Black Business
Director Osvalde Lewat
Countries
Duration 88 min
Synopsis
The title, with bitter irony, refers to the very serious events in Douala between 2000 and 2001, which were totally ignored by the international press. The “commandement opérationnel”, a special unit of the Cameroon army, sent to the city to fight the local petty crime, claimed more than a thousand victims. With questionable methods, often on the basis of simple denouncements, and with absurd violence, the soldiers “cleaned up” the neighbourhoods deemed rough. The account by a former soldiers of the death squads who describes how the executions took place is horrifying. The victims’ families who have never heard any more of their loved ones stage, out of protest but also to give peace to the souls of the deceased, a symbolic funeral. There is no particular indignation by public opinion, no protest against the government, no defence of human life. When the director asks the people in the streets if they want the special unit to come back, they answer in the affirmative.
The title, with bitter irony, refers to the very serious events in Douala between 2000 and 2001, which were totally ignored by the international press. The “commandement opérationnel”, a special unit of the Cameroon army, sent to the city to fight the local petty crime, claimed more than a thousand victims. With questionable methods, often on the basis of simple denouncements, and with absurd violence, the soldiers “cleaned up” the neighbourhoods deemed rough. The account by a former soldiers of the death squads who describes how the executions took place is horrifying. The victims’ families who have never heard any more of their loved ones stage, out of protest but also to give peace to the souls of the deceased, a symbolic funeral. There is no particular indignation by public opinion, no protest against the government, no defence of human life. When the director asks the people in the streets if they want the special unit to come back, they answer in the affirmative.