Togo officials condemn African sanctions
by Ebow Godwin

The Associated Press    Translate This Article
21 February 2005

LOME, Togo - Increasingly isolated Togolese officials condemned the imposition of African sanctions on the government Sunday, while jubilant opposition leaders urged yet more pressure at home and abroad to force the army-installed regime to yield to democracy.

The Economic Community of West African States, or ECOWAS, announced the sanctions—including a travel ban on Togo's leaders and an arms embargo—late Saturday.

``It is sad that our friends are not prepared to understand what is going on in Togo,'' Information Minister Pipang Tchalla told The Associated Press.

Tchalla renewed Togo's assertion that it appointed Faure Gnassingbe to the presidency on Feb. 5, within hours of his father Gnassingbe Eyadema's death following 38 years in power, to prevent a dangerous power vacuum.

``I don't know whether our friends outside (want) Togo to fragment into pieces,'' Tchalla said.

Opposition leader Yawovi Agboyibo called the sanctions ``a welcome and bold decision.'' He urged democracy activists at home now to mobilize to push Gnassingbe's government to cede power to the speaker of parliament pending national elections, as Togo's constitution mandates.

The ECOWAS sanctions call for suspending Togo from the bloc's activities, imposing a travel ban on Togo's leaders, recalling West African ambassadors from Togo and imposing an arms embargo.

Eyadema had been the world's longest-ruling leader after Cuba's Fidel Castro. He helped lead one of postcolonial Africa's first coups in the early 1960s, and opposition parties and international critics accused him of holding on to power through military intimidation and rigged elections.

Gnassingbe's promise Friday to hold elections within 60 days—which he would stay in office to oversee and would be a candidate for—failed to appease the West African leaders.

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