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Sunday, June 30, 2013

Re: Southern Cameroons: Mau Mau Victory: Old Empires Shiver, but Whether There is Enough in Southern Cameroons (e.g. torture, detentions, unorthodox interrogations etc.) for Successful Legal Claims Against Britain is Another Matter Altogether.

Dear Dr Tumasang,
Human rights violations - brutalities - is one issue.
Violations of the Trusteeship Statutes is a different issue.
Do well to stop looking for excuses and get on with it.
Whether there is enough for successful legal claims is another matter
altogether indeed.
How would you know whether or not there could be successful claims
when you have not even tested the waters.
You have 57-pages of record to start with.
Do you want more?

On 6/30/13, Tumasang Martin <tumasangm@hotmail.com> wrote:
> Mau
> Mau Victory: Old Empires Shiver
>
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> Saturday, 29 June 2013 00:00
> By Kamal Tayo Oropo News
> - World
>
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> User Rating: / 1
> PoorBest
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> IN what many thought would end up as another exercise in futility, a group
> of
> self-determination freedom fighter may have blazed the trail in making the
> British and other colonialists and/or their representatives admit to crimes
>
> committed against humanity.
>
> Call them Mau Mau, a nickname Kenya Land and Freedom Army (KLFA) or Uma Uma,
>
> which means 'get out get out' in Kikuyu, the outcome of their stunning legal
>
> battle against the United Kingdom, for the systemic violence committed
> during
> the group's struggle for self-determination, is unprecedented.
>
> Indeed, apart from Germany, which was made to pay for Holocaust crimes
> committed against the Jews, the world has hardly witnessed any foreign power
>
> found guilty of misdeeds against the locals.
>
> On Thursday, June 6, 2013, nearly 200 elderly Kikuyu people traveled from
> their rural homesteads and sat before the British high commissioner in
> Nairobi.
> Over half a century had passed since many were last in front of a British
> official. It was a different era then in Kenya. The Mau Mau war was raging,
> and
> Britain was implementing coercive policies that left indelible scars on the
>
> bodies and minds of countless men and women suspected of subversive
> activities.
>
> In the 1950s they experienced events in colonial detention camps that few
> imagined possible. On this historic day they gathered to witness another
> unimaginable thing: the much-delayed colonial gesture at reconciliation. The
>
> High Commissioner read extracts from William Hague's earlier statement in
> parliament. Hague acknowledged for the first time that the elderly Kikuyu
> and
> other Kenyans had been subjected to torture and other horrific abuses during
> the
> Mau Mau insurgency. On behalf of the British government he expressed
> "sincere
> regret" that these abuses had taken place, announced payments of £2,600 to
> each
> of 5,200 vetted claimants, and urged that the process of healing for both
> nations begin.
>
> The faces of the elderly camp survivors betrayed the day's historical
> significance. Tears rolled down faces lined from years of internalised pain
> and
> bitterness. Many sat motionless as the High Commissioner read the statement.
>
> Others let out audible gasps, and cries of joy. Some burst into songs.
>
> Yet, the Mau Mau victory is not only theirs as Britain's acknowledgement of
>
> colonial era torture may have opened as many intended doors. Kenya was not
> alone. British colonial repression was systematised and honed in many parts
> of
> Africa and several other parts of the world including Palestine, Malaya,
> Cyprus,
> Aden, Northern Ireland and elsewhere, British coercive counter-insurgency
> tactics evolved, as did brutal interrogation techniques. The Mau Mau
> detention
> camps were but one site in a broader policy of end-of-empire incarceration,
>
> torture and cover-up.
>
> In the wake of its announcement, Britain now faces potential claims from
> across its former empire. From a historical perspective, the government has
>
> every reason to be concerned about its legacy. There is unequivocal evidence
> of
> colonial brutalities in many former colonies. Whether there is enough for
> successful legal claims is another matter altogether.
>
> Britain is, however, not alone. Alleged atrocities of Portugal, the first
> and
> the last colonial power to leave Africa, are legendary. The Portuguese
> misdeeds
> are rivaled only by those of France, particularly in Algeria and Conakry
> (Guinea), Belgium in Congo and Germany in Namibia. Dutch and Italian
> atrocities
> are not exempted
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