PRESS CONFERENCE BY CAMEROON–NIGERIA MIXED COMMISSION

PRESS CONFERENCE BY CAMEROON–NIGERIA MIXED COMMISSION

Members of the Cameroon-Nigeria Mixed Commission, including its chairman, Ahmedou Ould Abdallah, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for West Africa; Amadou Ali, Minister of Justice and Keeper of the Seals of Cameroon; and Bola Ajibola, former Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Nigeria, asked the media for support in the peaceful settlement of the border dispute between the two countries.

Opening a press conference at Headquarters this morning, Mr. Abdallah said media support was necessary because, as the approach to a settlement was peaceful, without bloodshed or genocide, it invited no headlines.  However, implementation of the 10 October 2002 International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruling on the land and maritime dispute between Cameroon and Nigeria was an important and not costly exercise that needed support.  The delegation of the Mixed Commission was here to meet with the Secretary-General and senior officials as well as with the permanent representatives of countries concerned by the situation.

He said the ICJ ruling had been followed up through dialogue, disengagement, and transfer of authority and administration from areas under Nigerian or Cameroon jurisdiction -– a process that had been completed around the northern part of the border last December.  Those efforts would be followed by confidence-building measures and political and diplomatic efforts to ensure a “win-win situation” for the countries involved and the international community.

Mr. Ali said the Mixed Commission had been established on 15 December 2002 in Geneva under the aegis of the Secretary-General to implement the ICJ ruling “in a spirit of respect for the rights of the populations affected by the decision”.  Implementation involved demarcation of the border and confidence-building measures to be taken by the two heads of State “so that the fraternal relations between Cameroon and Nigeria, which have prevailed ever since independence, can be restored”.

He said he was aware of the fact that the media were only interested when “things are going badly”, but for once in Africa, two heads of State had decided to do things “in the most civilized way possible”.

Mr. Ajibola said that for the past 500 years, Africa had been plagued by many misfortunes, including 200 years of slave trade and 100 years of colonization.  During colonization, lines had arbitrarily been drawn across ethnic and economic groups, resulting in expensive and unbearable armed conflicts such as those in Angola, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Burundi, Rwanda, Ethiopia and Eritrea, Sierra Leone and Liberia.  Now Africa was prepared to resolve its problems by dialogue.  The current exercise was a unique example on the continent that showed the world “that we can resolve our problems on our own”.

It was not all talk, he continued.  Since the Commission started work a year ago, many problems had been resolved, and he was encouraged by the support received so far.  In the Lake Chad basin, for instance, 33 villages had been surrendered by Nigeria to Cameroon peacefully.  Cameroon had done the same in another area.  Assistance was needed to move forward in areas such as border demarcation, withdrawal, and settling the maritime and BakassiPeninsula issues.  Confidence-building measures included construction of a road linking Nigeria and Cameroon in the south and work around the Lake Chad basin to get water back, as the lake had shrunk from 30,000 to 3,000 square kilometres.

Asked what kind of support the Commission needed, Mr. Abdallah said the two countries and the United Nations were seeking diplomatic support to encourage the two countries to move forward.  Media support was needed to help in moderating some extremist groups in both countries by stressing that the alternative to peace was war.  Financial support was needed for demarcation, which would cost $12 million.  The two countries had contributed $3 million each.  The programme of confidence-building measures and activities also needed support, as did those addressing environmental problems in the south.

Mr. Ajibola added that subsequent to implementation of the ruling, assistance would be needed for the affected population, including displaced persons.

Answering another correspondent’s question, Mr. Ali said the timetable for demarcation had been set at 96 weeks, but demarcation was behind schedule because of financial problems.  He hoped that process would be concluded by the end of 2005.

Commenting on the fact, mentioned by a correspondent, that some people on both sides had protested resettling of populations, Mr. Ali said the affected populations were not adequately informed.  The border-demarcation did not require populations to move.  They were entitled to remain.  The Cameroon side wanted simply everybody to know where exactly the border was.  He wanted the international media and the national media on both sides to do some work to get that idea across.

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