UNITED NATIONS Distr. TRUSTEESHIP LIMITED T/PET.5/L.420 COUNCIL 6 March 1957 ENGLISH ORIGINAL: FRENCH

PETITION FROM THE LOCAL COMi,IITTEE .:o:f ±HE 11 tmioN DES POPULATIONS DU CAMIBOUN 11 OF THE NEW,;:BELL DOUALA PRISON y CONCERIIDJG THE CAMEROON$ FRENCH ADMINISTRATION ' • mmER', • < (Circulated in accordance with rule 85, paragraph 2 of the rules . of procedure. of t.he fyusteeship Council) .

UNION DES POPUI.ATIONS DU CPJOOOUN .. (UPC)

Local Committee, New-Bell Prison, Douala

The Douala Local Committee of the UPC, holding its General Assembly in cell No. 18 on 25 Yiay 1956 in commemoration of the historic national week of 22 to 29 Nay 1955, having heard the statements of the following members: NDOOll Ic~sc, Chairman of the Local Committee, Hyacinthe MPAYE, Chairman of the JDC, Th. M. MATIP, an Officer of the Local Connnittee analysing the consequences of the killings and 'barbarous acts perpetrated against the Kamerunia.ns during the month of under the orders of the French Government, which is losing its hold on KJIJ,1IBtm, unanimously adopted the following resolution:

THE LOCAL COMMITTEE OF THE UPC, DOUAIJ\ PRISON CONSIDERI?-.U that after the Joint Proclamation of 22 April 1955 whereby the sovereign Kamerunian People repudiated the Administering Authorities, they adopted a national flag on 22 May, therc::.fter,

Jj Note by the Secretariat: The petition is c·irculated in accordance with the decision taJ;:en by the Standing Committee on Petitions o.t its 403rd meeting held on 4 March 1957. 11his document replaces Section II, paragraph 3, of document T/PET.5/L.99. 57-08054 / ••• T/PET.5/L.420 Enc;lioh Poc;e 2

TH/\T this day haa become the Ko.merunion national holiday which our people celebrated on its first anniverse.ry, Tueoday, 22 May of this year, by flying tbe national colours and hoistina our emblem itself, not in public places but on certain aclministre.tive buildings, CO:JSIDERING that, the Krunerunian people having proclaimed themselves inde:penclE;;nt ond sovereie;n under the United Nations Charter, the former Administering Authorities and the United Nations should proclaim their recogni t:5.on of the independence of Krunerun and the Sovereie:nty of our country; for which purpose it is imperative that the United Nations and the aforesaid Powers should support the irr.meaia.te estabUshment of a Kar.ierunian Government empowered to negotiate witl1 F'.2-ANCR ond GREAT JJRITAIH; COHSIDERII:G that on 22 iny 1955 plots were carried out at Douala end Mbanga by the colonialists and their lackeys, who appealed at Douala to the natives of CHAD, described as "frustrated people" by the Procureur de la Republique of Douala. during the trial here arising out of this plot, only the victims of which and other innocent persons were prosecuted and Given harsh sentences tota:.ling ti.rnnty-four years :in prison; THAT on the nights of the 25rd and 24th the forces of evil spread terror throughout the different quarters of New-Bell, disturbing public order with the sound o:f tunks and arbitrary firinc; of automatic liistols and machine guns; CONSIDERING that 25 tl.cy 1955 wns the duy of the great maGsacre carried out und1Jr the orders of C.::,ptain GEORGES of the Douala Branch of the French p:endnrmcrie, who told the judicio.l authorHieG on the strength of a simple telephone conversation he had been directed by Roland PRE, the High Commissioner, to shoot; 'fi!AT Captain PIVIN of the Fire Bric:;ade played a. grim role in the mo.sso.crc of K:::unerunians; CONSIDERING that from the early morninG of 26 May onward military repression has been accompanied by savage tortur~, base arrests and pillagin~ of all kinds o.t the e}.1)ense of innocent patriots by the police under the direction of o. gang of lackeys consistinc; of BOUM MJ.".CK Pierre, 13AGAL Guillaume, l,'1Al1.. Georges, MBOCK Vincent, EKOUM Bienvenue, M0!:00 Joseph, MBOCIC David, and oth".::r members of the small group formed for this purpose under the name Front Ihtional Comerounais contre le Coranunis1~,e, conr.f)osed almost entirely of persons excluded from the UPC, who are regarded as traitors to the Fatherla..~d and execrated as such. I •.. T/PET.5/L.420 English. Page 3

THAT the Hrst v:i.ct:l.ms of these base arrests and loo.tings were our • ' , l ·• , comrades Theodore May.:l. .MATIP, IliOGA,NGOM 'Aar.on, .NONGA Henri, here with us; t:.arthe 131\HIDA, who was pregnant and ;is n?w at: liberty with her child, .and the' sixteen comrades who are at present in prisqn:at: .MOKOLO,. including. JOB, Matip Samuel, HGANGOUM M:i.chel, ,UM LIBAM Oscar, and .. l~.rOG:E Cb.risto:ph~, ..who were, arreste~ either .in their huts or at the Ul'C office and whom ~he sacrosanct judicial machinery secretly condemned without.defence on.27 ~..ay 1955 to , • r • • , . ~ thirty-two years imprisonment on the patcntJ.y false charge of carrying prohibited weapons;

CONSIDERING that the curfi:;w was ordered on the night of 27 to 28 .V~y 1955 and that the colonialists set fire·to the UPC office in the presence of the French priest COUDHAY after having previously looted eg_uip.ment, furniture documents, files, safes~ etc.; CONSIDERING that this policy of bloodshed, arson, hold-ups, looting a11d savaBe judicial repression was inaugurat·ea in Kameruns by 'the French Government, represented here by the bloodthirsty Governor Roland PRE, to suppress Kamerunian nationalism as embodied by the U~C; BUT that, contrary to the petty calculations of the promoters of that policy, force has served only to encouraGe Kamerunian nationalism and the irresistible surge of our henceforth sovereign people towards immediate Unification a:nd Independehce; THAT the instigator of that policy is Mr. Louis-Paul AUJOULAT who until then sat i'n the French Parliament as representative ·of the Krunerunians· o.nd . who has been disa,vowcd by them; THAT the GO I!OME: 11 movement launched by the JDC on 15 May 1955 has been made a reality by the strength of our people; CONSIDERili:G tho.t force -and trickery in Krunerun have not won the results which the colonialists won by the same me:thods in the Ivory Coast, where the leaders of the repressed movement·made a strategic retreat on the lines of HOUPROUET-BOIGNY; THAT since then the Executive corcinittce· of the UPC by its or3:mizational capacity, courage, foresie;ht and honesty has proved.itself worthy of the admiration of the entire nation; / ... T/PET.5/L.420 En13lish P::i.c;e 4

C01'ISIDERIHG that the patriots now in prison had their training in a hard ::ichool, tho.t they would not sell for anything in the world either their opinions or their freedom to oppose the lo.w of integration, Irnown as the loi-cadrc, or internal a.utoncmy, which are nothing more than a means of evading settlement of the Kamerunian problem, in other words, forfeiture of our country's sovcreic;nty and its integration into the French colonial empire, where force, trickery and the denial of rights are the privileges of the colonizers;

NOW THEREFORE The Douala Prison Local Committee of the UPC APPEALS to the French and British Governments and the United Nations to grant official recognition to the national independence proclaj.med a year ago by the Kamerunian People and to support the establishment of' a Kamerunian Government to neaotiato with'the foxmcr Administerinc; Authority; EXPRESSES 1\DMIRATION, from the depths of prison, f'or the highly successful celebration by the Ka.merunia.n People of the first am1i versa.ry of the National Knmeruuiun holiday· on 22 Vay 1956 at a time when the colonialist military and ju~icial terror still prevailed; Vic;orously COIIDEMHS the barbarous acts and disgraceful operation of the judicial machinery, the shootinc;s, pillagin[s and incendiarism advocated and resorted to by the authorities for the purpose of suppressing Kamerunian nationalism as embodied by the UPC and thereby integro.tine Krunerun, bound hand and foot, into the French colonial empire; REGRETS that the Catholic priests actively participated in these 111..::i.ssacres and burninc;s; IS GRATIFIED TO NOTE that in the face of the military and judicial terror the Krunerunian people succeeded in imposing their will and dealing a crippling blow to that evil policy. The Kamerunians at the srune time clearly and finally unmasked the traitors to the Fatherland such as BA.GAL, whom the colonialist judicial authorities use as a professional witness agcinst Kamerunian patriots; / ... T/PET. 5/L.1~20 English Page 5

EXPRESSES its active solidarity with all Kamerunian patriots now suffering hardships in colonialist prisons or in the maquis ancl tells them that, for the sake of immediate unification and independence, it is with them in spirit in everything they may do to combat a foreign regime which has no justification for being in our country; EXPIIBSSES ITS WARMEST CONGRATULATIONS to the Executive Committee of the UPC for its vicilance, foresight, courage and organizatio~al ability during this traCTic period in which the Committee has successfully anrl efficiently proved itself equal to its task and has refused to make the strategic retreat which the colonialisbs abkea it to adopt and ·uhich the Kamcrunian people condemn without reservation; THANKS all militant members of the UPC and all Kamcrunian patriots who, braving machine guns and arrests, have applied and popularized the watchword of the UPC. ITOTES with satisfaction that all the Popular Movements which signed the Joint Proclamation of 22 April 1955 are and remain anti-colonialist and continue bravely ond actively their militant action on behalf of immediate Unity and Independence; PROUDL'I DECLl'1RES that its members have not gone to prison in order to trade. Freedom for Internal Autonomy or for application of the law of integration lmmm as the loi-cadre. cmmEQUEN'l1LY calls upon all elements of the Kamerunian Nation to reject outright this loi-caJre ,-1hich has long since been rendered obsolete by the evolution of the Kamerun-ian problem; likewise calls upon the people to become more conscious of their national sovereic;nty and reject outric;ht any move towards internal autonomy in Komerun; assures the Kamerunian people of its unshakable ,dll and determination to serve the national calrne; BOHS respectfully before the memory of all the innocent 1Jeople murdered in Kamerun in May 1955 by the :French Government; URGES all Kamcrunians to combat "African oppositions11 in whatever foro, APPEALS to the spirit of national unity to settle the Kamerunian crisis by neGotiation •.

I ... T/PET. 5/L .li-20 Enc;lish Pace 6

Drawn up ana adopted in prison, 25

Tll. 11. !!/',TIP Hyacinthe MPAYE NDOOH Isaac (Sir;nc_Q_) (Sir,ne~) illegible (Signed) illegible Andr~ Claude JJYOBE Marcus BOUAHA NLOHGAN BABONG Martin (Sir,ned) (SiGncd) illegible (~igned) illegible DJOl-1 !iBUCK Pierre NDIKA Aloys ILOGA NGOM Aaron (SiGned) illccible (Signed) (Signed) illegible TOUKJ\J,1 Jacques BISS/1.Y Luc NONGA Henri (Signed) illeGible (~iGncd) illegible (Signed) illegible YETH/1. RUBEH EOG Pierre Dieudonn~ BAH3Y KHIMAHG Bonifoce (Si1;ned) illecible (0ig~ed) illeeiblc (Sicncd) illegible NGUUIBOUS EGHEM Innocent BilONG Jean-Baptinte MAIIGA BANFE Louis (Si~ned) illegible (SiRned) illegible (Signed) illegible MAHDEHG Smnuel ZE Benjamin r,mIJU1I David (Si~11ed) illecible (GiGned) illeGible (Signed) illegible TCHAHBA Pierre IIDOYA Etienne NJIKI Jean (Signed) illecible (Signed) illesible (Si~ncd) illegible HBELEG Samuel KAl-IDEiil Joseph (Sir,ned) illecible (Signed) illegible