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3 reportedly killed in togo protests Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
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3 Reportedly Killed in Togo Protests
Three People Said Killed, Dozens Wounded As Police Clash With Demonstrators in Togo
By BRYAN MEALER
The Associated Press
Feb. 12, 2005 - Thousands of demonstrators clashed with riot police in the capital for a second day Saturday, protesting against Togo's recent army-appointed president in what many are calling a coup d'etat. Three people were reportedly killed and dozens wounded when police fired at demonstrators.
West African leaders, who are leading the international pressure on Togolese authorities to roll back their constitutional changes, have demanded Togo's leaders meet them in neighboring Niger on Saturday.
An estimated 3,000 protesters hurled rocks and jagged pieces of metal at police, and set garbage fires to block their vehicles. Security forces fought back with tear gas, batons and stun grenades, attempting to quell a growing opposition against the appointment of President Faure Gnassingbe.
Large fires with heavy smoke could be seen over parts of the city.
Togo's iron-fisted military made Gnassingbe president Feb. 5 following the heart attack death of his father, Gnassingbe Eyadema, whose oppressive regime ran the country into the ground during a 38-year dictatorship.
A main opposition leader, Harry Olympio, said he saw three people shot to death in the demonstration Saturday. It was impossible to immediately verify the claim.
Olympio and his cousin Gilchrist Olympio run Togo's main opposition party Rally for the Support of Democracy and Development. Gilchrist Olympio is the son of Sylvanus Olympio, the first elected president of Togo, who was gunned down at the gates of the U.S. Embassy during a 1963 coup that brought Eyadema to power.
"We're not stopping until Gnassingbe is gone," said Harry Olympio, speaking by telephone. "We're going to fight every day, and tomorrow we start again."
Harry Olympio said he received a call from a friend in the army early Saturday, telling him the government has ordered his death.
"My family and I are in serious danger," he said, adding that he had spoken on Saturday with his wife, who said soldiers had surrounded their home in the Lome neighborhood of Be.
At least 10 people were wounded Friday as police and protesters fought briefly in the same narrow streets of Be.
"Every day we must fight this president," said Mason Lawson, 25, before hurling two large stones Saturday at a phalanx of riot police moving rapidly toward him. "The world must know we have no freedom."
Stun grenades rocked windows and sent the wild-eyed crowds screaming, swearing revenge. Police sent volleys of tear gas into the crowds, leaving tracers of blue smoke over the tin roofs of Be.
Children as young as 10 joined the fight, throwing stones that traveled a few feet and plopped into a gas-filled no man's land between police and protesters.
"We are tired," said Junior Makundu, dragging a tree stump into the road as hundreds cheered him on. "We want a democratic Togo, and we ask the world to help us."
The presidents of Nigeria, Mali, Benin, Ghana and Niger had intended to confront Togolese authorities in the capital, Lome, on Friday, but refused to accept a Togolese invitation to meet instead in the northern city of Kara.
Instead, they reissued a demand that the meeting take place Saturday in Niger so that they could express their anger about last week's appointment of Gnassingbe as president hours after his father had died of a heart attack, officials said.
"If these authorities do not show up for the meeting, they risk sanctions," the five leaders said in the statement after meeting in Cotonou, Benin. The five were selected to carry a message from the 15-nation Economic Community of West African States, which held an emergency summit Wednesday and declared that the Togolese military had committed a coup d'etat.
The 52-nation African Union which has been trying to shed the continent's legacy of despots seizing power through the barrel of a gun also has threatened to impose sanctions.
According to Togo's constitution, the speaker of the parliament should have been named president after Eyadema died, with new elections held within 60 days. The military, however, selected Gnassingbe as successor and had parliament amend the constitution.
Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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