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Cameroon: The Ligue de défense des droits des Pygmées; the date of its founding, and its objectives, activities, leaders and address; whether the League rallied against logging operations that began in 1999; whether a campaign of civil disobedience through the abandonment of logging sites occurred and whether members of the League were arrested in 2000; the general situation of the Pygmies

No information on the Pygmies Rights Defence League (Ligue de défense des droits des Pygmées), an anti-logging campaign that reportedly began in 1999, a civil disobedience campaign, or the arrest of League members in 2000 could be found among the sources consulted by the Research Directorate within the time constraints for this Response.

However, there is a non-governmental organization (NGO) known as the Development Committee of the Bakola/Bagyeli of the boroughs of Bipindi and Kribi (Comité de développement des Bakola/Bagyeli des arrondissements de Bipindi et Kribi, CODEBABIK) (Héritiers de la justice n.d.a) whose objective is [translation] "to support and assist initiatives aimed at sustainable development and environmental protection;" this NGO is based in Yaoundé, with branches in Lolodorf and Bertoua (ibid. n.d.b). CODEBABIK's Secretary‑General, Jacques Ngoun (ibid. n.d.a), who calls himself [translation] "a Bagyeli Pygmy leader," reportedly presented a paper entitled [translation] "Pygmies and Industrial Logging: The case of the Bagyeli in southern Cameroon" at the International Conference on the Conservation of Forest Ecosystems and the Development of the South and East of Cameroon, held in Yaoundé on 16 and 17 February 1999 (ibid. n.d.b).

The following information pertains to the situation of Pygmies in Cameroon. Generally speaking, there are three groups of Pygmies, namely, the Baka, the Bakola/Bagyeli and the Medzan (ibid. s.d.a; Bell 2000; Zognong 2000). Héritiers de la justice, a human rights defence organisation based in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, indicated that, according to the CODEBABIK,

[translation]

the Baka are the most populous, with 40,000 people scattered across 75,000 km2 in southeast Cameroon. The second largest group is the Bakola or Bagyeli, with about 4,000 people occupying 12,000 km2 in the southern coastal region. Finally, around 1,500 Medzan live in the western part of the forest-savanna mosaic on the left bank of the Mbam River. ...

The Bakola are ethnic Cameroonians. Traditionally hunters and gatherers, they settled in the Océan department; they co-exist with the Bantou (Ngoumba, Mabéa, Mpoo, Ewondo, Boulou), traditionally farmers, with whom they have maintained trade relations (barter) from time immemorial: in exchange for game, forest products and various services, they receive cultivated starchy foods from the Bantou.

Some Bagyeli live along the roads, whereas the majority live in encampments – small villages in the forest, located 2 to 15 km from the main roads (n.d.a).

Several sources referred to the fact that the various groups of Pygmies are considered marginalized populations that are excluded from Cameroonian society at the cultural, economic and political levels (ibid.; Zognong 2000; European Union Jan.‑Feb. 2002).

The ACP-EU Courrier, a newsletter published by the European Union (EU), indicated that

[EU English version]

[w]ith little education, the Pygmies are exploited by the neighbouring Bantous villagers. Most of them work as day labourers on Bantous farms. The best they can expect to receive is a tiny ration of yams, the farms' principal crop; at worst, they might be paid in arki, the local alcohol, at a risk of devastating effects (ibid.).

For more information on the Pygmies' way of life and their economic and political organization, please consult the appended working paper on the anthropological profiles of the Pygmies ("Profils anthropologiques des Pygmées") written in 2000 by Dieudonné Zognong.

With regard to the recognition of the Pygmies' rights, Patrice Bigombe Logo wrote:

[translation]

Promotion of the Pygmies' rights raises the basic problem of entrenching a culture of human rights in Cameroonian society. While the government has implemented a legal framework that to some extent favours the spatial and temporal expression of Pygmy citizenship, few measures or initiatives take their distinctiveness into account. While their right to citizenship is affirmed and recognized, the practical expression, the embodiment and the enjoyment of that citizenship, and the recognition of their identity/uniqueness and related rights are still diminished and limited. On both sides, the law is held hostage by the socio-cultural and political organization of the Pygmies' relationships with their immediate and distant social environment (2000).

This information was substantiated in Country Reports 2002, which added:

An estimated 95 percent of Baka [a Pygmy group] did not have national identity cards; most Baka could not afford to provide the necessary documentation in order to obtain national identity cards, which were required to vote in national elections (31 Mar. 2003).

Some sources observed that the life of the Pygmies in Cameroon, in particular that of the Bakola Pygmies, was at the time disrupted by the construction of an oil pipeline funded by the World Bank on their lands (European Union Jan.-Feb. 2002; United Nations 20 July 1998, par. 5-8). Moreover, Jacques Ngoun reported that industrial logging posed [translation] "a threat to the life and survival" of the Pygmies (Héritiers de la justice n.d.b). According to the environmental organization Greenpeace, [translation] "Pygmies are the main victims of logging operations, given that they can live only in intact forests. ... The Bakas' rights are completely denied in the new forest legislation, and their territorial rights have not been recognized yet" (n.d.).

This Response was prepared after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the Research Directorate within time constraints. This Response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim to refugee status or asylum. Please find below the list of additional sources consulted in researching this Information Request.

References

Bell, Jean-Pierre. 2000. "Promotion de la citoyenneté pygmée : l'importance de l'établissement des actes d'état civil." <http://www.hri.ca/partners/aga/publication/cirepe2/pdg10.shtml> [Accessed 3 Dec. 2003]

Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2002. 31 March 2003. United States Department of State, Washington, DC. <http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2002/18172.htm> [Accessed 5 Dec. 2003]

European Union. January-February 2002. The ACP-EU Courrier. "Les Pygmées, grands oubliés." <http://europa.eu.int/comm/development/body/publications/courier/courier190/fr/fr_043.pdf> [Accessed 3 Dec. 2003]

Greenpeace. n.d. "Au rhythme de la déforestation actuelle, il n'y aura plus de forêts primaires africaines d'ici 5 à 10 ans." <http://www.greenpeace.org/france_fr/campaigns/intro?campaign_id=65757> [Accessed 4 Dec. 2003]

Héritiers de la justice, Bukavu. n.d.a. "CODEBABIK : Comité de développement des Bakola/Bagyeli des arrondissements de Bipindi et Kribi." <http://www.heritiers.org/bagyeliofbipindi.html> [Accessed 3 Dec. 2003]
_____. n.d.b. Jacques Ngoun. "Les Pygmées et l'exploitation forestière industrielle : cas des Bagyeli du Sud-Cameroun." Paper presented at the International Conference on the Conservation of Forest Ecosystems and the Development of the South and East of Cameroon, Yaoundé, 16-17 February 1999. <http://www.heritiers.org/bagyelicameroun.html> [Accessed 1 Dec. 2003]

Logo, Patrice Bigombe. 2000. "Pesenteurs culturelles, connaissance et exercice des droits de l'homme des Pygmées Bakola - Bagyeli, 50 ans après la Déclaration universelle : état des lieux et tendances d'évolution." <http://www.hri.ca/partners/aga/publication/cirepe2/pdg8.shtml> [Accessed 3 Dec. 2003]

United Nations. 20 July 1998. Human Rights Commission. La réalisation des droits économiques, sociaux et culturels : la question des sociétés transnationales. (E/CN.4/Sub.2/1998/NGO/5). <http://www.unhchr.ch/Huridocda/Huridoca.nsf/0/820e250ab2bdfeec80256663003a4a07?Opendocument> [Accessed 1 Dec. 2003]

Zognong, Dieudonné. 2000. "Profils anthropologiques des Pygmées." <http://www.hri.ca/partners/aga/publication/cirepe2/pdg12.shtml> [Accessed 8 Dec. 2003]

Attachment

Zognong, Dieudonné. 2000. "Profils anthropologiques des Pygmées." <http://www.hri.ca/partners/aga/publication/cirepe2/pdg12.shtml> [Accessed 8 Dec. 2003], 9 pp.

Additional Sources Consulted

Africa Research Bulletin: Political, Cultural and Social Series

Afrique/Asie

Amnesty International. Annual reports

L'Autre Afrique

Human Rights Watch

Keesing's Record of World Events

Resource Centre country file. Cameroon

West Africa

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Africa News

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