Cameroon arrests activists, faces rights criticism

YAOUNDE Feb 24 (Reuters) - Authorities in Cameroon have arrested 25 separatist activists from a movement that has called for independence for the former French colony's English-speaking minority, the group and police said on Tuesday.

The Southern Cameroon National Council (SCNC) said the activists were arrested in Tiko, 50 km (30 miles) west of the southern city of Douala, where they went to support a colleague standing trial for holding an illegal meeting last October.

"The trial was adjourned and the leaders retired for a meal ... when they were surrounded by 14 (soldiers from) occupation forces and arrested," the group said in a press release.

The arrests late on Monday follow accusations at the weekend by a human rights group that the authorities have failed to launch proper investigations into how 139 people were killed and thousands more arrested during demonstrations in February 2008.

Cameroon, West and central Africa's largest economy except for Nigeria, was hit by four days of riots a year ago, sparked by the rising cost of living last year and exacerbated by President Paul Biya's moves to extend his 25-year rule.

Monday's arrests were confirmed by Jules Marcelin Njaga, a local police spokesman in Cameroon's Southwest Province, who said the activists were being held for "holding an illegal meeting" and "threatening public order".

The separatists say they are defending an English-speaking minority estimated at 5 million people against discrimination and marginalisation at the hands of a French-speaking government which has denied the problem exists.

The activists want separation from the French-speaking part of Cameroon, which they joined in 1961 following independence from European colonial rule.

Amnesty International last month accused Cameroon's security forces of routinely using excessive force, including killing civilians, to stifle protests against the government.

It warned the situation could deteriorate ahead of elections in 2011, in which Biya is free to stand after a constitutional amendment that was a root cause of bloody protests last year.

A report issued by the Douala-based National Human Rights Observatory (ONDH) over the weekend criticised the government for failing to investigate and punish those accused of summary executions or shooting at demonstrators with live bullets.

It called the response of the security forces, who used helicopters and tanks, disproportionate and said Biya had aggravated, rather than resolved, the root causes of the riots.

"Even if the situation seems stable in Cameroon today, the brutality of the security forces in 2008 and the impunity since show that Cameroon has no rule of law, which is necessary for a more stable future for the country," the report said.

Cameroon produces some 90,000 barrels of oil per day, half its peak in the 1980s. But the Gulf of Guinea nation is seeking billions of dollars of investments into mining and hydro electric power projects. (Writing by David Lewis; Editing by Louise Ireland and Alistair Thomson)