Togo's refugees too afraid of soldiers to go home Source: Reuters
By Pawana Abalo COME, Benin, April 30 (Reuters) - Young men, old women and children among the thousands who fled violence in Togo said on Saturday they were too scared to go home after security forces shot at unarmed civilians in post-election chaos. More than 11,500 people have fled the tiny West African country since trouble erupted on Tuesday, minutes after the late authoritarian ruler's son was declared winner of a poll his opponents say was fixed. Police fought days of pitched battles with protesters dug in behind blazing barricades in Lome, while security forces in other towns sought out opposition supporters and beat them up in their homes, according to those who fled the violence. "Just after the results were announced the red berets (commandos) went out into the streets and started shooting at the boys," said Marthe, 60, who fled over the border to Benin where U.N. aid workers have set up refugee camps. "They only shot at the boys. They ransacked shops and blamed the youths, who were unarmed," she said, standing by a sea of green U.N. tents on acres of red soil near the village of Come. Like Marthe, 30-year-old Lawson fled from the Togolese town of Aneho, which lies 45 km (28 miles) east of the capital and where hospital workers say at least nine people were killed. "As soon as the results were announced we went out into the streets to protest. The military shot into the crowd and I was hit in the foot," Lawson said from his bed in Come's hospital, where a dozen other Togolese refugees with bullet and machete wounds were being treated. "I'm afraid of going back to Aneho because I'm afraid of reprisals. I don't know how the RPT (ruling party) lot will react when they see me," he said. BEATEN UP AT HOME The United Nations refugee agency said 11,500 people had crossed into Benin and Ghana by Saturday, up from 7,000 on Friday. Many had sought shelter with relatives, while others were staying in churches along the border, it said. "They came to my house and searched it. I campaigned for the opposition. My husband was slapped and my children beaten up," said Evelyn, in her 50s, waiting at a transit centre on the border after fleeing her home town of Tsevie, north of Lome. Elvis Edorh, 25, said he too was beaten up at home in Aneho and had to swim across a lagoon to reach safety. "I swam and I got myself here. I lost two nephews who the security forces shot," he said. Interim president Abass Bonfoh has said no order was given to shoot at demonstrators and said that members of the security forces had died in the violence because they had respected that. The opposition says 100 people were killed around the country, while Togo's Human Rights League has said at least 40 were killed with many more wounded by bullets or missing. The U.N. said the camp at Come was now at capacity with 800 refugees, many of them women and children who were being given vaccinations against polio and measles. The U.N. said it expected to transfer 500 more to a new camp at nearby Lokossa. Aid trucks carrying tents, plastic sheeting, blankets and soap left Ghana's capital Accra on Saturday for Benin but the journey would take four days because the convoy would have to snake its way through Burkina Faso to avoid Togo, the U.N. said. Togo spun into chaos when Gnassingbe Eyadema died in February after nearly four decades in power and army leaders named his son, who eventually quit under fierce international pressure and agreed to elections, to replace him. Calm has returned to the streets of Lome although opposition supporters have vowed to fight on. West African mediators held talks with the government on Saturday to try to end the crisis, but refugees slammed the weakness of the international response. "We want our victory. Benin and other countries have to mobilise to help us. The authors of this violence will pay with their blood," said Evelyn.
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Immediately after the provisional election returns in the West African nation of Togo were given last Tuesday, violence and chaos erupted with security forces beating and shooting protesters, who object to the fairness of the Togolese elections and allege widespread fraud.  Some of the opposition leaders who were targeted are said to have been unarmed or even found by security forces in their homes, and police have fought in fiery pitched battles against rioters for days, employing tear gas behind burning barricades.  At least 40 Togolese citizens have been killed.

The elections were won by Faure Gnassingbé, son of the previous leader Gnassingbé Eyadéma, who held power in Togo for about 38 years before his death on February 5, 2005.  The army appointed his son as his successor and the country's leader, but regional opposition forced him to step down and seek free elections.

The preliminary count indicates that 60% of the vote went to Faure Gnassingbé, a 38-year-old Master of Business Administration (MBA) from Yale University and son of the former President.  An additional 38% went to his chief opponent, 74-year-old Emmanual Bob-Akitani, who was endorsed by a six-party coalition and opposition leader Harry Olympio.  Further violence is expected as the official vote tally and announcement of results comes within a few days.

"Just after the preliminary results were announced the red berets commandos went out into the streets and started shooting at the boys," said Marthe, who fled to a U.N. refugee camp in Benin to escape the fighting.  "They only shot at the boys. They ransacked shops and blamed the youths, who were unarmed," she continued in her Reuters interview.  More than 11,500 Togolese have fled from their country and taken up temporary residence in Benin and Ghana since the elections, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

The opposition party claims that 100 people have been killed in the ongoing violence that passed through Lome and other villages.  Togo's Human Rights League has verified the deaths of at least 40, and the wounding of many others.

"Violence is not the way to deal with democracy," said Mohammed Ibn Chambas, executive secretary of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).  "We think the way forward is for Togolese to use dialogue, and to sit down and negotiate."  ECOWAS has certified the elections as free from interference, a decision that some countries such as France have accepted, but the United States continues to question the fairness of the outcome.

Germany protested after its cultural center, the Goethe Institute, was burned down in Lomé.  The Togolese government has accused Germany of aiding the opposition, and former interior minister Francois Boko (who was fired earlier for trying to postpone the election due to fears of violence) has sought refuge in the German embassy.  Togo is a former German colony, but the official language of the country is French, since it was passed to Britain and France in 1918 and only gained its independence in 1960.

Gnassingbé has offered to form a new unity government, incorporating voices from the opposition, but their leaders turned down the offer, claiming that the election was fraudulent and stolen.

"If they refuse tomorrow, I hope that they will decide to join us the next day," said Gnassingbé to France's ''Le Monde'' in their Friday edition.  "Reconciliation is a long process. You can't jump overnight from a regime that lasted for 38 years to a new one," he continued.