Amnesty International Report 1994 - Togo

At least 50 people were extrajudicially executed by the security forces, who continued to perpetrate widespread human rights violations with impunity. Dozens of suspected government opponents were arrested, including possible prisoners of conscience; many were ill-treated and at least one reportedly "disappeared". In August, 21 prisoners died in detention, reportedly as a result of torture or ill-treatment. Two political prisoners were sentenced to prison terms after being convicted on the basis of evidence allegedly extracted under torture. There was continued political instability as a result of tension between the Head of State, General Gnassingbé Eyadéma, and opponents of his administration. In January President Eyadéma unilaterally reappointed Joseph Kokou Koffigoh as Prime Minister, asserting that the official period of transition agreed at a National Conference in 1991 had ended in December 1992. This undermined the power of the transitional executive body, Haut Conseil de la République, High Council of the Republic, which declared the appointment invalid. The new government formed by Prime Minister Koffigoh was increasingly criticized by le Collectif de l'opposition démocratique, the Collective of Democratic Opposition, known as COD-II, and a general strike which had begun in November 1992 continued until August. Independent human rights organizations came under pressure from the government, and opposition leaders and supporters, as well as journalists working for independent newspapers, were subject to intimidation and harassment by the security forces, and by supporters of the Rassemblement du peuple togolais (RPT), the Assembly of the Togolese People, headed by the President. RPT supporters were also attacked by opposition supporters in some areas. Over a quarter of a million citizens fled from Togo to seek refuge abroad. General Eyadéma was returned to power in the presidential election of 25 August which was widely criticized as unfair. Gilchrist Olympio, an opposition leader and victim of an assassination attempt in May 1992 (see Amnesty International Report 1993), was prevented from standing in the election, and there were many reported irregularities in the voting. A special security force, set up in April to exclude members of the army, was given the task of keeping order during the elections, under the supervision of military advisers from France and Burkina Faso. Legislative elections had not taken place by the end of the year. At least 50 people were extrajudicially executed by the security forces. They included at least 19 people who were shot dead on 25 January in Lomé, the capital, when the security forces opened fire without warning on a peaceful opposition demonstration in support of French and German government intervention in the political process in Togo. Five days later, apparently in reprisal for the killing of a soldier and a gendarme, the security forces again fired indiscriminately on civilians, killing at least five. In a related incident on 1 February, Date Issac Gbikpi-Benissan, the bodyguard of opposition leader Léopold Gnininvi, was killed by unknown assailants, believed to be members of the security forces. The Minister of Defence was ordered by General Eyadéma to open an investigation into the violence on 30 January. However, there was no evidence that an investigation actually took place. At least 20 people, including soldiers and civilians, were summarily executed following an attack on the barracks of the Régiment interarmes togolais (RIT), Togolese Combined Regiment, on 25 March. The reason for the attack was unclear: some reports suggested that the attackers came from Ghana, others that it was a settling of scores within the barracks. Those executed included Colonel Eugène Koffi Tepé, deputy chief of army staff, who was apparently suspected of having instigated the attack, and three of his relatives. They were killed in the immediate aftermath by soldiers loyal to General Eyadéma. Over the next two days other soldiers were executed, apparently because of suspected complicity in the attack or because they were suspected of belonging to the clandestine Association of Democratic Servicemen, or because of their ethnic origin. Almost all of those targeted in this way came from ethnic groups such as the Ewe and Kotokoli, which formed a minority in the security forces dominated by members of General Eyadéma's own dominant northern-based Kabyé ethnic group. One soldier, Yao Agbémavi Akiti, "disappeared" after he was reportedly questioned by his superior officers on 29 March. His body was later found in the mortuary of Lomé's main hospital, covered in knife wounds. Over 100 members of the security forces fled to Ghana and Benin, fearing for their safety. There were several other reports of extrajudicial executions and attempted assassinations by the security forces. In February opposition activist Léopold Ayivi was shot and seriously injured by two armed men apparently linked to the security forces. In mid-April Bondja Bidjakine, from Naki-Ouest in northern Togo, was reportedly shot at point-blank range by soldiers pursuing villagers who had chanted slogans hostile to President Eyadéma during a public meeting. On 24 August, the eve of the presidential election, the deputy mayor of Lomé, Louis Amédome, was seriously injured and his motorcycle taxi driver killed when they failed to stop at a road-block manned by the security forces who apparently suspected Louis Amédome of having opposition sympathies. He was taken into custody and remained in detention without charge or trial at the end of the year. A statement by the authorities linked this incident with the discovery of an alleged coup plot the same day; the authorities said two men, who later escaped, had been intercepted at the border with Ghana in possession of a grenade and other materials. Dozens of people were arrested by the security forces; many of them were ill-treated and at least one reportedly "disappeared". Most were not formally charged and were apparently arrested for their non-violent opposition to the government. At least 30 were reported to be still held, mostly without charge and apparently unlawfully, at the end of the year. Corporal Nikabou Bikagni, arrested in October 1992 (see Amnesty International Report 1993), appeared in court on 31 December charged with importing arms and ammunition but his trial was postponed. At least four people, apparently arrested solely because they were related to Corporal Bikagni, remained in detention without charge or trial in the civilian prison in Kara. Over 40 soldiers and civilians were arrested following the attack on the rit barracks on 25 March. Most of the civilians were reportedly released by July, but at least 15 soldiers were still detained at the end of the year, including Major Fondoumi, and Private Kokou Agbenya, who was reportedly severely beaten when arrested. They were held, incommunicado and apparently illegally, without being remanded by a judicial official, at various military locations. Government opponents were arbitrarily arrested and detained, particularly in areas where there was strong support for the President and the RPT. Between March and May, five members of the Odanou family were arrested in the northern town of Korbongou, apparently because they supported the opposition. Four were released but Kanlou Odanou apparently "disappeared" in detention and was feared to be dead. Another member of his family, Landame Odanou, had apparently been held since September 1991 without charge or trial and reportedly remained in detention at the end of 1993. On 26 August, at least 40 people, mostly opposition supporters, were arrested following violence the previous day in Agbandi, central Togo. They were taken to the Gendarmerie in nearby Blitta. It was not clear whether they had been involved in the election day violence but within 24 hours at least 21 of them died in custody, including four youths aged between 12 and 15, either at the Blitta Gendarmerie or at the hospital in nearby Sokodé. The authorities said that 15 of the prisoners had been poisoned by food brought to them by their relatives; a French police toxicologist who examined a sample of contaminated food sent to France by the authorities reportedly identified poison, but there was no examination of the bodies. Those who died were reported to have been assaulted in custody and then forced into a small cell, possibly causing asphyxiation. The remaining detainees were transferred to the Gendarmerie headquarters in Kara before being released on the orders of a magistrate. There was no impartial inquiry established into the deaths. On 27 August, a relative of one of the detainees who had died, Kokou Okessou Mbooura, was arrested in Blitta and charged with attempting to administer a poison. However, it appeared that when he arrived in Blitta, at least 15 of the detainees had already died and others were seriously ill. Held in prison in Kara, he had not been brought to trial by the end of the year. In November several journalists and others associated with independent newspapers were arrested and held in Lomé and Kara. Some appeared in court and were released, but Ali Akondo and Tampoudi Dermane remained in detention awaiting trial at the end of the year. Moudassirou Katakpaou-Touré, the editor of an independent newspaper, La Lettre de Tchaoudjo (The Tchaoudjo Letter) was brought to trial in December on charges of offending the President and libelling the President and the Minister of Defence. He was found guilty on both counts, fined and released, as the remainder of his sentence was suspended. He was a prisoner of conscience. The use of torture by the security forces was reportedly widespread, with methods including severe beatings and electric shocks. Two men, Attiogbé Stéphane Koudossou and Gérard Akoumey, arrested in July in connection with bomb attacks in Lomé, were convicted by a criminal court in Lomé on the basis of confessions which they alleged had been extracted under torture during their pre-trial detention and which the court took no steps to investigate. They were sentenced to three years' imprisonment in September. Captain Charles Esso Pello, who had been arrested in July 1992 (see Amnesty International Report 1993), and was reportedly tortured with electric shocks, was apparently released on bail. In May a Togolese opposition group in exile in Ghana was reported to be holding captive at least one person, Vincent Coco Adote Akouete-Akue. There were subsequent reports that he was beaten to death by former Togolese soldiers who had joined the opposition group and suspected him of being a spy. Throughout the year, Amnesty International expressed concern to the government about a wide range of human rights violations - including extrajudicial executions, "disappearances", detention without trial, deaths in detention and torture - carried out with impunity by the security forces. In October the organization published a report, Togo: Impunity for killings by the military, focusing on the armed forces' involvement in human rights violations committed in 1993 and previous years. The report noted that soldiers appeared fully confident that, with President Eyadéma in power, they would not be held to account for human rights violations. Amnesty International called on the government to investigate persistent violations by the security forces and bring those responsible to justice.