24/7 Military Space News





. Togo's Eyadema dies, military installs son in "coup d'etat"
LOME (AFP) Feb 06, 2005
Africa's longest-serving leader, Togo president Gnassingbe Eyadema, died Saturday, leaving a power vacuum that the armed forces immediately filled with his son in what the African Union denounced as a "coup d'etat".

The handover of power to Faure Eyadema, 39, was announced on national television by armed forces chief of staff General Zakari Nandja, setting the stage for a constitutional showdown with the long-suffering opposition.

"The armed forces (FAT) have been confronted with the fact that there is a total power vacuum," Nandja read in a live television broadcast.

"The parliamentary speaker is not in the country and to prevent this situation from continuing, the FAT has decided to bestow the leadership on Faure Eyadema from today."

"The role of the FAT is to preserve peace and national unity, in the spirit of he who trained us, and whom we mourn here today," Nandja said.

While mourning the death of Eyadema, who spent 38 years at the helm after taking power in a 1967 coup, AU commissioner Alpha Oumar Konare warned that the pan-African body would not support any new head of state who was not constitutionally mandated to take office.

"What's happening in Togo needs to be called by its name: it's a seizure of power by the military, it's a military coup d'etat," Konare told AFP in the Ethiopian capital.

"It is clear that the African Union cannot support the seizure of power by force, so it is important that we return to the constitution," he added, calling for a swift meeting of the AU and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to evaluate the situation.

Under article 65 of Togo's constitution, the leader of the national assembly is next in line to succeed the president in case of death.

Fambare Natchaba Ouattara, of Eyadema's own Rally of Togolese People, was on his way back to the capital Lome from Europe, according to exiled opposition leader Gilchrist Olympio, the son of the slain post-independence president Sylvanus Olympio and a sworn enemy of Eyadema's.

"The death of Eyadema allows Togo to head down the road towards democracy," Olympio said, calling for free and fair elections in the next three months.

Borders of the tiny west African state were sealed shortly after Prime Minister Koffi Sama confirmed that Eyadema had died, aged 69, aboard his aircraft en route to France for emergency treatment.

"Togo has been hit by a grave misfortune, a veritable national catastrophe," Sama said in a statement broadcast over national radio at 7:00 pm (GMT, local).

"The president is no more."

The capital Lome and the rest of the country wedged between Ghana and Benin were calm, with national television and radio playing hymns instead of their regular programming. There was no visible military presence in the streets.

Tributes to the west African strongman flowed in, with French President Jacques Chirac calling Eyadema a "friend to France and a personal friend" and the Ghanaian presidency expressing "extreme grief".

EU development commissioner Louis Michel issued a statement expressing "dismay" at the death of Eyadema, and urged calm.

The EU had recently resumed talks with Togo about restoring badly needed aid to the country of 4.7 million people, where per capita annual income hovers around 270 dollars.

An imposing presence always shielded behind dark glasses, Eyadema claimed the mantle of president in 1967 and had held it tightly ever since.

He won uncontested elections in 1972, 1979 and 1986 and maintained power through ostensibly democratic polls in 1993 and 1998 against the backdrop of suspected massacres of hundreds of government opponents.

In 2001 he said he would step down in 2003, conforming to existing laws, but changed his mind, and the constitution, to win again in June 2003.

Born December 26, 1935 in the northern town of Pya to a peasant family, Eyadema survived at least seven attempts on his life and carried a notebook pierced by a bullet as a talisman to remind him.

burs-lg/pvh

All rights reserved. � 2005 Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse.

.
Get Our Free Newsletters Via Email