[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 154 (Tuesday, September 8, 2020)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5446-S5448]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         SUBMITTED RESOLUTIONS

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   SENATE RESOLUTION 684--CALLING ON THE GOVERNMENT OF CAMEROON AND 
    SEPARATIST ARMED GROUPS FROM THE ENGLISH-SPEAKING NORTHWEST AND 
SOUTHWEST REGIONS TO END ALL VIOLENCE, RESPECT THE HUMAN RIGHTS OF ALL 
    CAMEROONIANS, AND PURSUE A GENUINELY INCLUSIVE DIALOGUE TOWARD 
      RESOLVING THE ONGOING CIVIL CONFLICT IN ANGLOPHONE CAMEROON

  Mr. RISCH (for himself, Mr. Cardin, Mr. Young, Mr. Lankford, Mr. 
Rubio, Mr. Markey, Mr. Coons, Mr. Van Hollen, Ms. Baldwin, Mr. Durbin, 
Mr. Warner, Mr. Merkley, and Mr. Kaine) submitted the following 
resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations:

                              S. Res. 684

       Whereas Cameroon is beset with multiple security 
     challenges, including a Boko Haram insurgency in the Far 
     North region, cross-border conflict and criminality by 
     Central African militia groups to the east, and a civil war 
     involving the Government of Cameroon and Anglophone 
     separatist armed groups in the Northwest and Southwest 
     regions;
       Whereas the official actions and policies of the 
     Francophone-dominated Government of Cameroon have repressed 
     English-speaking Cameroonians politically and economically 
     throughout the history of Cameroon, dating back to the 
     reunification of British-administered Southern Cameroons and 
     French Cameroun under a federal system in October 1961;
       Whereas Paul Biya, the oldest head of state in Africa, has 
     been the President of Cameroon since 1982, maintaining his 
     grip on power by centralizing authority in the executive, 
     undermining the Constitution of Cameroon, impeding democratic 
     governance through corrupt practices, using security services 
     to repress the opposition, and conducting elections marred by 
     widespread irregularities and allegations of fraud;
       Whereas key decentralization reforms enacted in the 
     Constitution of Cameroon in 1996, which mandated the 
     establishment of a decentralized unitary state, ``equality of 
     all citizens before the law'', the equal status of French and 
     English as official languages, and the establishment of local 
     authorities with ``administrative and financial autonomy'', 
     remain largely unrealized, though an enabling law was adopted 
     in December 2019;
       Whereas, throughout his tenure, President Biya has spent 
     extended periods in Europe, pursued government policies 
     exclusively benefitting the Francophone majority in Cameroon, 
     and crippled many parastatals and private enterprises in the 
     Northwest and Southwest regions, further marginalizing 
     English-speaking Cameroonians;
       Whereas, in October 2016, English-speaking lawyers, 
     students, and teachers in the Northwest and Southwest regions 
     of Cameroon took to the streets to peacefully protest 
     marginalization of English-speaking Cameroonians by the 
     Government of Cameroon in the legal and education systems, as 
     exemplified by the appointment of French-speaking judges and 
     teachers in the Northwest and Southwest regions and the 
     publishing of important legislation solely in the French 
     language;
       Whereas those peaceful protests by English-speaking 
     lawyers, students, and teachers were met with excessive force 
     by the police and gendarmerie of Cameroon, which led to gross 
     human rights violations, the arrest of lawyers, teachers, and 
     Anglophone civic leaders, and their detention in the 
     notorious Kondengui prison in Yaounde;
       Whereas, amid broader protests across the Northwest and 
     Southwest regions demanding greater autonomy from the central 
     government of Cameroon, on October 1, 2017, the 56th 
     anniversary of the end of British trusteeship over Southern 
     Cameroons, the Anglophone crisis escalated as separatist 
     armed groups declared independence from Cameroon;
       Whereas, in late 2017, Anglophone separatist armed groups 
     escalated attacks, targeting government officials and 
     facilities as well as civilians and traditional leaders seen

[[Page S5447]]

     as sympathetic to the Government of Cameroon and brutally 
     enforcing ``ghost town operations'' (general strikes) and 
     school boycotts in the Northwest and Southwest regions;
       Whereas lengthy government-imposed shutdowns of the 
     internet and social media in the Northwest and Southwest 
     regions, totaling 240 days between 2017 and 2018, had a 
     devastating impact on the economies and educational 
     institutions in the regions, undermined freedom of 
     expression, prevented the free flow of information related to 
     the conflict, and restricted the ability of local communities 
     to interact and communicate;
       Whereas the conflict in the Northwest and Southwest regions 
     of Cameroon has caused considerable instability and human 
     suffering, with more than 3,000 deaths linked to the 
     conflict, and according to United Nations agencies, 
     approximately 3,000,000 people are in need of humanitarian 
     assistance, approximately 60,000 Cameroonian refugees have 
     fled to Nigeria, and approximately 700,000 persons are 
     internally displaced;
       Whereas the Department of State 2019 Country Report on 
     Human Rights Practices for Cameroon cited ``significant'' 
     human rights abuses by security forces and separatist armed 
     groups in Cameroon, including unlawful or arbitrary killings, 
     forced disappearances, torture, arbitrary detention, 
     repression of fundamental rights, and violence against women 
     and children;
       Whereas the United Nations Children's Fund estimates that 
     more than 855,000 children are out of school due to the 
     conflict, and the Department of State added Cameroon to the 
     Child Soldiers Prevention Act List in the 2020 Trafficking in 
     Persons Report as a foreign government ``identified during 
     the previous year as having governmental armed forces, 
     police, or other security forces, or government-supported 
     armed groups that recruit or use child soldiers'';
       Whereas United States citizen Charles Wesco was shot and 
     killed near the town of Bamenda, Cameroon, on October 30, 
     2018, and, in November 2018, the Department of State stated, 
     ``In memory of American missionary Charles Wesco and all 
     others who have lost their lives in the Anglophone Crisis, we 
     urge all sides to end the violence and enter into broad-based 
     reconciliatory dialogue without preconditions.'';
       Whereas, in June 2019, the Government of Switzerland 
     announced that, together with the Centre for Humanitarian 
     Dialogue, it was facilitating a dialogue between the 
     Government of Cameroon and armed opposition groups to support 
     a resolution of the Anglophone crisis;
       Whereas, in September 2019, President Biya hastily 
     announced a Major National Dialogue, chaired by Prime 
     Minister Ngute from September 30 to October 4, 2019, in 
     Yaounde, ``to examine the ways and means to respond to the 
     deeply-held aspirations of the populations in the Northwest 
     and Southwest'';
       Whereas, though the Major National Dialogue led to some 
     concessions by the Government of Cameroon on broader 
     democratization issues, including the release of some 
     political prisoners, including the leader of the Cameroon 
     Renaissance Movement, Maurice Kamto, and some of his 
     associates after nine months of detention, attempts at 
     conflict resolution have failed to bring all parties to the 
     table, as high levels of deaths, brutality, and suffering 
     continue;
       Whereas national and international outrage followed the 
     massacre of at least 23 people, including 15 children and 2 
     pregnant women, by government security forces and allied 
     militia on February 14, 2020, in Ngarbuh, Donga Mantung 
     division, in the Northwest region, and a commission of 
     inquiry established by Cameroonian authorities ultimately led 
     to the arrest and charging of 3 soldiers for murder;
       Whereas, on June 5, 2020, amidst increasing concern over 
     attacks on freedom of the press and detention of journalists 
     on politically motivated charges in recent years, Cameroon 
     authorities confirmed that an Anglophone journalist covering 
     the conflict, Samuel Ajiekah Abuwe, known as Wazizi, who was 
     arrested in August 2019 and transferred to a military 
     facility, died in custody shortly after his arrest, an 
     acknowledgment that led to widespread condemnation and calls 
     for an independent inquiry;
       Whereas the Rapid Intervention Battalion (BIR) of the 
     Government of Cameroon, which has been accused of torture and 
     extrajudicial killings and implicated in massacres like that 
     of February 14, 2020, has received training and support from 
     the United States, potentially in contravention of legal 
     requirements that ``no assistance shall be furnished . . . to 
     any unit of the security forces of a foreign country if the 
     Secretary of State has credible information that such unit 
     has committed a gross violation of human rights'';
       Whereas, in February 2019, the Department of State 
     announced that it would withhold some security assistance to 
     Cameroon, including equipment and training, citing credible 
     allegations of human rights violations by state security 
     forces and a lack of investigation, accountability, and 
     transparency by the Government of Cameroon in response;
       Whereas, on December 26, 2019, the United States terminated 
     the designation of Cameroon as a beneficiary under the 
     African Growth and Opportunity Act (19 U.S.C. 3701 et seq.) 
     because ``the Government of Cameroon currently engages in 
     gross violations of internationally recognized human 
     rights'';
       Whereas a European Parliament resolution, passed on April 
     18, 2019, urged inclusive political dialogue to resolve the 
     Anglophone crisis, called for the conflict to be considered 
     by the United Nations Security Council, and urged the 
     European Union to ``use the political leverage provided by 
     development aid and other bilateral programmes to enhance the 
     defense of human rights in Cameroon'';
       Whereas France maintains considerable interests in 
     Cameroon, including significant economic and security 
     cooperation, but has not adequately used its influence to 
     stem atrocities committed in the Anglophone regions or 
     support stronger international action to seek resolution to 
     the conflict;
       Whereas the United Nations Resident and Humanitarian 
     Coordinator for Cameroon stated on January 24, 2019, that 
     ``Cameroon can no longer be a forgotten crisis; it needs to 
     be high on our agenda'', and, on June 22, 2020, a group of 
     former world leaders and 5 Nobel Peace Laureates called on 
     the United Nations Security Council and the United Nations 
     Secretary-General, the African Union, the Commonwealth of 
     Nations, and La Francophonie to ``ensure that Cameroon's 
     Anglophone conflict is on the agenda of the forthcoming UN 
     Security Council meeting and all UNOCA sessions before the 
     UNSC'';
       Whereas, on May 13, 2019, an Arria-formula meeting on the 
     humanitarian crisis in Cameroon was held for the United 
     Nations Security Council, but a formal meeting on the 
     situation in Cameroon has not yet been placed on the United 
     Nations Security Council agenda;
       Whereas, on July 1, 2020, in Resolution 2532 (2020), the 
     United Nations Security Council unanimously underlined its 
     support of the appeal of the United Nations Secretary-General 
     for a global ceasefire in all conflicts as the world battles 
     the COVID-19 pandemic; and
       Whereas there is a significant Cameroonian diaspora in the 
     United States, and Cameroon is a longstanding security 
     partner and aid recipient of the United States, participating 
     in the Trans-Sahara Counterterrorism Partnership (TSCTP) led 
     by the Department of State and in United States-supported 
     efforts to counter Boko Haram and the Islamic State-West 
     Africa, both of which have mounted terrorist operations in 
     the Far North region of Cameroon since 2014: Now, therefore 
     be it
       Resolved, That the Senate--
       (1) strongly condemns abuses committed by state security 
     forces and armed groups in the Northwest and Southwest 
     regions of Cameroon, including extrajudicial killings and 
     detentions, the use of force against civilians and nonviolent 
     protestors, torture, rape, kidnappings, and other forms of 
     violence against women, and violations of the freedoms of 
     press, expression, and assembly;
       (2) urges all parties to the Anglophone conflict in 
     Cameroon, including political opposition groups, to--
       (A) conclude and uphold an immediate ceasefire;
       (B) guarantee unfettered humanitarian access and assistance 
     to the Northwest and Southwest regions;
       (C) exercise restraint and ensure that political protests 
     are peaceful; and
       (D) establish a credible process for an inclusive dialogue 
     that includes all relevant stakeholders, including from civil 
     society, to achieve a sustainable political solution that 
     respects the rights and freedoms of all of the people of 
     Cameroon;
       (3) affirms that the United States Government continues to 
     hold the Government of Cameroon responsible for safeguarding 
     the safety, security, and constitutional rights of all 
     citizens, regardless of their region of origin or the regions 
     in which they reside, or their religious beliefs or political 
     views;
       (4) urges the Government of Cameroon to--
       (A) initiate a credible, inclusive, good-faith effort to 
     end the armed conflict in the Northwest and Southwest regions 
     of Cameroon by addressing the root causes of the crisis and 
     grievances and seeking nonviolent solutions to resolve the 
     conflict, including possibly involving an independent 
     mediator in negotiations;
       (B) follow through on initiatives developed to address the 
     grievances that sparked the conflict, including the National 
     Commission for the Promotion of Bilingualism and 
     Multiculturalism, the Ministry of Decentralization and Local 
     Development, and the National Disarmament, Demobilization, 
     and Reintegration Committee;
       (C) fully implement recommendations of the Major National 
     Dialogue held in late 2019;
       (D) respect the rule of law and the constitutional rights 
     of all Cameroonians, including members of the political 
     opposition, civil society activists, and journalists;
       (E) allow for credible, independent, and transparent 
     investigations of all allegations of human rights abuses 
     committed in the Northwest and Southwest regions;
       (F) release all political prisoners and journalists 
     currently detained and immediately stop all arbitrary 
     detention, torture, forced disappearances, deaths in custody, 
     and inhumane prison conditions; and
       (G) work with United States law enforcement to thoroughly 
     investigate and prosecute those responsible for the murder of 
     Charles Wesco;
       (5) urges the Anglophone armed separatist groups to--
       (A) engage peacefully with government officials to express 
     grievances and engage in nonviolent efforts to resolve the 
     conflict, including participation in a credible and inclusive 
     dialogue, possibly involving an independent mediator;

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       (B) immediately cease human rights abuses, including 
     killings of civilians, torture, kidnapping, and extortion;
       (C) immediately end the school boycott in the Northwest and 
     Southwest regions and attacks on schools, teachers, and 
     education officials, and allow for the safe return of all 
     students to class; and
       (D) immediately release all kidnapped and detained 
     civilians;
       (6) urges the Department of State, Department of the 
     Treasury, and United States Agency for International 
     Development, in coordination with other relevant Federal 
     departments and agencies, to--
       (A) consider imposing targeted sanctions on individual 
     government and separatist leaders ``responsible for 
     extrajudicial killings, torture, or other gross violations of 
     internationally recognized human rights'';
       (B) press the Government of Cameroon to provide unfettered 
     humanitarian access to vulnerable populations in the 
     Northwest and Southwest regions of Cameroon;
       (C) support credible efforts to address the root causes of 
     the conflict and to achieve sustainable peace and 
     reconciliation and efforts to aid the economic recovery of 
     and fight coronavirus in the Northwest and Southwest regions;
       (D) support humanitarian and development programming, 
     including to meet immediate needs, advance nonviolent 
     conflict resolution and reconciliation, promote economic 
     recovery and development, support primary and secondary 
     education, and strengthen democratic processes, including 
     political decentralization, enshrined as a fundamental 
     principle of state governance in the Constitution of 
     Cameroon;
       (E) continue to limit security assistance to Cameroon and 
     ensure that United States training and equipment is not being 
     used to facilitate human rights abuses in the Northwest and 
     Southwest regions;
       (F) prioritize efforts to help develop and sustain 
     effective, professional civilian oversight of law enforcement 
     and security services in Cameroon to ensure they are held 
     accountable for abuses; and
       (G) engage in an ongoing effort to ensure that the crisis 
     in the Anglophone regions is discussed in international fora, 
     including the United Nations Security Council, that focus on 
     urgent international diplomatic engagement and response; and
       (7) urges members of the international community to--
       (A) join in a strategic collective effort to pressure the 
     Government of Cameroon and separatist armed groups, including 
     through the use of available diplomatic and punitive tools, 
     to immediately conclude and uphold a ceasefire, participate 
     in an inclusive and meaningful dialogue to address the root 
     causes of the conflict and pending grievances, and seek 
     nonviolent solutions to the conflict, including by possibly 
     involving an independent and credible mediator;
       (B) mobilize and coordinate funding for local and 
     international organizations to provide humanitarian and 
     development assistance, including to fight coronavirus, to 
     communities affected by the crisis in the Northwest and 
     Southwest regions of Cameroon;
       (C) leverage bilateral relationships to encourage key 
     partners of Cameroon, particularly France, to help foster a 
     peaceful resolution to the crisis in the Northwest and 
     Southwest regions of Cameroon and implement a mutually 
     agreed-upon program to address longstanding grievances and 
     marginalization; and
       (D) use regional and international fora, including the 
     African Union, the Economic Community of Central African 
     States, and the United Nations Security Council to discuss 
     the ongoing crisis in the Northwest and Southwest regions of 
     Cameroon and push for a cessation of violence, an expedient 
     resolution, the implementation of a mutually agreed-upon 
     program for addressing the root causes and pending 
     grievances, and the investigation and prosecution of human 
     rights abuses and crimes committed against civilians.

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