Security forces in Cameroon were severely criticised...

Security forces in Cameroon were severely criticised for rising cases of torture, arbitrary arrests and summary executions in the country's English-speaking provinces. The accusations were made in a news release by the Paris-based International Federation of Human Rights Leagues (FIDH), which sent a team of investigators to Cameroon from 23 August to 1 September 2003. "The mission found that since 2000, security forces have severely put down pro-secessionist demonstrations in several towns in the Anglophone provinces. These carried out "arrests and arbitrary detentions, mistreatments, acts of torture, summary executions," the FIDH wrote in its report, which denounced pressure being exerted on the secessionist movement in the country's English-speaking part. The human rights body pointed out that since 2001, the Cameroonian government had been "intimidating and exerting pressure" on Southern Cameroon National Council members, the Anglophone secessionist movement, before and after the anniversary of the Federal Republic of Cameroon, which fell on 1 October. In its report titled "1 October of all dangers in Anglophone Cameroon: as usual?", FIDH urged Cameroonian authorities to honour their commitments to respect human rights and guarantee the freedom of expression, opinion and demonstration to all citizens. It also urged the Cameroonian government to investigate acts of torture, brutality, summary executions and forced disappearance of people in the English-speaking areas.