Tribune  Posté le 01-11-2017 10:03, modifié le 01-08-2020 10:03 par Tournons la page

Yaoundé, July 18, 2017

Meeting in Yaounde on 17 and 18 July 2017, the coordinators of the international campaign Tournons La Page for democratic alternation in Africa call on citizens across the continent to mobilize against authoritarian excesses. The campaign gives full support to the Cameroonian people who in 2018 will have a presidential election where the conditions for alternation and the voice of the people must be respected. As in Congo, Gabon, Niger and Chad, the TLP will play its role in sensitizing and mobilizing citizens for the full exercise of their rights and duties before and during the elections.

Since the launch of the international Turn the Page (TLP) campaign, arrests of its members have been commonplace. In Cameroon, it is since the launch of the campaign that arbitrariness has struck the leaders of Citizen Dynamics. Since then, their trial has been postponed over and over again with the aim of putting a sword of Damocles hanging over them. More recently, within a few weeks several members of the TLP Chad, Niger and Gabon were arbitrarily arrested. This systematic repression hits all citizens' movements and all dissident voices, as witnessed by the repression that falls on our comrades in Congolese civil society and citizens' movements such as Filimbi, Lucha, etc. Journalists or religious leaders are also the target of authoritarian powers.

These free-wheeling police states no longer even fear international pressure. Joseph KABILA, Pierre NKURUNZIZA, Idriss DEBY ITNO, Ali BONGO ONDIMBA or Denis SASSOU NGUESSO respond to sanctions and admonitions from the international community with more violence. The fight against terrorism is becoming a source of income for leaders whose poor management of public accounts has plunged their states into crisis. Populations already suffering from the uncontrolled violence of extremist groups are suffering in addition from budget cuts and economic gloom.

We, coordinators of the TLP campaign :

• Call on the various movements committed to democracy and the rule of law to join us in our commitment to alternation;
• Officially launch the "Caravan of Democracy", a series of cultural and political events for democracy in Africa that will start on September 15th for the World Day of Democracy;
• Invite citizens from all continents to join us in Abidjan next November to make our voices heard on the margins of the EU-Africa Summit;
• Let us thank the members of Citizen's Dynamics for their welcome and their mobilization and give full support to the Cameroonian people on the eve of elections that will be decisive for the future of their country.