Post by Bozur on May 6, 2005 22:04:41 GMT -5
Lomé Journal
In an Untamed Tide of Violence, the Bystanders Die
MICHAEL KAMBER
Published: May 5, 2005
LOMÉ, Togo, May 4 - Patrice Edoh Fanou buried Marcellin, his 6-year-old son, one day last week here in the Tokoin Dogbeavou neighborhood of Togo's capital. There was no money for a coffin. Friends found a cardboard box and the men gently lifted the boy into it, then taped the flaps shut.
Michael Kamber for The New York Times
Togo has faced growing violence since word that the longtime ruler's son won the presidential election. Marcellin Fanou became a victim last week. His family is poor, so a box became his coffin. No one could say why the gunmen came, seeking political foes and promising everyone would die that night. Marcellin was 6.
The New York Times
"The militia came at midnight," he said, as a crowd waited outside his home for the funeral procession to begin. "Three men climbed over the wall. They thought someone from the opposition was in the house, and they threatened to kill everyone. They began firing their guns." One bullet pierced the wall of the room where Marcellin was sleeping. He was killed instantly.
The violence began after Togo's electoral commission announced last week that Faure Gnassingbé, son of Gnassingbé Eyadéma, the strongman who ruled Togo for 38 years, had won the April 24 presidential election. The opposition coalition has denounced the vote as fraudulent, and its candidate has declared himself president of Togo, raising the specter of further chaos and, possibly, civil war.
"The infrastructure for civil war in Togo is already in place," Emmanuel Anin, a political analyst for African Security Dialogue and Research, based in neighboring Ghana, told The Associated Press. "I fear the situation will only get worse before it gets better."
Both the ruling party, the Rally of Togolese People, and the opposition coalition unleashed militias made up of young men. The ruling party's militias, sometimes armed with guns, and the opposition militia, frequently brandishing machetes and clubs, have carried out purges and indiscriminate violence against political opponents.
Immigrants and foreigners have also been targets. West African and Lebanese immigrants, seen as benefiting from close relationships with the ruling party, have been attacked throughout the city, presumably by the opposition. The German Cultural Center was burned down by masked gunmen, presumably ruling party supporters who acted because the Germans had been accused of siding with the opposition.
Frequently, as well, the victims have been innocents, like Marcellin, caught in the line of fire.
"The R.P.T. militia wants to kill us, so we have to leave," said Kokou Lamadokou, 23, using the initials for the ruling party's name in French, as he waited last Wednesday with a group of friends on the outskirts of Tokoin Dogbeavou. "They came yesterday bursting into our houses and beating us. They said they were coming back tonight."
Mr. Lamadokou and his friends, all opposition supporters, were trying to find a taxi to take them to the town of Kpalimé, about 50 miles away, where they have relatives.
Numerous other residents confirmed his account, saying armed ruling-party militia men had broken into houses, and harassed and threatened opposition members over the past two days.
Ikemi Tidjigouna, a ruling party youth leader in Tokoin Dogbeavou, dismissed the harassment charges. "We had a caravan that drove through the neighborhood," he said. "But we did not go near the opposition youth." Asked about the killing of Marcellin Fanou, which occurred just blocks away, he explained, "That area has the same name as my area, but it is another zone. I don't know what happens over there."
According to Tidjigouna and others here, the Rally of the Togolese People, in place for 38 years, has a command structure that exercises some degree of control over its youth members. The opposition militias are more amorphous and at times there appears to be little communication between the opposition leaders and their followers.
"The real question is, will anyone be able to control these youth?" a Western diplomat said in an interview last week.
In Atakpamé, a Lomé neighborhood where support for the opposition is strong, a militia leader who has adopted the nom de guerre of Wanted Stone patrolled the streets with several dozen young men armed with machetes and nail-studded clubs. Asked what he would do if the coalition leader, Emmanuel Akitani-Bob, asked him to stay home, he had a ready reply: "If Akitani-Bob tells us to stay home, we'll run him out of Togo."
An angry opposition militia surrounded a house full of immigrants in Atakpamé last Tuesday after the Economic Community of West African States certified the election results despite what it referred to as "anomalies." The organization's executive secretary is Mohammed Ibn Chambas of Niger.
"A crowd of hundreds of people came to the house and said to the men, 'Chambas is from Niger, you are from Niger. What is your position on this election?' " said Walker Samatiy, who lives nearby and said he witnessed the altercation. "They said, 'We are from Mali, not Niger. We are neutral, we have no opinion.' "
According to Mr. Samatiy, other residents and Maglo Kossi Midodji, the assistant chief of the area, the crowd then broke into the house, ransacked it and found a photograph that sent them into a murderous rage.
The photo in question shows a man bent at the waist. Another stands over him, one hand resting casually on the bent man's back, the other holding a machete over the bent man's head. The man with the machete looks amused, the bent man is relaxed, not struggling or being restrained. The photo appears to be a joking one of a generous group of men who slaughtered cows every two weeks and gave meat to their neighbors.
In the hysteria of the moment, the photo seemed to confirm wild rumors that the men were performing human sacrifices, kidnapping and killing children. They were quickly overwhelmed, beaten to death and burned by the militia. "They were saying magical incantations as they were killed," Mr. Samatiy said, implying that this proved their guilt.
No one accused young Marcellin Fanou of anything, except being in the wrong place at the wrong time. For his funeral, a pastor led a crowd through streets lined with open sewers to a desolate, overgrown cemetery. "Marcellin came into this world innocent," he intoned. "He did not steal or rob or do bad things. He knew nothing of politics. God says we are like smoke. Death is a debt we all owe."
In an Untamed Tide of Violence, the Bystanders Die
MICHAEL KAMBER
Published: May 5, 2005
LOMÉ, Togo, May 4 - Patrice Edoh Fanou buried Marcellin, his 6-year-old son, one day last week here in the Tokoin Dogbeavou neighborhood of Togo's capital. There was no money for a coffin. Friends found a cardboard box and the men gently lifted the boy into it, then taped the flaps shut.
Michael Kamber for The New York Times
Togo has faced growing violence since word that the longtime ruler's son won the presidential election. Marcellin Fanou became a victim last week. His family is poor, so a box became his coffin. No one could say why the gunmen came, seeking political foes and promising everyone would die that night. Marcellin was 6.
The New York Times
"The militia came at midnight," he said, as a crowd waited outside his home for the funeral procession to begin. "Three men climbed over the wall. They thought someone from the opposition was in the house, and they threatened to kill everyone. They began firing their guns." One bullet pierced the wall of the room where Marcellin was sleeping. He was killed instantly.
The violence began after Togo's electoral commission announced last week that Faure Gnassingbé, son of Gnassingbé Eyadéma, the strongman who ruled Togo for 38 years, had won the April 24 presidential election. The opposition coalition has denounced the vote as fraudulent, and its candidate has declared himself president of Togo, raising the specter of further chaos and, possibly, civil war.
"The infrastructure for civil war in Togo is already in place," Emmanuel Anin, a political analyst for African Security Dialogue and Research, based in neighboring Ghana, told The Associated Press. "I fear the situation will only get worse before it gets better."
Both the ruling party, the Rally of Togolese People, and the opposition coalition unleashed militias made up of young men. The ruling party's militias, sometimes armed with guns, and the opposition militia, frequently brandishing machetes and clubs, have carried out purges and indiscriminate violence against political opponents.
Immigrants and foreigners have also been targets. West African and Lebanese immigrants, seen as benefiting from close relationships with the ruling party, have been attacked throughout the city, presumably by the opposition. The German Cultural Center was burned down by masked gunmen, presumably ruling party supporters who acted because the Germans had been accused of siding with the opposition.
Frequently, as well, the victims have been innocents, like Marcellin, caught in the line of fire.
"The R.P.T. militia wants to kill us, so we have to leave," said Kokou Lamadokou, 23, using the initials for the ruling party's name in French, as he waited last Wednesday with a group of friends on the outskirts of Tokoin Dogbeavou. "They came yesterday bursting into our houses and beating us. They said they were coming back tonight."
Mr. Lamadokou and his friends, all opposition supporters, were trying to find a taxi to take them to the town of Kpalimé, about 50 miles away, where they have relatives.
Numerous other residents confirmed his account, saying armed ruling-party militia men had broken into houses, and harassed and threatened opposition members over the past two days.
Ikemi Tidjigouna, a ruling party youth leader in Tokoin Dogbeavou, dismissed the harassment charges. "We had a caravan that drove through the neighborhood," he said. "But we did not go near the opposition youth." Asked about the killing of Marcellin Fanou, which occurred just blocks away, he explained, "That area has the same name as my area, but it is another zone. I don't know what happens over there."
According to Tidjigouna and others here, the Rally of the Togolese People, in place for 38 years, has a command structure that exercises some degree of control over its youth members. The opposition militias are more amorphous and at times there appears to be little communication between the opposition leaders and their followers.
"The real question is, will anyone be able to control these youth?" a Western diplomat said in an interview last week.
In Atakpamé, a Lomé neighborhood where support for the opposition is strong, a militia leader who has adopted the nom de guerre of Wanted Stone patrolled the streets with several dozen young men armed with machetes and nail-studded clubs. Asked what he would do if the coalition leader, Emmanuel Akitani-Bob, asked him to stay home, he had a ready reply: "If Akitani-Bob tells us to stay home, we'll run him out of Togo."
An angry opposition militia surrounded a house full of immigrants in Atakpamé last Tuesday after the Economic Community of West African States certified the election results despite what it referred to as "anomalies." The organization's executive secretary is Mohammed Ibn Chambas of Niger.
"A crowd of hundreds of people came to the house and said to the men, 'Chambas is from Niger, you are from Niger. What is your position on this election?' " said Walker Samatiy, who lives nearby and said he witnessed the altercation. "They said, 'We are from Mali, not Niger. We are neutral, we have no opinion.' "
According to Mr. Samatiy, other residents and Maglo Kossi Midodji, the assistant chief of the area, the crowd then broke into the house, ransacked it and found a photograph that sent them into a murderous rage.
The photo in question shows a man bent at the waist. Another stands over him, one hand resting casually on the bent man's back, the other holding a machete over the bent man's head. The man with the machete looks amused, the bent man is relaxed, not struggling or being restrained. The photo appears to be a joking one of a generous group of men who slaughtered cows every two weeks and gave meat to their neighbors.
In the hysteria of the moment, the photo seemed to confirm wild rumors that the men were performing human sacrifices, kidnapping and killing children. They were quickly overwhelmed, beaten to death and burned by the militia. "They were saying magical incantations as they were killed," Mr. Samatiy said, implying that this proved their guilt.
No one accused young Marcellin Fanou of anything, except being in the wrong place at the wrong time. For his funeral, a pastor led a crowd through streets lined with open sewers to a desolate, overgrown cemetery. "Marcellin came into this world innocent," he intoned. "He did not steal or rob or do bad things. He knew nothing of politics. God says we are like smoke. Death is a debt we all owe."