Edwin's story : The courage of conviction (1999)

I am a victim of torture, harassment, detention and maiming by officials of [my] state. I am denied the rights to education, research, branded a spy, refused the freedom of association, peaceful demonstration, opinion and self determination," so wrote young Cameroonian, Edwin (pictured opposite) shortly after his arrival in the United Kingdom.

Edwin, who had read English Modern Letters at university in Cameroon prior to being forced to flee into exile, hoped, given Britain's much vaunted commitment to human rights, that his plea for asylum would be quickly granted.

In reality it took several years. Despite overwhelming evidence of human rights abuses in his country of origin, where prisons guards jokingly refer to the daily beatings they administer as un petit cafe, the UK Government initially refused him refugee status, and he spent several years fearing he was about to be returned to the land that he had fled. In 2004, however, he was told his case had been reviewed and he was given refugee status.

It was 1960 when French-run East Cameroon became independent, and Britain at the same time withdrew from Southern Cameroon, leaving them to join either Nigeria or francophone Cameroon. They chose the latter and have suffered discrimination from the French-speaking majority ever since.

Edwin, from an English-speaking part of Cameroon, was just 15 when he was caught participating in a student demonstration protesting against plans by the Francophone majority to scrap the Anglo-Saxon system of education in his region.

He was held for three weeks - beaten, kicked and whipped with the buckled end of a belt and forced to sign confessions. Undeterred, by age 21 he was organising peaceful protest marches at what was seen as Francophone discrimination against English speakers. This would earn him further detentions and beatings. Still he continued, joining a new opposition group and co-founding a student parliament.

His university branded him a dissident and refused to let him do postgraduate studies. At one protest he was arrested by the paramilitary gendarmes and hit on the head with a rifle butt. The blow made him lose consciousness.

Later he learned he had been stripped and dragged naked along the ground before being thrown into the back of a police truck. Edwin carries permanent reminders of the treatment he received. Across the top of his head is a long scar where his skull was split by the rifle butt. There are nicks and scars on his legs from kickings in prison, and beatings have left him deaf in one ear.

Edwin was examined by Dr John Joyce, one of the doctors who works regularly at the Medical Foundation. Dr Joyce has been a doctor for more than 20 years and worked in a number of specialities including accident and emergency, intensive care medicine and psychiatry. He has prepared forensic medical reports on more than 500 torture survivors.

Dr Joyce explains the reality is that nobody but those present in a torture cell ever know definitively what is done to a person. "What we seek to find out through medical examination, and express in our reports, is if the injuries and scars we observe on clients are consistent with their account of being tortured."

He says there are also other signs that help Foundation doctors reach their findings. A genuine torture survivor will often discount scars that have been caused by non-torture events like childhood accidents or sports injuries. And there are also physiological reactions he says.

"Clients can become quite anxious discussing how they received injuries and scars. Their pupils may dilate or they may begin sweating -- it's very hard to fake these responses."

In Edwin's case Dr Joyce was convinced. His medical report reads:

"This man gives a consistent account of his torture and has numerous scars consistent with his account. Additionally he has many scars which he does not attribute to torture. These, with his mental symptoms such as poor sleep, forgetfulness and generalised anxiety do not leave me in any doubt that he has been tortured as he says."

Today Edwin, who has largely put the past behind him, works as a principal strategy and planning officer for a London local authority.

This story appeared in our Annual Review 1999/2000

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