Togolese Republic
Head of state: Gnassingbé Eyadéma
Head of government: Gabriel Messan Agbeyome Kodjo
Capital: Lomé
Population: 4.7 million
Official language: French
Death penalty: abolitionist in practice
2001 treaty ratifications/signatures: Optional Protocol to the UN Children's Convention on the involvement of children in armed conflict
Freedom of expression continued to be threatened. Prisoners of conscience were sentenced to prison terms after unfair political trials. Impunity for those responsible for human rights violations in the last two decades continued. A joint commission of inquiry by the UN and Organization of African Unity (OAU) reported on widespread human rights violations and confirmed that bodies had been found at sea and on the beaches of neighbouring Benin at the time of the 1998 presidential elections. It called for the appointment of a UN Special Rapporteur on Togo to maintain international scrutiny of the human rights situation.
Background
Initially planned for October, legislative elections were postponed to March 2002 by the Commission électorale nationale indépendante (CENI), Independent National Electoral Commission. After the opposition boycotted the March 1999 legislative elections, international mediators, including governments from the European Union (EU) and the Francophonie group of states, assisted the Togolese government and the political parties in reaching agreement in July 1999 for new legislative elections.
The postponement came amid pressures from supporters of President Eyadéma to amend the Constitution to enable him to serve a third term as President beyond 2003. The Constitution allows for only two five-year presidential terms. President Eyadéma came to power in a military coup in 1967, and was subsequently elected President in 1993 and 1998 in elections marred by extrajudicial executions, torture and detentions of opposition supporters.
In September the European Parliament condemned any attempt to amend the Constitution, and called on the Togolese authorities to hold free and transparent elections as soon as possible. It also called for an end to the climate of impunity in Togo and for those responsible for human rights violations to be brought to justice.
Torture and ill-treatment
Torture and ill-treatment by the security forces was reported to continue in places of detention and prisons. Several students and members of opposition political parties were among the victims.
- After his release from five days' detention by the gendarmerie in September, Houndjo Mawudzro, a prisoner of conscience and student activist, described being whipped with a cord and beaten on the legs and soles of his feet. He was accused of incitement to rebellion but was not formally charged. In November he was briefly re-detained for a few days, apparently in reprisal for his public statement about the torture he had suffered in detention.
At least eight political prisoners were still in prison at the end of 2001, one of whom had been convicted after an unfair trial.
In political trials in July and August, two opposition leaders were sentenced to prison terms after trials which failed to meet international standards. The presiding judge was a leading member of the ruling party and could not therefore be considered independent.
- In August Yaowvi Agboyibo, Chairman of the opposition Comité d'action pour le renouveau (CAR), Action Committee for the Renewal, was convicted of defamation of character for alleging that a person close to the ruling party supported militias responsible for human rights violations between 1996 and 1998. Yaowvi Agboyibo was sentenced to six months' imprisonment and a fine. In September, while still in prison, investigations were opened into new charges against him of criminal conspiracy. He appeared to have been imprisoned to discourage questioning of Togo's human rights record and to prevent him contesting the legislative elections.
Throughout the country conditions of detention were so harsh as to amount to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment.
The civil prison in Lomé was severely overcrowded, holding 1,200 inmates in a prison designed to accommodate a much smaller number. According to reports an average of 90 people shared a cell measuring 4m x 6m, without electric light or windows. As punishment, for example for infringing prison regulations, prisoners were beaten or put in a cell measuring 1m x 2m with 15 others. Sanitary provisions were practically non-existent. Prisoners had to pay for access to only two showers and two lavatories for the whole prison.
In February Nyabledji John reportedly died in prison in Kara, northern Togo. He was believed to have died as a result of medical neglect, lack of food, and harsh, insanitary conditions. He was the second prisoner to have died out of a group of nine Togolese refugees arrested in December 1997 in Ghana and handed back to the Togolese authorities. Most were members of the Comité togolais pour la résistance, Togolese Resistance Committee, an opposition party in exile. After being transferred to Togo, they were severely beaten at the civil prison in Lomé, with the result that they could not walk and had difficulties breathing. Nyabledji John was allegedly forced to eat sand and then refused water. In July 1998, they were transferred to prison in Kara, where conditions were life-threatening. They were still detained without charge or trial at the end of 2001 and were reported to be held in a cell without any natural light.
International Commission of Inquiry on Togo
In February an International Commission of Inquiry on Togo, set up by the UN and the OAU to verify allegations made by AI in 1999 of hundreds of extrajudicial executions in Togo at the time of presidential elections in 1998, published its report. It confirmed that local fishermen had seen a large number of bodies in the sea and on the beaches of Benin during and after presidential elections in Togo in 1998.
It concluded that those killed were mostly opposition supporters but also included criminal suspects, and that "various accounts seem to indicate that [the perpetrators] are individuals associated with the security forces, the gendarmerie and the militias that operate in tandem with the authorities. In addition to extrajudicial, summary and arbitrary executions, these elements have engaged in torture and ill-treatment of detainees, and the rape and abduction of women in certain areas." It also referred to allegations of human rights violations committed by militias which reportedly enjoy the support and encouragement of the government.
Despite assurances given to the Commission by the Togolese authorities that they would guarantee the security of witnesses, at least a dozen of those who testified before the Commission were victims of intimidation and harassment during its visit and after publication of its report. Some had to seek refuge outside Togo. Others in Benin went into hiding.
Freedom of expression and assembly
There were continued violations of the right to freedom of expression, particularly of journalists who were imprisoned as prisoners of conscience and harassed in an attempt to silence them.
Restrictions on freedom of assembly worsened after June when tensions rose during political trials. The security forces dispersed non-violent demonstrations with tear gas on several occasions. Demonstrators were arrested and in some cases detained for a few hours. Some were reportedly beaten at the time of arrest.
- In June journalist Lucien Messan was sentenced to 18 months' imprisonment, with six months suspended, for forgery in relation to a communiqué released by the Association togolaise des éditeurs de presse privée, Togolese Association of Private Press Editors. He was pardoned and released in October. The communiqué was critical of a statement made by the Prime Minister to the UN Commission on Human Rights in March.
- In October journalists Nevame Klu, Ganiou Bawa and Rigobert Bassadou were briefly detained on charges of defamation and spreading false information after they published articles critical of a member of the ruling party and a local government official. The cases against them had not proceeded by the end of 2001.
Report
- Togo: The time for accountability has finally arrived (AI Index: AFR 57/006/2001)
In October and November, AI delegates visited Benin and Ghana to meet Togolese victims of human rights abuses.
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