CAMEROON: Rights campaigners say Cameroon must investigate the brutal killing of gay rights activist Eric Lembembe

Record ID: 277923

  • Title: CAMEROON: Rights campaigners say Cameroon must investigate the brutal killing of gay rights activist Eric Lembembe
  • Date: 22nd July 2013
  • Summary: VIEW OF NEWSPAPER STORY ON THE DEATH OF LEMBEMBE/ HEADLINE READING IN FRENCH: "DETAILS AROUND THE DEATH OF ERIC LEMBEMBE UNCLEAR"
  • Embargoed: 6th August 2013 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Cameroon
  • Country: Cameroon
  • Topics: General,Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVAAVBYL8LENDB8BCFFMH5W7YCI0
  • Story Text: Mbollo Ohena, the mother of murdered Cameroonian journalist and gay rights activist Eric Ohena Lembembe, doesn't know if she will ever come to terms with the death of her son.
    Lembembe was found dead in his home in the capital Yaounde last week. His neck was broken, his feet smashed and his face burned with a clothes iron.
    "The way my son died: beaten, burnt, his head was smashed and his body left to rot," said a tearful Ohena.
    Lembembe's murder came less than two weeks after he released a statement condemning attacks by "anti-gay thugs".
    Ohena has been meeting with lawyers from rights groups in the country and the international organisation, Reporters Without Borders, in the hopes of getting justice for her son.
    "Eric's death leaves me speechless, astonished, shocked. And somewhere inside of me, I have a lot of anger because I have a feeling, if not a certainty, that his death could could have been avoided," said aid lawyer and gay rights activist Alice Nkom, who has herself received death threats.
    The police said they have opened an investigation.
    Human Rights Watch said past investigations into similar attacks had failed to find any suspects.
    Lembembe's death has stayed largely out of the press, except for a few articles published days after his death.
    The US and France are among countries that have expressed concern over the killing.
    "All these countries, through their representatives have rejected this type of violence, no to barbarism. But I have not heard Eric's own country say anything; radios are silent. It's as if it was a mosquito that was killed, or a bug that gives a disease like AIDS. Nothing!" said Nkom.
    On the streets of Yaounde, the gay rights issue remains as controversial as ever. Homosexuality is illegal in many parts of Africa.
    "We cannot excuse murder, murder is obviously unacceptable. If that was the aim of the killers, we cannot condone it. But the problem of homosexuality itself should not be a debate in Africa. The homosexuality debate cannot be imposed on us. We have much bigger problems," said Sylvere Ze Ole, a teacher.
    "As a journalist, he was doing his investigations and he was caught in the middle. So... was has murdered as a journalist or as a homosexual? That remains to be seen," said Michel Essogo, a resident of Yaounde.
    Lembembe helped research a Human Rights Watch report released in March detailing systematic abuses of homosexual people and campaigners, including discriminatory treatment by officials, illegal arrests and torture.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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