Military Blocks March Against Cameroon Chief

DOUALA, Cameroon — Government troops and police blocked a protest march Sunday by thousands of pro-democracy campaigners in the port of Douala. The marchers were demanding the ouster of President Paul Biya.

Troops with rifles and police with riot shields formed a cordon to block the march by about 50,000 people, who chanted, “Biya thief!” The protesters refused to move, and the standoff continued into the night.

An army general, appointed by Biya last week to restore order in the restive Douala area, personally led the military operation.

Gen. Jean-Rene Youmba arrived at the scene of the march earlier, accompanied by five officers.

Dressed in battle fatigues and armed with a rifle and a pistol, he met with march leaders in an effort to prevent the procession from passing through the administrative section of the economic capital.

A compromise appeared to have been reached, and the march continued briefly, bypassing the sealed-off administrative area.

It was not clear why the procession was halted again.

The march is part of a campaign organized by opposition leaders to force Biya to convene a national conference to discuss the end of his nine-year, one-party rule.

Residents scrambled to stock up with supplies before a national shutdown, which is part of the campaign.

Frantic homemakers crammed the city market snapping up cooking oil, kerosene and other goods.

“Tomorrow is a day of mourning. Everything will come to a standstill,” declared opposition spokesman Bille Same of the Social Movement for New Democracy.

At least four people were killed in Douala on Thursday in clashes between police and pro-democracy demonstrators when opposition leaders called for strikes in Cameroon’s main towns.

Douala, focal point of the campaign to end Biya’s rule, was paralyzed last Thursday and Friday as shopkeepers, taxi drivers and other workers obeyed the strike call.

The capital, Yaounde, was reported calm but residents of the northern town of Garoua said bands of youths had set up barricades of burning tires and were stopping cars.

Biya has yielded to opposition clamor for greater democracy by legalizing multi-party politics and appointing a prime minister. But he has flatly rejected the notion of a national conference on his rule.

Signaling that he could use force to crack down on the democracy campaign, Biya last week named Jean Fochive, the feared security police chief, to take charge of all police operations.