(Message to my fellow US citizens)
Togo has known throughout its tormented history two types of colonization, i.e. the German and the French one.
Many readers might ignore that the Republic of Togo was one of the first African countries to demand its independence from France.
After accedening to its independence in 1960, Togo fell under the despotic rule of the military class from January 1963 on. Then, the first military coup in the tortuous history of Black Africa took place. It is to be remembered that Togo's first and lamented president Sylvanus Olympio was the victim of a military coup and killed within the precincts of the United States embassy by Gnassinbbe Eyadema (the coup plotter) himself...
From 1963 until the decade of the Eighties, Togo was under a military regime presided over by Gnassingbe Eyadema. It was clearly and evidently a regime based upon terror tactics. Under it, there was no civil or personal liberty to begin with...arbitrary arrests, nepotism, corruption, cult of the personality and other evils were characteristic of the regime.
Unfortunately (and as it has been the case with all the former French colonies), the Eyadema despotic regime benefited from its inception from the active support of all French governments, even those that identified themselves as "Left winged and progressive"...
After the fall of the Berlin Wall, following the freedom way that for a while and without the expected results captured the imagination of humanity at large, the Eyadema regime was challenged by the Togolese people who wanted to have access to real democracy. After paying a blood price (some hundreds of victims, for example, the twenty-seven dead whose corpses were found floating in a lake at Lome), there was a National Sovereign Convention gathered at Lome, Togo's capital, in 1991, which decided to open the doors to true and verifiable democracy in Togo. The Convention elected a prime minister as chief of government, while Eyadema remained as president, i.e. chief of state. Many Togolese citizens who remember that moment still talk about it as a unique and unforgettable experience whose remembrance brings tears to their eyes.
Nevertheless, all along this political process Eyadema and his stooges have tried to impede it. Thus, in December 3rd. 1991 the whole world was astonished at the news that the prime minister (Joseph Kokou Koffigoh), elected by the National Sovereign Convention, was the victim of yet another military coup and subsequently arrested following Eyadema's instructions. Prime Minister Koffigoh appealed to the French (so called Socialist) government by virtue of a mutual defense agreement between both countries. The French government, to its eternal shame, did not heed this appeal to save Togo's incipient democracy.
If the abused term 'barbarian' has to be used properly, it could be applied to the Eyadema regime. Let us remind our readers that in 1993,when the European Union decided to send a mission presided over by the French and German Ministers of International Cooperation, in order to help Togo emerge from its situation of permanent and institutional crisis, a massacre was staged by the regime at the Jardin Freau whose toll was more than three hundred dead. Since that tragic occasion, the countries integrationg the European Union (with the shameful exception of France) decide to interrupt all sort of cooperation with Togo.
It is really impossible to refer all the horrors, humiliations, and acts of despotism of which the Togolese people have been a victim during these fifty years. And yet, throughout this tragic chapter in their history, the Togolese people have tried to achieve democracy through peaceful and non violent means. Today, the Togolese people are tried, tortured and experiencing a feeling of less than bening neglect from the other countries integrating the international community.
Togo is today one of the poorest countries in the world. Togo's economy is essentially based on agriculture and the exportation of phosphates; therefore, it finds itself in a shambles. There is a scarcity of virtually everything in that African country. Hospitals are in a deplorable state. The University is totally unfunctional. Even worse, Togolese 'intelligentsia' as well as many youth have left the country to live in Europe or in these United States of America.
In that chaotic context, the unexpected death of Eyadema last February (unfortunately or perhaps fortunately) was seen by the majority of the Togolese as a relief. Sadly, hope did not last for a long time. The Togolese army (ignoring all laws and even Togo's constitution) decided to impose as chief of state Eyadema's sob, Faure Gnassingbe, with the not so tacit approval of Jacques Chirac's France. Our readers should know that Jacques Chirac had identified the unlamented dictator Eyadema Gnassingbe "his personal friend". Thanks to the pressures of the progressive sectors of the international community, Faure Gnassingbe was forced to quit an usurped power that he has reacquired, after the massive fraud perpetrated against the will of the Togolese, on April 24th 2005 and again with the active and criminal participation of the Togolese armed forces. Today, May 3rd. 2005, it has been asserted that the popular action against this fraud has already caused more than one hundred victims in Togo and has been the cause of an exodus of about twenty thousand refugees to the neighboring countries of Benin and Ghana.
All political analysts worth the name are in agreement that this dilemma is jeopardizing the peace in the region and could bring about the reality of war once more to the African continent.
I bring these comments to an end by asking the readers: How long is it possible to keep silent? How many Togolese will have to die before there is a reaction by the international community that goes beyond empty words of condemnation?...
I conclude by bring to your conscience the words of the great Cuban patriot and promoter of Pan American union, Jose Marti: "An affront to the dignity of anyone becomes an insult to the dignity of everyone".
USA, May 4, 2005
Adrian J. Alpendre, LL.D., Ph.D. Adrian_alpendre@yahoo.com
Acknowledgement: I thank Mr. Kossi Assogbavi for his scholarly research that made possible for me to write this essay. AJA.
Nota Bene: For further witness of the Togolese reality, visit www.assassinstogo.com
