Dear Father,

I would be grateful if you could publicize the contents of this letter in your parish and invite parishioners who wish, to write to one or more of the addresses listed.

I am advised that the First Sunday of Advent would be an appropriate weekend for this to happen.

In May of this year, a group of representatives from the Diocese of Portsmouth spent three weeks in Cameroon at the time of that country's general elections. They report many disturbing instances of vote-rigging, despite the claims made in the Cameroon press that independent observers were satisfied with the way the pall had been conducted.

It is internationally documented that presidential elections five years ago were seriously flawed to the extent that the real results were probably changed and there is, in general a very difficult security situation in the whole country. Archbishop Paul Verdzekov has published a list of unexplained deaths of ordinary citizens, priests, nuns and a bishop. These have never been investigated. Following a spate of unexplained attacks by armed thieves, the Archbishop has had to ask all Catholic Missions to protect themselves. He has written, with the full backing of the Bishops' Conference of Cameroon about the frequent arbitrary arrests and torture of citizens for political purposes. By this and similar action, the personal security of Archbishop Paul and Cardinal Christian Tumi may well have been compromised. They have been advised on a number of occasions to be careful about who is allowed to enter their offices, but they continue to stand alongside their people who feel powerless and suffer much injustice.

The recent elections were boycotted by the main opposition parties lest their participation might appear to validate a process they deemed to be fundamentally flawed. The Catholic Bishops are in the forefront of upholding human rights and have attracted persecution and threat upon themselves. At every Mass in the Diocese of Bamenda they now recite the prayer of St. Francis for Peace.

Since the general elections there have been presidential elections. Archbishop Verdzekov asked for prayers that peace may reign in the country during and after the presidential elections.

In the coming weeks discussion will take place at a number of meetings to determine the amount of grant aid allotted to developing countries in the Commonwealth. There is much impatience felt internationally by the failure to observe human rights in several countries and it is possible that aid will be frozen where it is evident that no improvement is underway. Now that Cameroon is a member of the Commonwealth, it may be that some of you might wish to express your concern by writing your member of Parliament and any of the following.

Rt. Hon Robin Cook, MP.,
Secretary of State
Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs
Office,
Whitehall,
London SW1A 2AH

Your own MP

Rt. Hon Clare Short, MP.,
Secretary of State for International
Development,
Dept 4 International Development,
94 Victoria Street,
London SW1E 5JL

Chief Emeka Anyaoku,
Commonwealth Secretary General,
Malborough House,
Pall Mall,
London SW1Y 5HX

Mrs Glyns Kinnock, MEP Fax No. 01495 201030.

I have spoken with Archbishop Paul and he is happy with the contents of the letter.

Please pray regularly at Sunday Masses and at other times for justice and peace for the people of Cameroon and the Bamenda Diocese.

With blessings and prayers,