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Note: This document is from the archive of the Africa Policy E-Journal, published
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Togo: Recent Documents
Togo: Recent Documents
Date distributed (ymd): 990524
Document reposted by APIC
+++++++++++++++++++++Document Profile+++++++++++++++++++++
Region: West Africa
Issue Areas: +political/rights+
Summary Contents:
This posting contains two recent documents concerning the
human rights situation in Togo, one from Amnesty International
and the other from The Observatory, a joint project of the
International Federation for the Defense of Human Rights and
the World Organization against Torture. The full text of the
Amnesty International report referred to (AFR 57/01/99) can be
found at
www.amnesty.org/ailib/aipub/1999/AFR/15700199.htm or
www.amnesty.it/ailib/aipub/1999/AFR/15700199.htm
+++++++++++++++++end profile++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
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4-5, 1999.
Amnesty International
Togo: Rule of terror in a climate of impunity
5 May 1999
[The copyright for this material rests with Amnesty
International. You may repost this message provided the main
text is not significantly altered and provided that the header
crediting Amnesty International is included.
If you are a UK based journalist and require further
information please call the AIUK Press Office on 0171 814 6248
or e-mail press@amnesty.org.uk
If you are reading this page within the UK and require further
information or more information about AIUK contact the AIUK
Information Office on 0171 814 6200 or e-mail
info@amnesty.org.uk
If you are reading this page outside of the UK and require
further information about Amnesty, please contact your local
section (http://www.amnesty.org/aisect/index.html) or the
International Secretariat (http://www.amnesty.org) of
Amnesty International.
Other news on Africa from Amnesty can be found at:
http://www.amnesty.org.uk/news/press/africa.shtml]
A first step towards overturning the rule of terror in Togo
will be to end the current climate of total impunity for
murder, torture and other human rights violations, Amnesty
International said today.
In a new report, the human rights organisation describes how
Togolese police and security forces have killed and
"disappeared" people without being held accountable. Arbitrary
detentions, torture and ill-treatment -- sometimes resulting
in deaths -- and extremely harsh prison conditions also form
part of this disturbing pattern of organized repression which
has developed over many years.
"Togo's human rights crisis can only begin to be resolved if
the authorities start bringing those who kill and torture to
justice," Amnesty International said. "The international
community must also share the blame for what is happening in
Togo and stop supplying the country with arms and other
military assistance when there is a clear danger that they are
contributing to human rights violations."
The statement came as Amnesty International's Secretary
General, Pierre Sane, was preparing for a visit to Togo on
20-21 May, during which he hopes to engage in positive
dialogue about human rights with President Gnassingbe Eyadema,
who has governed the country since 1967. [Update: PANA reports
that Sane was refused admission to Togo.]
Some democratic changes were put in place in Togo in the early
1990s as a new constitution, approved in a referendum in 1992,
opened the way to political pluralism and a degree of freedom
of expression. However, it has so far failed to prevent
serious human rights violations from continuing.
Repression has been especially harsh around the last two
elections. After the results were announced in the June 1998
presidential election, hundreds of people, including members
of the military, were killed by the security forces. Corpses
were washed up on the beaches of Togo and neighbouring Benin
for days afterwards.
The hundreds of political killings and dozens of
"disappearances" in recent years in Togo are largely
attributable to members of the Forces Armees Togolaises (FAT),
Togolese Armed Forces, and the gendarmerie nationale,
paramilitary police force. The perpetrators have rarely -- if
ever -- been brought to justice.
Arbitrary detention also continues unabated. Scores of
civilians and military personnel have been detained for
months, even years, without charge or trial. The majority of
those arrested over the past four years have been detained
solely on suspicion of being "rebels" or members of an
opposition party.
During the last decade the Togolese security forces have
systematically tortured suspects. One former detainee, an
opposition party member, told Amnesty International:
"I was received at the gendarmerie headquarters by blows from
cables, rifle butts and batons all over my body. They asked me
questions about my party and accused me of being an arms
trafficker. Lieutenant S ... then ordered me to be put on a
table surrounded by soldiers. They struck me with batons and
belt buckles ... at a certain moment I fell down and had
difficulty getting up again. No one helped me to get up; they
continued to beat me to make me get up again on the table on
my own ... the next day at four o'clock in the morning the
police served me a "strong coffee" (being woken up by beating
with batons)."
Throughout the country, and particularly in the civil prison
and the gendarmerie headquarters in Lome, the capital,
detention conditions are very severe and far from meeting
international standards. Medical care and food supplies are
completely inadequate and many detainees suffer from illnesses
such as tuberculosis, for which they receive no medical
treatment.
It is essential to challenge the part played by the army, and
in particular its hierarchy, in human rights violations.
However, it is no less important to reflect on the role played
by those foreign governments which provide the Togolese
authorities with arms and other military assistance, thereby
facilitating human rights violations.
Togo continues to benefit from significant military aid from
France, the former colonial power, particularly through an
agreement on defence and on technical military assistance by
which France may be called upon to intervene at any time in
response to external invasion. The agreement reportedly also
allows for French intervention in the event of internal unrest
in Togo. It has never been made public. South Africa and Chad
have also provided Togo with military, security and police
equipment in the past.
In November and December 1998, an Amnesty International
delegation discussed the seriousness of Togo's human rights
situation with senior officials, including the Ministers of
Justice, the Interior and Defence. All expressed their
commitment to protecting and promoting human rights.
However, they refused to discuss their government's human
rights policies in detail. Despite extensive evidence of
continuing human rights violations, the authorities denied
most of the organisation's allegations and accused it of
raking up the past.
"The situation in Togo demands concrete and immediate action,"
Amnesty International said. "A country which has a
constitution that guarantees human rights, and which has
ratified almost the full panoply of international human rights
treaties, must honour its commitments at the national as well
as the international level."
Amnesty International is calling on all members of the
international community, and primarily France, to stop the
transfer to Togo of equipment which could be used to violate
human rights. The French government should also make all
military aid conditional on a human rights training programme.
Reports of human rights violations committed by the security
forces should be investigated promptly and thoroughly and
those responsible brought to justice.
URGENT APPEAL- THE OBSERVATORY
TGO 001 / 0599 / OBS 031
Arrests/ detention
Togo
17 May 1999
Kindly inform the Observatory of any action undertaken quoting
the code number of the present appeal.
[Note: After May 1999, please check with the Observatory
(observatoire@iprolink.ch) for updates before sending an
appeal based on this information.]
The Observatory, an FIDH and OMCT venture, is dedicated to the
protection of Human Rights Defenders and aims to offer them
concrete support in their time of need.
To contact the Observatory, call the Emergency Line:
Fax : 33 (0) 1 40 39 22 42 Tel.: FIDH 33 (0) 1 48 05 82 46
OMCT : + 41 22 733 31 40 E-mail: observatoire@iprolink.ch
The World Organisation Against Torture, Case Postale 119 37-39
Rue de Vermont CH1211 Geneva 20 CIC Switzerland. Fax 4122 733
1051; Ph 4122 733 3140. E-mail: omct@iprolink.ch; Web:
http://www.omct.org/
OMCT - The World Organisation Against Torture is the Worlds
largest network of human rights organisations fighting
against all forms of torture, cruel inhuman or degrading
treatment, forced disappearances summary execution or other
more subtle forms of violent repression. OMCT has
consultative status with the UN, The ILO and the African
Commission on Human and Peoples Rights.
The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders,
a joint programme of the FIDH and the OMCT, requests your
URGENT intervention in the following situation in Togo.
Brief description of the situation
The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders
has been informed by the Togo Human Rights League, member of
the FIDH, of the arrest on 3 May, 1999 of Mr. Nestor Tengue,
Mr. Francois Gayibor and Mr. Brice Santanna, members of the
Togo Association for the Defence and Promotion of Human Rights
(ATDPDH) and the arrest on 14 May, 1999 of Mr. and Mrs.
Antoine Koffi Nadjombe, members of the Togo section of Amnesty
International.
According to the information received, Mr. Tengue, Mr. Gayibor
and Mr. Santanna are currently being detained in the Lome
prison, accused of having provided Amnesty International with
information on human rights violations in Togo. The most
recent report on Togo by Amnesty International documents the
appearance of bodies on the beaches of Togo and Benin for at
least four days, during and after the presidential elections
of June 1998. The people arrested deny having provided such
information. The Amnesty report was given to the Togo
authorities days before its official appearance on 5 May, 1999
and was dismissed as "a tissue of lies".
Mr. Antoine Koffi Nadjombe, Philosophy professor at the
protestant college of Lome, has also been arrested for his
role as a member of Togo's Amnesty International. He is
currently in police custody in the National Criminal
Investigation Department in the capital Lome. His wife was
released on 17 May, 1999. Their arrest took place following a
search of their home.
The Observatory considers these arrests and detentions to be
arbitrary and constitute a serious obstacle to the freedom of
action of Human Rights defenders in Togo.
Action Requested:
Please write to the authorities urging that they:
i take appropriate measures to guarantee the physical and
psychological integrity of Mr. Nestor Tengue, Mr. François
Gayibor, Mr. Brice Santanna and Mr. Antoine Koffi Nadjombe;
ii immediately release the above mentioned persons in the
absence of the valid charges;
iii adopt the necessary measures to ensure that human rights
organisations and their members, notably Mr. Nestor Tengue,
François Gayibor, Brice Santanna and Antoine Koffi Nadjombe
are allowed to carry out their work freely ;
iv. ensure the implementation of the provisions of the
Declaration on Human Rights Defenders adopted by the UN
General Assembly on December 9 1998 (Declaration concerning
the rights and responsibilities of individuals, groups and
institutions to promote and protect universally recognised
human rights and fundamental liberties ) in particular its
Article 1 which provides that "Every person has the right,
individually or collectively, to promote the protection and
fulfilment of human rights and fundamental liberties at the
national and international level." and article 6b which
states "Everyone has the right, individually and in
association with others, freely to publish, impart or
disseminate to others views, information and knowledge or all
human rights and fundamental freedoms;"
v. guarantee the effective respect of fundamental human
rights and freedoms in accordance with the provisions of the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the universal and
regional Pacts and Covenants ratified by Togo.
Addresses:
Prime Minister. Fax : (228) 21-37-53;
Minister with responsibility for Democracy and the Rule of Law
(Human Rights); fax: (228) 21 19 73.
Geneva - Paris, 17th May 1999
This material is being reposted for wider distribution by the
Africa Policy Information Center (APIC). APIC's primary
objective is to widen the policy debate in the United States
around African issues and the U.S. role in Africa, by
concentrating on providing accessible policy-relevant
information and analysis usable by a wide range of groups and
individuals.
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