Tank Group, propose strategies and
practical steps for the people of Fako, and even other parts of the country, faced with
the challenges of economic
migration, especially in cases where the indigenes, or their chiefs, have cultivated the negative practice of recklessly and illegally selling
their ancestral lands
to the detriment of their own indigenes and posterity.
This practice is unsustainable and untenable because it deprives the people of Fako from
their most important capital for development – land- which, in turn, is already, now, producing a vicious cycle of poverty, disenchantment, despondency and dependency in many of our
village and urban communities, with the most vulnerable being our youths, the
future of this Division, this country. It negates the legitimate aspirations of any
peoples to preserve their culture and promote their legitimate economic and cultural aspirations
for posterity.
CDC Land Surrender in Fako and the Dangers it Poses:
The Cameroon Development Corporation, CDC, has for several years now embarked,
together with the assistance of the Senior Divisional Officer and the Fako Division
Department of Lands, on a program of surrendering Fako lands occupied by the CDC in the form of
plantations, to many villages, which have applied to them for the surrender of parcels of land for their apparent use. Many of the villagers in these villages to
which lands have been surrendered by CDC do not own one square meter of land in
the “surrendered” lay-outs. An exhaustive list of such land surrender is in the offices of the Senior
Divisional Officer and should be published.
During our visits
to some of these villages, and in discussions with some of their Chiefs and
notables, the following troubling facts have emerged:
1.
For
several years now, CDC has been ceding considerable amounts of land (average of
over 70 hectares each) to village populations that vary from 10 to 5,000 people.
2.
Most
of these villages, which we have visited and with whose Chiefs and occupants we
have talked, do NOT have the 1.5 million francs CFA (or more) that CDC is
asking as the fee for the cession of the lands.
In addition to the 1.5 million francs cession fee, an additional 1.5
million francs, or more, are needed to pay for the purchase and implantation survey
pillars, labor etc. Therefore, a minimum of about 3 (three) million francs is
needed, on average, for each village to accede to the surrendered lands.
3.
CDC
is putting considerable pressure on the villages to come up with the money
immediately, or else they would lose the opportunity to obtain the said lands. They (CDC) have made this land cession time-sensitive.
This poses a serious problem since most of these villages are not ready,
financially, psychologically, managerially, or otherwise to receive and wisely
and effectively use and manage these lands.
4.
Because
of this pressure and because most of these Chiefs/villages do NOT have the requisite
sum of money to pay to CDC, several of them have resorted to the dangerous
option of illegally “selling” parcels of
“promised” lands, in ADVANCE, to those who would give them the money, in order for
them to pay CDC. This is the case with
many chiefs and villages in Fako Division.
5.
There
is great danger in this practice. Most
of the lands ceded by CDC have invariably ended up in the hands of non
villagers, and not to the rightful and legal owners - the indigenes for whom
the land surrender was meant and from whom the invading and occupying Germans
illegally took away the lands. This has completely
negated the raison d’etre for the
land surrender by CDC to the ethnic and indigenous, minority peoples of Fako.
6.
In
our many focus group meetings held with some village members, notables and
chiefs, there seemed to be a general agreement on the proposal we made to them
for the need to have a credible and realistic management plan for the lands that
are being surrendered by CDC. However,
knowing the level of material and spiritual poverty of some of these people,
there is a slim chance that they will wait for the process-driven management
plan to be set up before they completely divest themselves of the land by way of
cheap, ridiculous, sales to whoever brings ready cash to them. Time has proven us right. Most of the lands
ceded by CDC are NOT in the possession and control of the intended recipients.
Rather, they are in the contentious “ownership” of non- intended third parties.
In the
light of the foregoing, we respectfully submit to you, for your urgent action,
the following proposal as a means of addressing this problem from a short,
medium and long-term perspective:
OPTION A:
i.
Immediately
order a freeze on all CDC lands
surrender to any Fako villages UNTIL a clear and unambiguous understanding is
reached by ALL Fako Elites and Villages/Chiefs on the generally accepted principles
by which these lands will be held in trust by the chiefs or elected or selected
committees, to be properly managed, when surrendered, in the interest of the
village communities. These principles
will be in keeping with a desire to protect these ancestral lands - not to sell
them - and to ensure that they will be passed on to posterity.
ii.
Set
up a Fako Strategic Land Management Committee
(FSLMC) to work directly with CDC, the SDO, the Lands Dept and all Fako villages
to establish viable development management plans for the lands earmarked for
surrender and also to establish a viable plan for any future land surrender by
CDC in order to ensure proper protection for the minority indigenes of the
respective villages and for posterity.
iii.
Sign commitment/engagement
agreements with
each village/chief embodying the principles of no-sale and proper, sustainable,
management of these lands. Any violation of the terms of this agreement shall result
in the immediate revocation and annulations of the lands surrendered and a
return of the said land to CDC for safe-keeping and use.
iv.
No
lands shall be ceded by CDC to any village that does not submit a 25 to 50 -
year development management plan, accompanied by a visaed agreement by The Senior
Divisional Officer, along with credible Stakeholders from Civil Society of Fako
Division origin, or any other designated entity, certifying the embodiment of
the principles set forth.
OPTION B:
i.
Immediately
set up a Fako Land Trust Fund with at least 1 (one) billion francs CFA of
Cameroon Government money, designated for the development projects of Fako
Division. Set up a management process
for this trust fund, whose membership/contributions should be extended to all Fako
elites and indigenes.
ii.
Use
the funds from this trust fund to support villages with the acquisition of the
ceded lands and support the creation and implementation of viable, short,
medium and long-term, development and management programs for all Fako villages,
with special emphasis on youth training and employment in rural communities to
prevent or stem rural exodus..
We remain
at your disposal to help in clarifying the proposals made here and in
actualizing strategies to protect the human rights and fundamental freedoms of
the many, innocent, peace-loving but deprived indigenes of Fako. We seek to work with you in the furtherance
of your objectives that has led you to calling and holding this meeting with
the chiefs of Fako, in Limbe tomorrow, June 07, 2013.
Respectfully yours.