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Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. International Day of Service

by Tomas DiFiore
Celebrate, observe, be in service and answer the call for human rights!
"Request for your urgent intervention in the situation in Cameroon. It's necessary to give our help now to these environmental activists from Cameroon." You can send a fax! Urge the authorities to do what they can, to stop the repression of Besingi and other activists." A Form Letter, with 8 addresses to international officials, agencies and human rights organizations follows.
800_non-violenza_mlk.jpg
Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. International Day of Service
Reach Out And Help Someone

“Never allow it to be said that you are silent onlookers, detached spectators, but that you are involved participants in the struggle to make justice a reality. All mankind is tied together; all life is interrelated, and we are all caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.” (MLK)

January 2016 - Cameroon

"Request for your urgent intervention in the situation in Cameroon. “It's necessary to give our help now to these environmental activists from Cameroon." You can send a fax! Urge the authorities to do what they can, to stop the repression of Besingi and other activists."

Original letter and detailed information along with history can be found at:
“The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders”
http://www.omct.org/human-rights-defenders/urgent-interventions/cameroon/2015/12/d23499/

A Form Letter, with 8 addresses to international officials, agencies and human rights organizations follows.


Date:


From:


To:
His Excellency Joseph B.C. Foe-Atangana
Embassy of the Republic of Cameroon in the US
3400 International Drive, NW
Washington, DC 20008
Phone: 202-265-8790
Fax:(202) 387-3826


Re: Nasako Besingi, Director of Cameroonian NGO SEFE (Struggle to Economize Future Environment)

Your Excellency Joseph B.C. Foe-Atangana;

I am writing to you at this time on behalf of Nasako Besingi the Director of the Cameroonian NGO SEFE (Struggle to Economize Future Environment) in the town of Mundemba.

I find reprehensible, the ongoing judicial harassment of Mr. Nasako Besingi, as it seems to be merely aimed at sanctioning his and SEFE’s peaceful human rights activities. I am asking you to call upon the authorities of Cameroon to put an end to all acts of extra-judicial and extra-legal harassment against him (and others) as well as reign in those elements of society that would use intimidation and violent attacks against those who are assertive enough to become human rights defenders in Cameroon.

Without the courage of SEFE and others, the voices of local communities and small farmers who have little say in what is being done with their land and their livelihoods - could not otherwise be heard.

I then duly, and respectfully request that you:

i. Guarantee in all circumstances the physical and psychological integrity of Mr. Nasako Besingi, Ms. Ekpoh Theresia Malingo, Mr. Isele Gabriel Ngoe, Mr. Mosongo Lawrence Namaso, Mr. Ochoe Charles Tatana and Mr. Nwete Jongele as well as of all human rights defenders in Cameroon;

ii. Put an end to all acts of harassment - including at the judicial level - against them as well as against all human rights defenders in Cameroon;

iii. Order a thorough and impartial investigation into Mr. Nasako Besingi's physical assault, in order to identify all those responsible, bring them before a civil competent and impartial tribunal and apply to them the penal sanctions provided by the law

iv. Conform in any circumstances with the provisions of the Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, adopted on December 9, 1998 by the United Nations General Assembly, in particular:

Article 1, which states that “everyone has the right, individually or in association with others, to promote the protection and realization of human rights and fundamental freedoms at the national and international levels”, and article 12.2 which provides that “the State shall take all necessary measures to ensure the protection by the competent authorities of everyone, individually and in association with others, against any violence, threats, retaliation, de facto or de jure adverse discrimination, pressure or any other arbitrary action as a consequence of his or her legitimate exercise of the rights referred to in the present Declaration”;

v. Ensure in all circumstances respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms in accordance with international human rights instruments ratified by Cameroon.


May Peace Prevail
(signed)


Also send a letter to:

1) Mr. Paul Biya
President of the Republic
Presidency of the Republic
Palais de l’Unité
1000 Yaoundé, Cameroon
Fax +237 22 22 08 70

2) Mr. Philémon Yang
Prime Minister and Chief of Government
Primature du Cameroun
1000 Yaoundé‚ Cameroon
Fax: +237 22 23 57 35
Email: spm [at] spm.gov.cm

3) Mr. Laurent Esso
Minister of Justice
Ministry of Justice
1000 Yaoundé‚ Cameroon
Fax: + 237 22 23 00 05

4) Mr. René Emmanuel SADI
Minister of Territorial Administration of Cameroon
Fax: + 237 22 22 37 35

5) Dr. Chemuta Divine Banda
President of the National Commission on Human Rights and Freedoms
Fax: +237 22 22 60 82
E-mail: cndhl [at] iccnet.cm
or
cdbanda26 [at] yahoo.fr

6) Ms. Enonchong Annet
Protection Officer of the National Commission on Human Rights and Freedoms of Cameroon
E-mail: annet_mbeng [at] yahoo.com

Also, to support Besingi Nasako, SEFE, and others, Please also write to diplomatic representations of Cameroon in your respective countries.

If you are in the US - the Department of State and most embassies will be closed on Monday, January 18th in observance of Martin Luther King Jr Day. Cameroon Embassy offices in the US, will close at 2:00 PM local time (Washington, Eastern Standard Time).

Ambassador of the US to the Republic of Cameroon, Michael S. Hoza
The United States Embassy in Cameroon
Avenue Rosa Parks
P.O. Box 817
Yaounde, Cameroon
Phone: (237) 22220-1500
Fax: (237) 22220-1500, ext. 4531
http://yaounde.usembassy.gov/ambassador.html

and

His Excellency Joseph B.C. Foe-Atangana
Embassy of the Republic of Cameroon in the US
3400 International Drive, NW
Washington, DC 20008
Phone: 202-265-8790
Fax:(202) 387-3826

(from) The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders:
http://www.omct.org/human-rights-defenders/urgent-interventions/cameroon/2015/12/d23499/


California to Cameroon, 9 hours difference between time zones:
6 PM PST on Sunday, is 3 AM on Monday in Cameroon

“SEFE's campaign is not merely about stopping a Presidential decree granting a land concession to Herakles but something bigger than that. It is about giving the justice denied to communities that will be impacted negatively by the Herakles’ project as well as those living on coastal fringes in both Cameroon and Nigeria that will receive no benefits from the project but will be seriously impacted from pollution, flooding, changes in hydrology, biodiversity loss, and impacts to other underlying systems like mangroves south of the project. SEFE will continue with the campaign until justice is achieved because no decree has ever and will ever extirpate justice.” (Nasako Besingi, Managing Director SEFE)

SEFE calls President of Cameroon's land deal with US company Herakles Farms a "grave injustice and hindrance to conventional values". Press Release By SEFE December 16, 2013
https://www.save-wildlife.org/downloads/save_the_forest/SEFE%20PR_2013.pdf

Please write to the authorities of Cameroon!

Also send an email to the director of SEFE, (Struggle to Economize Future Environment) Nasako Besingi:
nasako.bondoko [at] gmail.com

The page of SEFE at FB:
https://www.facebook.com/sefe.creation

“The great problem confronting us today is that we have allowed the means by which we live to outdistance the ends for which we live.”
(Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.)

Tomas DiFiore




Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. International Day of Service, Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service, Cameroon, Nasako Besingi, human rights
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