Operation Epervier’s Segregations: Similar Crimes Different Jurisdictions.

What Compromise On Those Tried & Sentenced In Normal, Special Criminal Courts And Supreme State Audit?

 A phrase purely Cameroonian has come to stay in the psyche of the citizens. This phrase, whose mere mention sends jitters down the spines of people, because of its devastating effect, is what is known as Operation Epervier; roughly translated into the English Language as Operation Sparrow Hawk. Conventional wisdom has it that a hawk is a bird of prey, and that a hawk is clumsy and heavy and depends much on proper cover ups to pounce on its prey, thus guaranteeing its source of food and survival. A sparrow on the contrary is very fast, agile and exceedingly dexterous. Those who coined the word Sparrow Hawk must have had something ominous in their minds to combine the attributes of two birds of prey in one. Thus a Sparrow Hawk should surely be a fast and tricky predator that takes its prey by surprise. This is exactly what is happening with the Operation Epervier in Cameroon where most people who fall prey to the claws of the Sparrow Hawk are taken by surprise on mere suspicion and jailed, before charges are, if ever they are drummed-up to proffer on them.

What Is Operation Epervier?

It is the name given to the anti-corruption drive that was instituted in Cameroon in 2004 through pressure from foreign donors to curb corruption that had propel Cameroon to win the corruption trophy twice uncontested. On inception, Operation Epervier normally is supposed to be a judiciary procedure to judge those found guilty of corruption and embezzlement. It is not supposed to end at picking up people and incarcerating them but speedily trying them and recuperating the funds they are accused of haven siphoned. Unfortunately Operation Epervier is everything but this.  It has become an avenue for political score settling, tribal alienation and why not some ethnic cleansing. Paradoxically, Operation Epervier that was instituted under the government of Thomas Ephraim Inoni in 2004 today has Ephraim Inoni as one of the victims. Has the hunter become the hunted, many are asking. Yet circumstances of Inoni’s arrest and incarceration remain clouded with a lot of unanswered questions and polemic. People think he is a victim of circumstances as he had to be picked up to give the impression that the Operation Epervier was not out to victimize people from a particular region or that only one particular tribe had a penchant for siphoning the public purse.

Operation Epervier’s Segregations: One Weight Two Measures

Today more than 15 former Ministers and three scores of Directors are incarcerated in various cells and prisons for embezzlement of public funds. Some of them have passed through what is described as kangaroo trials and slammed prison terms while some are still in pre-trial detentions awaiting trials. What is making news is that Operation Epervier has apparently diverted from its original target of fighting corruption to fighting particular individuals who at one time showed their penchant for political power. Most of those held in detention are those who were one time tagged as the G11 in Cameroon, or better put those who wanted to contest the 2011 Presidential elections.

According to the universal principles of criminality, everybody is considered innocent until proven guilty. The Operation Epervier has reversed this universal principle and everybody is guilty and has the onus to prove that he/she is innocent. This is why most of the court cases of those arrested for embezzlement are frequently adjourned as the defense lawyers usually attack the cases for lack of substantive justifications of the charges proffered on those incarcerated.

At one time, it was circulated that Operation Epervier targeted only people from a particular region. Voices were raised by others to make sure that all the regions of Cameroon were touched as if to say that the Operation Epervier was out to victimize people and not to clean the system of corruption. And as if to ensure regional balance in the Operation Epervier individuals were surreptitiously picked up from the four cardinal points of the Republic. What make news is how justice is being rendered in the Operation Epervier as the methods used and the selective trials leave room for people to question the raison d’etre of Operation Epervier. Some people have been tried by the normal courts and sentenced. A special Criminal court has been created to try others with the possibility of them reimbursing the sums they are accused of and escaping imprisonment. Yet others are merely invited by the Supreme State Audit and tried in chambers with simple blames and requests for them to pay back what they have embezzled. Why should the same weight have two measures?

Selective Trials And Punishments

Operation Epervier is in its third phase now, yet some people who were arrested in the first phase are still to have a fair trial. Alphonse Siyam Siwé was slammed 30 years for accusations of embezzlement at the Douala Ports Authority in 2007. In 2008 former Minister of the Economy and Finance, Polycarpe Abah Abah and former Public Health Minister, Urbain Olanguena Awono and other collaborators were arrested on charges of embezzlement. Their trials have suffered numerous adjournments. Curiously, Polycarpe Abah Abah was speedily judged for a purported attempted escape from the Kondengui Central prison and slammed six years imprisonment, meanwhile the principal accusations of embezzlement levied on him is pending due to lack of sufficient charges.

According to the spirit of the newly created Special Criminal Tribunal, cases have a maximum of the three months to be trashed. And those found guilty can pay the embezzled amounts and regain their liberty. Marafa Hamidou Yaya and Yves Michel Fotso would be tried in line with the spirit of the new Criminal Court. The question is why should this Special Criminal Court not retry all the cases of embezzlement? This is because those who have been tried by the normal courts have been unduly punished for the same crime while those who will be tried by the Special Criminal Courts have the possibility of going unpunished. What qualifies a case to be tried by the normal courts and the Special Criminal Courts?

Marafa Hamidou Yaya was arrested alongside Ephraim Inoni. Marafa has already appeared in court while Ephraim Inoni has not. What is the cause of these selective trials that give the impression that some people are being favoured in the Operation Epervier? Actually, Yves Michel Fotso, Jerome Mendouga, former Cameroon ambassador to USA and Jean Marie Atangana Mebara were arrested for the same case that has taken Inoni and Marafa to prison. Presently it is only Marafa and Yves Michel Fotso appearing in court and not all those accused of embezzling funds destined for the purchase of the Presidential aircraft. Worst of all some culprits have already been sentenced on the same crime while others are still under judicial inquiries. What will become of the case if those still to be tried point accusing fingers on those already tried and acquitted in the same case?

Some of those who are incarcerated by the operation Epervier and their supporters are aghast with the different jurisdictions that are investigating embezzlement in Cameroon. Before their arrest some of them went through hell in the hands of the Judicial Police that grilled them for long hours, subjecting them to psychological torture. Others were picked up on the least suspicion of embezzlement or mere denunciation by CONAC or Supreme State Auditors and are now languishing in jail without any prove of embezzlement. Yet others that have been found wanting or have been denounced by the press as embezzlers are still parading the streets. Recently the Supreme State Audit made public the names of some people and the amounts they have misappropriated. Contrary to popular expectations, these personalities were merely asked to refund the amounts they embezzled with some little fines. This gives away the impression that any vote holder can embezzle funds, invest these funds and reap profits from these funds and repay them when found wanting. But this is happening when others are wallowing in jail for same economic crimes.

Are some people being protected is the question being asked by many political analysts. The fact that the same economic crime has different punishment has come to confirm the widely circulated notion that Operation Epervier is out to put at a comfortable distance all potential political challengers of the Head of State. This is further justified by the fact that when Titus Edzoa, former Secretary General at the Presidency and Health Minister who doubled as Paul Biya’s personal physician resigned in 1997 to challenge him in that year’s presidential elections, he was immediately arrested and charged for embezzlement. He was slammed 15 years and when he was just two years to the end of his jail term, new accusations were levied against him to make sure that he remained in jail. A close look at those who have been given heavy jail terms reveals that they are those whose names circulated in the media at one time in Cameroon as members of the G11.This is why Titus Edzoa, Atangana Mebara, Abah Abah, Olaguena Owono and others have maintained throughout their incarceration that they are being victimised for their political ambitions and not for embezzlement. Marafa Hamidou Yaya through his open letters has given away the same idea that he is being incarcerated for political reasons as he asked the Head of State not to take another mandate in 2004. Many are those who hold strongly that the Operation Epervier is a mere tool in the hands of the regime to instil discipline and victimize political adversaries and not a judiciary tool to render equitable justice. If not, why the flagrant discrepancy in judging the same crime in different jurisdictions with different sanctions?