Following Paul Biya Stay in Switzerland, Reporter Gets into Trouble

(Key­stone / Mar­tial Trezzi­ni) Cour­tesy Swiss Info

Geneva’s Inter­con­ti­nen­tal Hotel fre­quent­ly hosts inter­na­tion­al meet­ings, top politi­cians and oth­er VIPs — and is occa­sion­al­ly the scene of demonstrations

The Anglo­phone cri­sis in Cameroon which picked up steam in late 2016 and con­tin­ues to this moment has degen­er­at­ed from what was described then as a near-civ­il war into what is now seen as a full-blown civ­il war between sep­a­ratists and the Cameroon­ian mil­i­tary. The casu­al­ties on both sides con­tin­ue to mount. 

The Inter­na­tion­al Cri­sis Group (ICG) which pre­dict­ed the cri­sis many years before it hap­pened and issued warn­ings says about 1850 peo­ple have died and about 530,000 have become refugees as a result of the con­flict. Even more, the Anglo­phone ter­ri­to­ries of the North­west and South­west regions have become unsafe for travel.

Unable to resolve the sit­u­a­tion for almost three years, the inter­na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty; the Unit­ed Nations (UN), the Euro­pean Union (EU), the Unit­ed States, Switzer­land, and oth­er gov­ern­ments have made over­tures to the Biya admin­is­tra­tion to medi­ate and bring peace to the coun­try. Exact­ly how this will be accom­plished is not clear at this time.

While on vaca­tion in Switzer­land and stay­ing at the Inter­con­ti­nen­tal Hotel in Gene­va, Pres­i­dent Paul Biya, 86, and his entourage came under heavy protests from Cameroo­ni­ans opposed to his gov­ern­ment, who want­ed the pres­i­dent and his team to leave the hotel. Biya has been pres­i­dent of Cameroon for almost 37 years. 

Accord­ing to Reporters With­out Bor­ders, a scuf­fle took place on June 26 between the Biya secu­ri­ty team in Gene­va and the pro­test­ers which led to clash­es out­side the hotel premis­es where Biya was stay­ing. In the process, Swiss jour­nal­ist, Adrien Krause, work­ing for RTS (Radio Tele­vi­sion Suisse) and cov­er­ing the events was report­ed­ly roughed up and “slight­ly injured” by Biya’s secu­ri­ty team.

On June 28, the RTS pub­lished a sto­ry on the sub­ject on its web­site stat­ing that “Un jour­nal­iste de la RTS a été agressé mer­cre­di à Genève par des prob­a­bles gardes du corps du prési­dent camer­ounais Paul Biya, devant l’hô­tel Inter­con­ti­nen­tal. Le chef d’E­tat africain y séjourn­erait depuis dimanche.”

The sto­ry goes on to state that there was con­fu­sion fol­low­ing the protests, and in the process of record­ing the sto­ry, the said reporter was assault­ed by the Cameroon­ian secu­ri­ty forces and some of his belong­ings tak­en away. Those belong­ings have since been returned accord­ing to oth­er media reports on the matter.

“Sur place pour cou­vrir l’événe­ment, Adrien Krause, cor­re­spon­dant pour la radio au bureau genevois de la RTS, est témoin d’une charge d’une dizaine d’hommes, qui venaient de sor­tir de l’hô­tel, sur les man­i­fes­tants. S’il ne peut pas affirmer qu’il s’agis­sait du ser­vice de sécu­rité du prési­dent Biya, il indique que ces per­son­nes avaient des car­rures de gardes du corps. Dans cette con­fu­sion, le jour­nal­iste de la RTS filme la scène. C’est alors que les prob­a­bles agents de sécu­rité l’a­gressent: ils l’im­mo­bilisent et lui arrachent son sac, con­tenant la majorité de son matériel pro­fes­sion­nel. Son porte-mon­naie et son télé­phone portable sont égale­ment sub­til­isés. Les agresseurs retour­nent alors dans l’hô­tel avec toutes ses affaires.”

Exact­ly how the reporter got in the mid­dle of the tus­sle, to the extent that he was roughed up and his belong­ings seized, is not clear. All we know is that there was con­fu­sion, accord­ing to these reports. 

Swiss Info (SWI), asso­ci­at­ed with the Swiss Broad­cast­ing Cor­po­ra­tion (SBC) says the Swiss gov­ern­ment took diplo­mat­ic steps and com­plained to the Cameroon­ian gov­ern­ment fol­low­ing the inci­dent. The Swiss Info report states:

“The inci­dent is sen­si­tive as it comes after the Swiss for­eign min­istry just announced that Switzer­land was act­ing as a facil­i­ta­tor in the cri­sis in north-west­ern and south-west­ern Cameroon at the request of the par­ties involved. A sec­ond prepara­to­ry meet­ing with var­i­ous Cameroon­ian oppo­si­tion groups took place in can­ton Valais, Switzer­land, this week, hence the pres­ence of Biya in Gene­va. An ini­tial meet­ing was held in Gene­va in May.” The Swiss protes­ta­tion turned to the ques­tion of free­dom of the press in Switzer­land, with the gov­ern­ment issu­ing a state­ment that said free­dom of the press of pro­tect­ed in the coun­try and must be respected.

This AP sto­ry, recy­cled by media around the world, includ­ing ABC News and the Wash­ing­ton Post, says 6 of the Cameroon­ian leader’s secu­ri­ty forces had been arrest­ed by Swiss author­i­ties fol­low­ing the inci­dent. The AP sto­ry described the cause like this:

“The inci­dent took place as the jour­nal­ist was cov­er­ing demon­stra­tors who had gath­ered at the Inter­con­ti­nen­tal Hotel, a favored venue for high-lev­el offi­cials in Gene­va, where Biya was stay­ing.” The sto­ry does not say how the reporter got involved except that he was roughed up and some of his belong­ings seized and damaged.

Of the 6 peo­ple arrest­ed and appeared in Court, “a woman, had been released as she held a diplo­mat­ic pass­port,” accord­ing to the British Broad­cast­ing Cor­po­ra­tion (BBC).

Accord­ing to this Agence France-Presse (AFP) sto­ry pub­lished by Busi­ness Day, “At the week­end, hun­dreds of angry pro­tes­tors tried to reach the hotel to “expel” the pres­i­dent, but were pushed back by riot gear-clad police fir­ing on the demon­stra­tors with a water can­non and tear gas.” 

The cov­er­age of the sto­ry from media around the world has only added to more neg­a­tive per­cep­tions of Biya’s lead­er­ship of Cameroon. The pres­i­dent and his wife, Chan­tal, returned home on July 5, accord­ing to state media in Yaounde, Cameroon Radio and Tele­vi­sion (CRTV).