Togo’s army sealed its borders on Sunday and put Faure Gnassingbe in power following the death of his father, President Gnassingbe Eyadema. The African Union condemned the move as ”a military coup d’état”.
Eyadema (69) Africa’s longest-serving ruler after 38 years in power, died on Saturday, apparently of a heart attack, shortly before he was to fly to Europe for medical treatment. Hours later the Togolese army high command announced that his son had been sworn in as president to prevent a ”vacuum of power”. State television broadcast pictures of Gnassingbe (39) who had been his father’s Minister of Mines, shaking hands with generals.
Togo’s Constitution stipulated that the speaker of Parliament should run the country until elections are held, within 60 days.
However an extraordinary session of the 81-member national assembly, dominated by Eyadema’s ruling Togo People’s Rally party, met and overwhelmingly approved Gnassingbe as speaker of Parliament by a vote of 67 to 14. It then passed a constitutional amendment allowing him to fulfill his father’s term, which expires in 2008. Addressing Parliament, Gnassingbe said: ”Togo is engaged without reserve in the democratic process, which I will pursue to its logical conclusion.”
Earlier, the speaker of Parliament, Fanbare Tchaba, tried to return from Paris to Togo’s capital, Lomé, on the West African coast, but his plane was turned away and routed to Benin. Before Parliament met, the European Union had warned Togo’s new rulers to respect its Constitution. Louis Michel, the EU’s commissioner for development and humanitarian aid, said: ”Any other steps [than following the Constitution] could only put at risk the country’s stability, the internal political dialogue, as well as the prospects for improvement of relations with the EU.”
Alpha Oumar Konare, commissioner of the AU’s headquarters in Ethiopia, said: ”What’s happening in Togo needs to be called by its name: it’s a seizure of power by the military, a military coup d’etat.”
He said an urgent meeting of west African heads of state would be called to discuss the situation in Togo. President Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria, chairperson of the AU, said it would not condone any unconstitutional transfer of power in Togo.
The US state department issued a statement encouraging Togo ”to move toward a full and participatory democracy. This must be the goal for the people of Togo.”
The UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan, said he hoped Togo would ensure a peaceful transfer of power in line with the Constitution.
Born in 1935, Eyadema, a former wrestling champion, led a military coup in 1963 which installed a civilian president. Four years later he seized power in his own name.
He was known for running a system of system of patronage and corruption in which he tolerated no opposition.
Togo remains an agricultural economy, with a third of its 5,5-million people living in poverty. Eyadema was known as a personal friend of the French president, Jacques Chirac. France, Togo’s former colonial ruler, has troops based in Lomé which went on alert on Sunday, the French defence minister said.
Eyadema’s death comes as his government was trying to improve relations with the EU, which froze aid in 1993 because of what it called ”democratic deficiencies”. Under a deal made in April 2004, Eyadema agreed to hold a parliamentary election this year. – Guardian Unlimited Â