Editorial: Longue Longue affair; Urgent need for expedite investigation.

Regime barons frequently remind Cameroonians of the need to respect constitutional authorities, institutions and the rule of law.

The government and its officials, especially with those who ensure peace and order in society, should, and must live by these universal values.

The world media has been agog with the scandal of a video showing popular musician, Longue Longue, being graphically tortured by people alleged to be members of the military intelligence service.

Reacting to the video in an interview with French television channel, TV5, last Friday, Longue Longue, living in exile said: “Someone called me in the United States and said I have your video...they attacked me because they are not democrats. I gave my opinion after an election, believing that it was Maurice Kamto who won the presidential election in Cameroon in 2018”.

“God sent me the video of my torturing. Who could have believed? You people will see live, how a human being was tortured like an animal,” Longue Longue told TV5.

The vocal artiste further detailed that: “Ten muscular military men, with machetes, tortured me on the sole of my legs as I cried profusely. This was while their boss was present, well dressed and recording without telling me why they were torturing me just because of my free thinking”. 

The regime critic said they “are heartless. They don’t have a heart. They were beating me as if I was an animal. No matter how loud I cried, it was not their problem because they were trained to kill”.

The video, which has left the entire nation and the international community in shock and disbelief, as well as provoked outrage that is further dragging the country’s already dampened human rights records in mud, was filmed some five years back. This was when Longue Longue was arrested in Douala by security officers in April 2019.

The video shows the popular artiste, stripped almost naked with just his underwear and panties, pressed on the floor by able-bodied men and his hands cuffed behind. His legs are stretched in between a wooden dining table chair and smashed by other suspected assailants, while he is being administered a snake-like beating, by another man with the use of a machete, on his bare feet.

After being administered severe beatings, the artiste, as seen in the video, was forced to frog jump around the torture chambers.

He is then overheard pleading for help and even apologising. Notwithstanding, he is seen being given more torture and questioned to disclose who paid him to compose a critical song against the Head of State, President Paul Biya.

“I am going to die. Please Commandant. I am sorry Papa Paul Biya,” the artiste is overheard crying out in the video.

In the same video, the voice of one of the men in the room is overheard asking the artiste: “Who sent you? We know who sent you. Beat him more...”.

As humanity reacted in indignation and awe, the Ministry of Defense promptly announced the opening of an investigation last Thursday.

The ministry said in a press release that: "A video that went viral appeared on social networks presenting a scene of violence inflicted on the musician artist, Longkana Agno Simon known as Longuè Longuè”.

“Informed of these acts of violence against a citizen, the Minister Delegate at the Presidency in charge of Defense immediately ordered the opening of an investigation by his specialised services,” continues the text, which adds that “the victim attributes this violence to elements of the Littoral military security antenna".

Shortly after the release of the Ministry of Defence, a list of the 13 alleged torturers, circulated on social media.

Widely shared on social media and in the conventional media, the video sparked numerous reactions in the public and political circles, where several commentators from the political and civil society have called for investigations and sanctions against suspected perpetrators of the attacks.

Commendably, government is on the same page with them. What is now left to be seen is a speedy investigation to prove to the world that Cameroon, as President Paul Biya has often said, is a State of law, with freedom of speech and those who infringe should be made to undergo the due process of the law, not duress.

That has been seen in the Ngarbur Massacre and the Martinez Zogo affair. The nation and humanity do not expect less in the Longue Longue affair.

This article was first published in The Guardian Post issue No:3274 of Tuesday October 29, 2024