Cameroon After Nightmare Weekend
According to one commentator on the national radio, the abortive coup of 6th April is now just a bad memory for Cameroonians.
Casualty figures have not officially been released but judging from the intensity of the fighting between the regular army units and the Presidential palace guards who mounted the coup attempt, scores of people must have been killed or injured and much property damaged.
Unofficial sources have put the casualty list at 2,000 dead and hundreds more injured.
The real motive for the attempted coup will not be known until the plotters tell their own story, but keen observers of the situation have attributed it to a Presidential order to transfer Presidential Palace Guards who come from the predominantly Muslim north of Cameroon.
The fifty-one-year-old President, a southern Christian, took over in November 1982 from President Ahmadou Ahidjo, a northern Muslim, who had led Cameroon since independence in 1960.
In February, however, ex-President Ahidjo was convicted in absentia of plotting against Biya's government. President Biya also faces opposition from the exiled Cameroon Peoples Union (UPC) who have indicted him of perpetuating Ahidjo's one party rule.
We reproduce here a catalogue of events on the day of the coup attempt as relayed by President Biya in an address to the nation.
'On 6th April, at about 0300 (0200gmt) elements of the Republican Guard undertook to carry out a coup d'etat. This resulted in the cutting of telephone lines and the occupation of a sensitive and strategic points of Yaounde-Unity Palace, radio headquarters, airport and so on.
The objective of this action was to seize political power through violence. Regular units of our national army - who remained faithful to the Constitution and who received orders to overcome the forcible action - fought methodically and with determination, and late this morning, they achieved air complete victory. Calm prevails all over the national territory.
I want to take this opportunity to pay glowing tribute to those units of our army for their commitment and their attachment to legality and to the republic. Lastly, I urge all Cameroonians male and female - and all those who live in our country, to remain calm and to continue their activities for the economic and social development of our nation.'
Biya's message was not rebroadcast in English as is normally the case with presidential addresses in Cameroon.
At 1733gmt on April 6 Yaounde home service in English began broadcasting again (Yaounde home service in French had gone off the air abruptly at 0841gmt on the 6th) with the following announcement: 'Yaounde, the national station of Radio Cameroon, broadcasting. As you heard, we were interrupted and now everything is OK. The Minister of State for the Armed Forces will be here any moment from now." The radio continued to play modern Cameroonian music until 2100gmt, when it began to play rhythm and blues music without interruption except for the following communique broadcast at 2135gmt: 'In order to enable the loyal forces to clean up the last pockets of resistance, the people of Yaounde are requested to remain at home until further notice so as to avoid bloodshed.'
The radio suddenly went off the air without signing off at 0042gmt on April 7.
Yaounde home service resumed at 0505gmt on the 7th, broadcasting a programme of traditional music. The radio did not carry its normal 0700gmt news summary. At 0835gmt the radio went off the air abruptly, but resumed with a musical programme at 0947gmt. At 1809gmt following the broadcasting of the national anthem Yaounde home service broadcast President Biya's address to the nation (see above).
At 1909gmt it broadcast the following "communique by the loyal forces". 'The people are urged to remain calm. The last gunshots being heard now in the capital are simply meant to mop up the last pockets of resistance."
At 2108gmt the radio broadcast another message, also described as a "communique by the loyal forces", which said: "The people are urged to remain calm and to assist the law enforcement agencies by denouncing anyone who seems suspicious to them.
A dispatch from one of the station's correspondents reported extremely violent clashes all day in Yaounde. Many victims are reported among the soldiers, but also among the town's civilians. The perpetrators of the coup are reported to be headed by a colonel who comes from northern Cameroon, Col. Saleh, who is at present the number two in the Republican Guards and normally in charge of ensuring the security of the Presidential Palace. He is supported by nearly half that guard, which numbers 1,000 men and is heavily armed.
The mutiny is reported to have been sparked off by a decision by President Paul Biya to transfer from the guard a certain number of officers who come from the north. At 1300 the perpetrators of the coup broadcast a radio communique on the removal of senior army officials and the cancellation of the constitution, and severely criticising the clique of Paul Biya, the current president. The rebel soldiers also made a radio appeal in which they urged Cameroon ian people to remove President Paul Biya. They imposed a curfew from 1900 to 0600 and set up another transmitter. The official radio was in President Paul Biya's hands but there was a second radio which was broadcasting.
Finally, another report came that the military putsch had failed. The loyalist forces regained the upper hand over elements of the Republican Guard who had been attempting a coup d'etat. This victory was confirmed in Paris by the Cameroon Minister of Foreign Affairs, Felix Tonye Mbog, who announced emphatically, 'The coup d'etat attempt carried out by some elements of the Republican Guard was energetically crushed last night. A number of putschists are behind bars; others have escaped. The President of the Republic, Paul Biya, is in a safe place and his life was never in danger throughout this criminal enterprise. The Government is in full control of the situation in the whole of the territory.
It is to be noted that the putschists' criminal action never went beyond the limits of the capital, Yaounde. In the rest of the country everything has stayed calm. The Presidential Palace, the Yaounde airport and the national radio have, since yesterday, been under the control of the national army. The verdict of history is there. It is without appeal. The enemies of the Republic, the enemies are vanquished.
•Convicted Ex-President Ahidjo. Did he have a hand in the coup attempt against Biya?
