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Raids and fear persist in Togo
06/05/2005 09:20 - (SA)
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Togolese refugees at a camp in Come, Benin about 30kms from the Benin-Togo border as nearly 20 000 people fled the tiny nation when Faure Gnassingbe, son of the country's late strongman won the presidential elections and street battles erupted. (Erick-Christian Ahounou, AP) |
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Lome - For years, Foli Nyassia watched as his neighbours were beaten, arrested and snatched away in the night by soldiers under Togo's late dictator.
A newly elected president — and son of the late dictator — professes to have embraced democracy and vows to unite his divided country. But Nyassia says little has changed in his opposition—dominated neighbourhood of Be, located in eastern Lome.
There, the disputed end—of—April recent presidential victory of Faure Gnassingbe, who took the oath of office on Wednesday, was followed by days of clashes, more deadly night-time visits by soldiers, and the flight of thousands of terrified residents across the borders to neighbouring Ghana and Benin.
Only last week, the dusty streets of Be were filled with young machete-wielding youth burning barricades and firing stones with slingshots at soldiers, who answered with volleys of tear gas and flash-bang grenades. Now only an eerie silence remains, with most of the streets empty except for mounds of rotting garbage, dilapidated shacks and burnt husks of cars destroyed in the rioting.
The raids and harassment has forced many of Be's residents to flee the country starting on Thursday, when the government opened its borders. Over 20 000 refugees have crossed into Benin and Ghana, United Nations officials say.
The worst of the violence appears over, but residents of opposition neighbourhoods and refugees who have left in recent days still report sporadic raids.
The government has repeatedly denied targeting innocent civilians in opposition neighbourhoods.
For all his talk of reform, Gnassingbe was a member of his father's Cabinet and has never clearly denounced Togo's brutal past. Even if he were a democrat at heart, it is not clear to what extent he can control the military.
Last week, Nyssia said he watched soldiers force a man, who was crippled by polio, out of a nearby church to dismantle barricades that had been built by demonstrators. As the man struggled to walk, said Nyassia, the soldiers shot him in the stomach, then dragged him to join the work gang of other terrified residents.
After past elections in 1993, 1998 and 2003, the government under the late dictator Gnassingbe Eyadema routinely sent soldiers into opposition neighbourhoods like Be, Nyekonakpoe and Adamavo to crush demonstrations. Raids would continue after the votes, as troops came looking for opposition leaders who were suspected of hiding in resident's homes.
In Nyekonakpoe, residents doubt Gnassingbe will be any different from his father, despite promises of uniting the political parties and finding work for Togo's thousands of restless youth.
"Faure's father never gave me anything to eat, and neither will he," said one man in Nyekonakpoe, who only gave his first name, Amidou. "We all want the same things, but we only get the same problems."
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