Amnesty International Report 2000 - Togo

Head of state: Gnassingbé Eyadéma
Head of government: Eugène Koffi Adoboli
Capital: Lomé
Population: 4.7 million
Official language: French
Death penalty: abolitionist in practice

The Togolese authorities, whose security forces have committed human rights violations for three decades, did nothing to bring those responsible to justice and continued to enjoy impunity. Instead, after AI published a report in May detailing extrajudicial executions, "disappearances" and torture, the authorities took reprisals against human rights defenders suspected of passing information to AI. At least three leading members of Togolese human rights organizations were arrested, detained for several weeks and charged with false accusation and slander. Two members of AI were arrested, beaten and threatened with death while in detention. Other human rights defenders were forced into hiding or to flee the country with their families. A Nigerian member of AI was detained and tortured. Extrajudicial executions, "disappearances" and torture in detention continued to be reported. Opposition supporters were arrested around the time of elections in March.

Background

President Gnassingbé Eyadéma has ruled Togo since 1967, first as a military ruler, and then as a civilian elected President, having been forced to introduce a multi-party system in 1991 after widespread popular protests. Transitional institutions established in 1991 were repeatedly defied by the security forces and the President, who maintained his hold on power after the country's multi-party elections in 1994, even though opposition parties won a majority of seats in the National Assembly. Presidential elections in June 1998 were marred by violence; hundreds of people were alleged to have been extrajudicially executed and dozens of civilians, including opposition activists, were arrested and tortured. The elections were denounced as unfair by international observers, including those from the European Union (EU).

Legislative elections in March 1999 were boycotted by the opposition. The ruling Rassemblement du peuple togolais (RPT), Assembly of Togolese People, won 79 of the 81 seats. The EU took the view that the newly elected National Assembly could not accurately reflect the political will of the Togolese people.

In July a political agreement was signed in Togo by both opposition parties as well as those supporting the President. This document, known as the Lomé Framework Agreement, aimed to break the political deadlock which had paralysed the country since the disputed elections of June 1998.The agreement was reached with the mediation of international facilitators from organizations including the EU and the Francophonie. The Lomé Framework Agreement focuses on holding new elections in Togo and does not contain any concrete measures aimed at ending impunity, preventing further human rights abuses or promoting respect for human rights. The agreement does not challenge the 1994 amnesty law which, while allowing some prisoners of conscience to be released, also granted impunity to perpetrators of human rights violations. AI was also concerned that although the signatories of the agreement committed themselves to ensuring that refugees and displaced people could return promptly to Togo, there was no reference to the security criteria which would allow such return to take place.

In September, the European Parliament passed a resolution condemning "all forms of violence and human rights abuses committed in Togo" and called for independent inquiries into cases of torture and extrajudicial executions so that those responsible might be brought to justice.

Proceedings against AI

On 5 May 1999 AI published a report entitled Togo: Rule of terror, based on the findings of a fact-finding visit to Togo in November and December 1998. The report described a persistent pattern of extrajudicial executions, "disappearances", arbitrary arrests and detentions followed by torture and ill-treatment, sometimes leading to death, and harsh conditions of detention which amounted to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment. In particular, it alleged that hundreds of people had been killed by the security forces around the time of the June 1998 elections, and that bodies had been dumped at sea by military aircraft. By July independent journalists and another human rights organization, the Ligue pour la défense des droits de l'homme, League for Human Rights, based in Benin, had confirmed AI's findings.

The authorities reacted to AI's report by calling the document "a tissue of untrue statements, false allegations and bias, inspired by the bad faith of its authors", and warned the local press not to report it. A four-person delegation, led by AI Secretary General Pierre Sané, was prevented from entering the country on 21 May, although the delegates held valid visas and sought dialogue with President Eyadéma. Instead of investigating the allegations raised by AI, the Togolese authorities decided to start legal proceedings against AI, and issued a summons to Pierre Sané to appear before an investigating magistrate of the High Court in Lomé for "a possible indictment for contempt, incitement to revolt, dissemination of false news and conspiracy against the external security of the State".

In July, as President Jacques Chirac of France prepared to visit Togo, AI published an open letter urging him to use his influence to persuade the Togolese authorities to invite UN human rights experts (the Special Rapporteurs on torture and on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, and the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances) to investigate past crimes, and to bring an end to reprisals against and harassment of human rights defenders in Togo.

On 20 July AI published Togo: Time for accountability – more than three decades of human rights abuse, a compilation of AI reports published from 1986 to 1999. The reports provided evidence of the persistence of human rights violations in Togo, and of the climate of impunity in which they flourished. AI called on all members of the international community to take action to end that impunity, by taking steps to bring to justice any Togolese officials in their jurisdiction suspected of crimes of torture and "disappearances". It repeated its call on the French President to bring his influence to bear, and called on Togolese citizens in exile to lodge complaints against Togolese officials responsible for acts of torture.

On 23 July AI rejected categorically a statement made by President Chirac that AI's May 1999 report had been the result of "manipulation", and again called for an end to impunity. AI called on all states which were party to the UN Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, where Togolese officials suspected of torture and "disappearances" were present, to take steps to bring them to justice.

In October AI met the Togolese ambassador to the USA, after sending an open letter to the Togolese authorities stressing that AI remained open to dialogue but that human rights are not negotiable.

Commission of inquiry

In August, the UN Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights announced the establishment of a commission of inquiry to investigate allegations of extrajudicial executions in Togo in 1998 and noted the government's undertaking to cooperate fully with the international commission of inquiry. In October, the Togolese government issued an invitation to the UN and Organization of African Unity to establish the international commission of inquiry. The commission of inquiry had not been established by the end of 1999.

Attacks on human rights defenders

Human rights defenders continued to be arbitrarily arrested and detained. At least two were known to have been tortured in custody. Members of AI Togo were subjected to surveillance.

• Around the time of the publication of AI's report in May, leading members of the Association togolaise pour la défense et la promotion des droits de l'homme, Togolese Association for the Defence and Promotion of Human Rights, were arrested: Tengue Nestor, Gayibor François and Brice Sant'anna were all charged with "false accusation and defamation" and held for more than a month. They continued to face criminal charges.
• On 14 May Koffi Antoine Nadjombe, a philosophy teacher and member of AI Togo, was arrested together with his wife Adjoa. She was released two days later, but her husband was held for more than a month, first in a police building, the Sûreté, and then in the civil prison. While in detention he was beaten and threatened with lethal injections. He was released provisionally in June, but continued to face criminal charges.
• On 26 May Arsène Bolouvi and Benjamin Adjoh, members of the Togolese section of L'Action des Chrétiens pour l'abolition de la torture, Christian Action for the Abolition of Torture, narrowly escaped arrest and were forced to seek refuge abroad.
• On 19 May Ameen Ayodele, a member of AI Nigeria who was returning from Ghana to Nigeria, was arrested at the Togolese border. He was held incommunicado for more than a week in a tiny cell with neither food nor clothing. He was beaten every day and taken to a beach, where police held a gun to his head and threatened to execute him and dump his body in the sea. He was released without charge after nine days.
• In December, five leaders of a students' union and members of teachers' unions were detained briefly. They were beaten at the time of arrest and while in custody.

Restrictions on press freedom

Attacks on press freedom continued.

• Romain Koudjodji, editor of Le Reporter, was arrested in April after the publication of an article on a case of torture by security forces. He was charged with propagation of false news and received a two-month suspended sentence. He was released two months later.
• In December, Roland Kpagli Comlan, director of L'Aurore, a weekly independent newspaper, was arrested for reporting incorrect information about the death of a secondary-school pupil during a student gathering which was suppressed by the Togolese security forces. This information had been made public during a press conference by a teachers' union. At the end of 1999 he was still in detention.

Killings by security forces

There were further reports of extrajudicial executions by the security forces.

On 23 January 1999, three individuals, who had received permission to cross the frontier post at Avéshivé between Togo and Ghana, were killed by members of the Forces armées togolaises (FAT), Togolese Armed Forces. The following day, Koffi Agbassa, a Togolese refugee returning from Ghana, was killed at the same place. When the victim's brother claimed his body at a military camp in Lomé, not far from the border, he was arrested and held without charge for a week.

'Disappearances'

No steps were taken by the authorities to clarify the fate of more than 12 people who had "disappeared" since 1994. There were further reports of "disappearances".

• Kokou Akakpo was arrested on 7 February 1999 in Casablanca, a district of Lomé, and taken to the gendarmerie. He then "disappeared". Kokou Akakpo had been a refugee in Ghana in 1993, and was apparently suspected of a criminal offence.

Torture and ill-treatment

The security forces routinely beat and assaulted criminal suspects at the time of arrest, when suspects were transferred to a detention centre, or during interrogation at a gendarmerie, to extract information or confessions. Political activists were also tortured to stifle dissent. As well as being beaten with rifle butts, batons, belts and other implements, kickings and prolonged periods in contorted positions, detainees were often taken from the police station or gendarmerie and subjected to mock executions. Detainees were mainly tortured during the period of garde à vue (incommunicado) detention. Criminal investigators forced detainees to sign confessions, without revealing their contents, which were later used as evidence in court.

Impunity

The authorities did virtually nothing to investigate or bring to justice those responsible for human rights violations. The only case to have been pursued, under pressure from the German authorities, was that of a German national killed by members of the FAT in 1996. Although compensation was paid to the relatives of three victims of extrajudicial executions, no legal action was taken to investigate their deaths, or those of the hundreds of other people killed by the security forces. Nor was anything done to change or forbid the procedures and practices that led to widespread and persistent violations of human rights.

Prison conditions

Prison conditions throughout the country, and particularly in Lomé civil prison, were extremely harsh and amounted to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. Deficiencies in food, sanitation, and medical care resulted in numerous deaths in custody.

AI country reports and visits

Reports

• Togo: Rule of terror (AI Index: AFR 57/001/99)
• Togo: Time for accountability – Tavio Amorin, Human Rights Defender, executed 23 July 1992 (AI Index: AFR 57/020/99)
• Togo: Time for accountability – More than three decades of human rights abuse (AI Index: AFR 57/022/99)
• Togo: Time for accountability – Komlan Edoh and Kodjo Kouni: two "disappeared" youths (AI Index: AFR 57/031/99)
• Togo: Human rights defenders under attack (AI Index: AFR 57/032/99)
• Togo: Time for accountability – The pressing case for an international commission of inquiry (AI Index: AFR 57/037/99)
• Togo: No political stability without respect for human rights (AI Index: 57/038/99)

Visit

An AI delegation was refused permission to enter Togo in May, despite having valid visas.