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Las Vegas SUN

May 04, 2005

# Togo Refugees Weigh Not Returning Home

By VIRGILE AHISSOU
ASSOCIATED PRESS

COME, Benin (AP) -

Hundreds of West Africa's newest refugees cower under tents of plastic sheeting, many wondering when - or whether - they will make the trek back to their homeland of Togo, shaken by deadly riots after a presidential-succession crisis.

More than 20,000 Togolese have fled the nation of 5.7 million since April 26, when street battles erupted between security forces and opposition supporters after the announcement that Faure Gnassingbe, son of the country's late dictator, had been declared winner of disputed presidential elections. Gnassingbe was sworn in as president Wednesday.

Nearly two dozen people died in the election-related violence that sent refugees flooding into neighboring Ghana and Benin, where 1,500 have filled a camp at the border town of Come, within walking distance of a motherland some are unsure they want to set foot in again.

Many refugees say they are supporters of Bob Akitani, the main opposition candidate who officially won 38 percent of the vote compared with Gnassingbe's 60 percent. Akitani says the vote was rigged and claims he is Togo's rightful president.

"The people who support the president's party don't have to flee. They're the happy ones," said Codjo Dekpo, nearly disappearing inside his giant T-shirt emblazoned with Akitani's face. "If you see someone from the party in power here, it's because they came to spy on us."

The camp 22 miles from Togo is full, relief workers say. The United Nations has set up about 100 tents of plastic sheeting. Other refugees have taken shelter in church grounds or with friends, U.N. officials say.

"I'll never return to my country as long as Gnassingbe is in power," Amegnigan Kossi said as he sat under a tent.

Kossi described working as a monitor for an opposition party at a voting center in Togo's capital, Lome, during the April 24 balloting when soldiers entered.

They "came to take the ballot boxes during vote counting, but we refused," he said. "They used tear gas and even fired in the air with automatic weapons. One of them tripped me and I sprained my ankle ... I saw some of my friends killed."

Aid workers "are still hearing reports from some refugees that they have been roughed up by security forces," Michel Gaude, head the U.N.'s refugee operations in West Africa, said Wednesday.

"The situation in Togo seems calm but uneasy," Gaude said, noting that refugees were continuing to leave.

Gnassingbe Eyadema, a young soldier who seized power in 1967 and led the country for 38 years, died Feb. 5. The army appointed Gnassingbe Togo's new leader, but the African Union said the move was unconstitutional and West African nations imposed sanctions.

Amid the international outcry, the son stepped down and agreed to elections. Now, with Gnassingbe's victory viewed skeptically by many in Togo, the refugees in Come are weighing their futures.

"Even if there was a regime change, I fear that the military controlled by Faure Gnassingbe would seek revenge against us," Dekpo said. "I don't know if I will ever return to Togo."

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