Africa's longest serving ruler, President Gnassingbe Eyadema of Togo, died on Saturday as he was being moved to France for medical treatment, the government said in a statement. He was 69. Mr. Eyadema, Togo's ruler for 38 years, had been suffering from illness for several years and had been abroad on several occasions for medical treatment. He was a young soldier when he staged one of the continent's first post-colonial coups in 1963. He took power in his own name in 1967.
On the African stage, Mr. Eyadema carved himself the role of a peacemaker, focusing on regional diplomacy and, most recently, helping to mediate in Ivory Coast's civil war. But at home, his authoritarian style and the slow pace of political reform drew international criticism. Amnesty International accused his forces of killing hundreds in a presidential election in 1998, when he was declared the winner after the vote count was abruptly stopped.
The armed forces said Mr. Eyadema's son Faure would assume power. Under the constitution, the head of the National Assembly should assume provisional power following the death, but the armed forces chief said the action was taken to avoid a power vacuum since the head of the assembly was out of the country.
Source: New York Times
Showing posts with label Gnassingbe Eyadema. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Gnassingbe Eyadema. Show all posts
Saturday, February 5, 2005
Friday, January 19, 2001
Killing Casts a Shadow Over Meeting
Opening a summit meeting that the Congolese leader Laurent Kabila was to have attended, heads of state from across Africa spent a moment today mourning Mr. Kabila -- even as his aides back in Congo were continuing to insist that he was not dead. ''I invite you to observe a minute of silence in memory of our dear brother, Laurent Kabila,'' President Gnassingbe Eyadema of Togo, the presiding official, told delegates assembled for a two-day summit meeting of mostly French-speaking African countries.
Like most of the world, the leaders gathered here in this West African capital appeared to assume that Mr. Kabila had indeed been fatally shot hours before he would have left for the meeting. Yet as they began the proceedings, what little was being said was guarded, as participants awaited Congolese confirmation that what Le Messager, the Cameroon newspaper, had on Wednesday as its headline -- ''Kabila Assassine'' -- was indeed the truth. ''Our happiness,'' Secretary General Kofi Annan of the United Nations said in a speech, ''is tempered by the uncertainty of the fate of President Laurent Desire Kabila.'' Only later today, nearly two days after the palace shooting reportedly happened, did the Congolese government announce that Mr. Kabila was in fact dead, and even then it said that he had died only today after clinging to life for nearly 36 hours in a Zimbabwe hospital.
Uncertainty over Mr. Kabila's situation, however, provided a surreal start to the summit meeting. Wednesday night one arriving leader after another left his plane and marched nearly underneath a visage of the slain president, whose portrait was hanging with those of other leaders across a balcony overlooking the tarmac. But this morning, as the leaders began arriving at the conference center, Mr. Kabila was missing from a similar row of portraits inside the entrance. His absence, Mr. Annan said, would be felt as the meeting's participants took up globalization, this year's theme. Although the war-retarded economy of Congo is a long way from being integrated into the world's economy, its troubles are hurting the wider region. Conflict, as an obstacle to globalization, was to be a central issue in this meeting in which Congo and its president were to have had starring roles.
Whether this meeting could have helped resolve the civil war in Congo is another question. Few of the key figures in the conflict, which has involved six countries along with several rebel movements, were expected to attend. Indeed, aside from President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, who stopped in briefly today before the formal opening of the meeting, only Namibia's president, Sam Nujoma, was here.
With many of the leading actors absent, the United Nations secretary general took the opportunity to assure them and the world of the United Nations' commitment to Congo and to implore the warring parties to practice restraint. ''I want to reaffirm the world's determination to play a key role in finding a peaceful solution to the crisis in the Democratic Republic of Congo,'' Mr. Annan said. ''I would like to call on all of the neighboring countries and all of the countries involved in that process not to complicate the situation, but instead to help the affected population of the Congo find peaceful solutions.''
Source: New York Times
Like most of the world, the leaders gathered here in this West African capital appeared to assume that Mr. Kabila had indeed been fatally shot hours before he would have left for the meeting. Yet as they began the proceedings, what little was being said was guarded, as participants awaited Congolese confirmation that what Le Messager, the Cameroon newspaper, had on Wednesday as its headline -- ''Kabila Assassine'' -- was indeed the truth. ''Our happiness,'' Secretary General Kofi Annan of the United Nations said in a speech, ''is tempered by the uncertainty of the fate of President Laurent Desire Kabila.'' Only later today, nearly two days after the palace shooting reportedly happened, did the Congolese government announce that Mr. Kabila was in fact dead, and even then it said that he had died only today after clinging to life for nearly 36 hours in a Zimbabwe hospital.
Uncertainty over Mr. Kabila's situation, however, provided a surreal start to the summit meeting. Wednesday night one arriving leader after another left his plane and marched nearly underneath a visage of the slain president, whose portrait was hanging with those of other leaders across a balcony overlooking the tarmac. But this morning, as the leaders began arriving at the conference center, Mr. Kabila was missing from a similar row of portraits inside the entrance. His absence, Mr. Annan said, would be felt as the meeting's participants took up globalization, this year's theme. Although the war-retarded economy of Congo is a long way from being integrated into the world's economy, its troubles are hurting the wider region. Conflict, as an obstacle to globalization, was to be a central issue in this meeting in which Congo and its president were to have had starring roles.
Whether this meeting could have helped resolve the civil war in Congo is another question. Few of the key figures in the conflict, which has involved six countries along with several rebel movements, were expected to attend. Indeed, aside from President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, who stopped in briefly today before the formal opening of the meeting, only Namibia's president, Sam Nujoma, was here.
With many of the leading actors absent, the United Nations secretary general took the opportunity to assure them and the world of the United Nations' commitment to Congo and to implore the warring parties to practice restraint. ''I want to reaffirm the world's determination to play a key role in finding a peaceful solution to the crisis in the Democratic Republic of Congo,'' Mr. Annan said. ''I would like to call on all of the neighboring countries and all of the countries involved in that process not to complicate the situation, but instead to help the affected population of the Congo find peaceful solutions.''
Source: New York Times
Friday, October 27, 2000
Dictator Gone, Violence Erupts In Ivory Coast
A day after toppling the military dictator in a popular uprising, residents of Ivory Coast furiously turned against one another today, and the deadly clashes quickly took on religious and ethnic overtones and spread to smaller cities.
Supporters of two of the main political parties, unified the day before in their opposition to the officer, Gen. Robert Guei, were thrust apart today by religion, ethnicity and their leaders' ambitions.
The winner of Sunday's disputed election, Laurent Gbagbo, was sworn in as president this afternoon in the presidential palace. Mr. Gbagbo, who has the backing of the security forces, said he would not hold a new election despite calls to do so from the country's two other major parties, the United Nations, the United States and the Organization for African Unity. ''I extend my hand to everyone,'' he said after the inauguration, adding that he would form a government of national unity as early as Friday.
But Alassane D. Ouattara, a former prime minister who was barred from running in the election and is insisting on a new vote, took refuge in the German ambassador's residence this morning after security forces surrounded his house and fired tear gas and ammunition.
The attack was led by supporters of Mr. Gbagbo and backed by paramilitary gendarmes in two vehicles, according to Mr. Ouattara's supporters and other witnesses. A motley group of Mr. Ouattara's own forces -- including armed guards, traditional hunters known as dozos and young men carrying machetes, Molotov cocktails and rocks -- guarded the house after he fled. ''Look at what they tried to do the house this morning,'' said Ali Coulibaly, a spokesman for Mr. Ouattara, rejecting the idea that his party could work with Mr. Gbagbo. ''We can't tell the difference now between the security forces and Gbagbo's party. Look at the way Gbagbo seized power today.''
Elsewhere in Abidjan, dozens of people were reported killed, pushing the toll over three days to near 90. Only a day earlier, euphoria had swept the country after tens of thousands of Ivoirians descended on the city center and, in scenes that recalled the popular revolt against Slobodan Milosevic in Yugoslavia but were new to Africa, overthrew General Guei. The general, who had declared himself winner of the election after canceling the count, fled Abidjan, though his whereabouts was still unclear tonight.
Immediately after the general's downfall, Mr. Gbagbo declared himself president, called for national reconciliation and lifted the state of emergency and curfew. But tonight, after it became clear that Mr. Ouattara's supporters were unwilling to accept Mr. Gbagbo's terms, the state of emergency and the curfew were reimposed.
Today, supporters of both men fought one another with machetes and clubs, and mosques and churches were attacked in clashes that have increasingly taken an ethnic and religious cast in a country that until recent years was an unusual model of unity in Africa. General Guei and the unpopular president he overthrew last year, Henri Konan Bedie, had each tried to exploit the ethnic and religious divisions, and hence inflamed them. A court controlled by the general excluded Mr. Ouattara, a Muslim, from the vote Sunday, provoking a boycott by his party and many Muslims, who make up 40 percent of the population in this West African nation. The court also barred the Democratic Party of the Ivory Coast, which had governed for most of the country's post-independence history.
In the face of many Muslims' calls for a new election, supporters of Mr. Gbagbo, who like 30 percent of the population is Christian, have vented their anger. His supporters and their gendarme backers seemed to overwhelm Mr. Ouattara's supporters, who began the day with vast demonstrations, and most of those killed today were Muslims. In Abobo, a sprawling working-class neighborhood that suffered the heaviest violence, three mosques were attacked and half a dozen people were reported dead. The neighborhood remained on edge after the morning's riots, with fires smoldering on deserted streets. At one mosque, the imam, Traore Yaya, nervously answered the door when a reporter knocked this morning. Muslim neighbors came quietly out of their houses as he showed two palm-sized tear-gas canisters. ''We were praying on the street in front of the mosque when gendarmes came by and threw tear gas at us,'' the imam said. A jeep filled with gendarmes suddenly passed as he was talking, and the crowd scattered.
On a main street not far away, where a wounded old woman was trying to find help, Muslims also said the gendarmes had backed Mr. Gbagbo's supporters. ''All the gendarmes we saw were from one ethnic group -- Gbagbo's,'' said Sekou Kone, 35, a merchant who had been hiding in his shop. ''This means we are heading into a civil war.'' ''Since the general is gone, the people must now have fair elections,'' he said. ''One-third of the Ivoirian population cannot choose a president,'' a reference to the 37 percent turnout.
By tonight the violence appeared to have died down after two high-ranking officials from Mr. Ouattara's and Mr. Gbagbo's parties appeared together on state television and urged their followers to stop fighting. They announced that the two political leaders would meet, but did not say when. The call for a new election was endorsed by several prominent outsiders, including Secretary General Kofi Annan of the United Nations, President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa and Gnassingbe Eyadema, the president of Togo and the current head of the Organization for African Unity. The United States echoed these calls. ''It's going to be very important for the voices of the disenfranchised Ivoirians to be heard and, in that sense, the holding of free, fair and inclusive elections will be needed,'' said Philip Reeker, a State Department spokesman.
Significantly, however, France, the former colonial power and the biggest foreign power broker here, said it was satisfied with the results of Sunday's election and called for legislative elections to be held as scheduled in December. Mr. Gbagbo, a socialist, has close ties with the Socialist Party in France. According to the final results of the National Electoral Commission, which General Guei dissolved after preliminary figures showed he was trailing, Mr. Gbagbo received 59 percent of the votes, compared with 33 percent for the general. Because of the boycott, only 2 million voted in this country of 15 million people.
Voting was especially light in the Muslim north. In addition to Mr. Ouattara's call for a boycott, the largest Islamic organization told Muslims to stay home. The Ivory Coast was for decades an African anomaly: a country where people of different religions and ethnic groups co-existed peacefully, under policies enacted by President Felix Houphouet-Boigny, who led the country for three decades.
But President Bedie, who took over in the early 1990's, stirred up xenophobia aimed at Muslim northerners in an attempt to sideline his main rival, Mr. Ouattara, who was deputy managing director of the International Monetary Fund until last year. As Mr. Bedie spoke of ''pure Ivoirians'' and ''foreigners,'' northerners and immigrants became targets of the authorities. Among ordinary Ivoirians, the cleavages widened between Muslims and Christians. General Guei, who seized power last year, adopted a similar anti-northern position. What is more, Mr. Gbagbo, who had been allied with Mr. Ouattara, broke off their union and also inserted ethnocentric language in his political messages.
Source: new York Times
Supporters of two of the main political parties, unified the day before in their opposition to the officer, Gen. Robert Guei, were thrust apart today by religion, ethnicity and their leaders' ambitions.
The winner of Sunday's disputed election, Laurent Gbagbo, was sworn in as president this afternoon in the presidential palace. Mr. Gbagbo, who has the backing of the security forces, said he would not hold a new election despite calls to do so from the country's two other major parties, the United Nations, the United States and the Organization for African Unity. ''I extend my hand to everyone,'' he said after the inauguration, adding that he would form a government of national unity as early as Friday.
But Alassane D. Ouattara, a former prime minister who was barred from running in the election and is insisting on a new vote, took refuge in the German ambassador's residence this morning after security forces surrounded his house and fired tear gas and ammunition.
The attack was led by supporters of Mr. Gbagbo and backed by paramilitary gendarmes in two vehicles, according to Mr. Ouattara's supporters and other witnesses. A motley group of Mr. Ouattara's own forces -- including armed guards, traditional hunters known as dozos and young men carrying machetes, Molotov cocktails and rocks -- guarded the house after he fled. ''Look at what they tried to do the house this morning,'' said Ali Coulibaly, a spokesman for Mr. Ouattara, rejecting the idea that his party could work with Mr. Gbagbo. ''We can't tell the difference now between the security forces and Gbagbo's party. Look at the way Gbagbo seized power today.''
Elsewhere in Abidjan, dozens of people were reported killed, pushing the toll over three days to near 90. Only a day earlier, euphoria had swept the country after tens of thousands of Ivoirians descended on the city center and, in scenes that recalled the popular revolt against Slobodan Milosevic in Yugoslavia but were new to Africa, overthrew General Guei. The general, who had declared himself winner of the election after canceling the count, fled Abidjan, though his whereabouts was still unclear tonight.
Immediately after the general's downfall, Mr. Gbagbo declared himself president, called for national reconciliation and lifted the state of emergency and curfew. But tonight, after it became clear that Mr. Ouattara's supporters were unwilling to accept Mr. Gbagbo's terms, the state of emergency and the curfew were reimposed.
Today, supporters of both men fought one another with machetes and clubs, and mosques and churches were attacked in clashes that have increasingly taken an ethnic and religious cast in a country that until recent years was an unusual model of unity in Africa. General Guei and the unpopular president he overthrew last year, Henri Konan Bedie, had each tried to exploit the ethnic and religious divisions, and hence inflamed them. A court controlled by the general excluded Mr. Ouattara, a Muslim, from the vote Sunday, provoking a boycott by his party and many Muslims, who make up 40 percent of the population in this West African nation. The court also barred the Democratic Party of the Ivory Coast, which had governed for most of the country's post-independence history.
In the face of many Muslims' calls for a new election, supporters of Mr. Gbagbo, who like 30 percent of the population is Christian, have vented their anger. His supporters and their gendarme backers seemed to overwhelm Mr. Ouattara's supporters, who began the day with vast demonstrations, and most of those killed today were Muslims. In Abobo, a sprawling working-class neighborhood that suffered the heaviest violence, three mosques were attacked and half a dozen people were reported dead. The neighborhood remained on edge after the morning's riots, with fires smoldering on deserted streets. At one mosque, the imam, Traore Yaya, nervously answered the door when a reporter knocked this morning. Muslim neighbors came quietly out of their houses as he showed two palm-sized tear-gas canisters. ''We were praying on the street in front of the mosque when gendarmes came by and threw tear gas at us,'' the imam said. A jeep filled with gendarmes suddenly passed as he was talking, and the crowd scattered.
On a main street not far away, where a wounded old woman was trying to find help, Muslims also said the gendarmes had backed Mr. Gbagbo's supporters. ''All the gendarmes we saw were from one ethnic group -- Gbagbo's,'' said Sekou Kone, 35, a merchant who had been hiding in his shop. ''This means we are heading into a civil war.'' ''Since the general is gone, the people must now have fair elections,'' he said. ''One-third of the Ivoirian population cannot choose a president,'' a reference to the 37 percent turnout.
By tonight the violence appeared to have died down after two high-ranking officials from Mr. Ouattara's and Mr. Gbagbo's parties appeared together on state television and urged their followers to stop fighting. They announced that the two political leaders would meet, but did not say when. The call for a new election was endorsed by several prominent outsiders, including Secretary General Kofi Annan of the United Nations, President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa and Gnassingbe Eyadema, the president of Togo and the current head of the Organization for African Unity. The United States echoed these calls. ''It's going to be very important for the voices of the disenfranchised Ivoirians to be heard and, in that sense, the holding of free, fair and inclusive elections will be needed,'' said Philip Reeker, a State Department spokesman.
Significantly, however, France, the former colonial power and the biggest foreign power broker here, said it was satisfied with the results of Sunday's election and called for legislative elections to be held as scheduled in December. Mr. Gbagbo, a socialist, has close ties with the Socialist Party in France. According to the final results of the National Electoral Commission, which General Guei dissolved after preliminary figures showed he was trailing, Mr. Gbagbo received 59 percent of the votes, compared with 33 percent for the general. Because of the boycott, only 2 million voted in this country of 15 million people.
Voting was especially light in the Muslim north. In addition to Mr. Ouattara's call for a boycott, the largest Islamic organization told Muslims to stay home. The Ivory Coast was for decades an African anomaly: a country where people of different religions and ethnic groups co-existed peacefully, under policies enacted by President Felix Houphouet-Boigny, who led the country for three decades.
But President Bedie, who took over in the early 1990's, stirred up xenophobia aimed at Muslim northerners in an attempt to sideline his main rival, Mr. Ouattara, who was deputy managing director of the International Monetary Fund until last year. As Mr. Bedie spoke of ''pure Ivoirians'' and ''foreigners,'' northerners and immigrants became targets of the authorities. Among ordinary Ivoirians, the cleavages widened between Muslims and Christians. General Guei, who seized power last year, adopted a similar anti-northern position. What is more, Mr. Gbagbo, who had been allied with Mr. Ouattara, broke off their union and also inserted ethnocentric language in his political messages.
Source: new York Times
Monday, December 27, 1999
Ousted Leader Of Ivory Coast Flees to Togo
The ousted president of Ivory Coast left the country in a French aircraft today, landed in nearby Togo and may seek asylum in France, the government here said. Three days of rioting seemed to be coming to an end today as the army established control over the West African country, which until last week was considered one of the most stable, prosperous and democratic on the continent.
Residents of Abidjan, the main city, who were unable to finish their Christmas shopping when looting and car hijackings began on Thursday as soldiers held a protest, were back in stores, guarded by soldiers. There were military checkpoints on the thoroughfares, but buses, the main means of transportation for the city's three million people, began running again at dawn. Nonetheless, a nightly curfew and patrols by soldiers and police officers empowered to shoot anyone on the street after 6 p.m. will continue for the moment, security officials said. The country is being run by a nine-man junta calling itself the National Public Salvation Committee. The commanders of the police, the marines, the paratroops and armored and infantry units took oaths to it on television on Saturday night.
But the real power seems to be Gen. Robert Guei, 58, a former chief of the armed forces. He said today that he would create a government that would include civilians, but did not say when. On Saturday he invited political parties to discuss a unified government. France and the United States condemned the overthrow of President Henri Konan Bedie, 65, as did Nigeria and South Africa, the two most powerful countries in sub-Saharan Africa. A panel of foreign ministers from the Economic Community of West African States said it would meet soon to discuss the crisis. Ivory Coast is a member of the group, which has intervened in civil wars in Sierra Leone and Liberia.
This is the first coup in Ivory Coast, which is the world's largest producer of cocoa, and which exports palm oil, bananas and other tropical products. The country had a history of stable government. It was ruled by Felix Houphouet-Boigny from independence in 1960 until his death in 1993. Mr. Bedie, of Mr. Houphouet-Boigny's Democratic Party, succeeded him.
General Guei said today that mutineers had overthrown the government because it had been taking political prisoners and showing ethnic intolerance uncharacteristic of Ivorian traditions. But several forces seemed to be at work. General Guei, a French-trained career officer with a relatively low profile, was himself dismissed as armed forces chief by Mr. Bedie in 1995 after rumors of a coup were circulated. The general has said he was not involved in plotting a coup and was working on his farm when the mutineers asked him to be their spokesman.
The young soldiers who took part along with hooligans in the looting that began on Thursday complained about pay and working conditions. The government has recently been showing virulent nationalism and a xenophobic attitude toward migrant workers; a third of the 19 million population is from neighboring countries. More recently, the governing Democratic Party, dominated by members of Mr. Bedie's Baoule ethnic group, has tried to prevent Alassane Ouattara, an International Monetary Fund official who was Mr. Houphouet-Boigny's prime minister, from becoming a candidate in a presidential election next October. Mr. Bedie contended that Mr. Ouattara was a citizen of Burkina Faso and thus ineligible to run.
The government also jailed leaders of Mr. Ouattara's party, the Rally for the Republicans, who were freed by the mutineers. The new junta has some apparent links to Mr. Ouattara's party. Gen. Lassana Palenfo, another prominent member of the junta, was once Mr. Ouattara's security minister.
The junta expressed satisfaction with the departure of Mr. Bedie under what the French Foreign Ministry described as ''safe and dignified circumstances.'' Mr. Bedie spent two days hiding inside a French military base near the Abidjan airport under the protection of 550 French marines. Some cabinet ministers are being held by the junta, which said the detention was for their own protection. At least two appeared on television endorsing the coup, one of them surrounded by soldiers.
Mr. Bedie's wife and children were among the entourage of about 12 people allowed to leave with him. He was greeted at the airport in Lome, Togo's capital, by the Togolese president, Gnassingbe Eyadema. Asked by Agence France-Presse whether Mr. Bedie could end up in France, a spokeswoman for the Foreign Ministry here replied that she did not know whether he wanted to come, but ''if he wishes to, he has the option of doing so.''
On Saturday, France reinforced its garrison with 40 troops from Gabon and positioned 300 more in Senegal to aid in any possible evacuation of the 20,000 or more French citizens in Ivory Coast. But General Guei refused permission for any more French troops to enter and guaranteed the safety of French citizens and property. He said an increase in troop strength could lead to a bloodbath, but also seemed to fear that France might try to restore Mr. Bedie to power.
Source: New York Times
Residents of Abidjan, the main city, who were unable to finish their Christmas shopping when looting and car hijackings began on Thursday as soldiers held a protest, were back in stores, guarded by soldiers. There were military checkpoints on the thoroughfares, but buses, the main means of transportation for the city's three million people, began running again at dawn. Nonetheless, a nightly curfew and patrols by soldiers and police officers empowered to shoot anyone on the street after 6 p.m. will continue for the moment, security officials said. The country is being run by a nine-man junta calling itself the National Public Salvation Committee. The commanders of the police, the marines, the paratroops and armored and infantry units took oaths to it on television on Saturday night.
But the real power seems to be Gen. Robert Guei, 58, a former chief of the armed forces. He said today that he would create a government that would include civilians, but did not say when. On Saturday he invited political parties to discuss a unified government. France and the United States condemned the overthrow of President Henri Konan Bedie, 65, as did Nigeria and South Africa, the two most powerful countries in sub-Saharan Africa. A panel of foreign ministers from the Economic Community of West African States said it would meet soon to discuss the crisis. Ivory Coast is a member of the group, which has intervened in civil wars in Sierra Leone and Liberia.
This is the first coup in Ivory Coast, which is the world's largest producer of cocoa, and which exports palm oil, bananas and other tropical products. The country had a history of stable government. It was ruled by Felix Houphouet-Boigny from independence in 1960 until his death in 1993. Mr. Bedie, of Mr. Houphouet-Boigny's Democratic Party, succeeded him.
General Guei said today that mutineers had overthrown the government because it had been taking political prisoners and showing ethnic intolerance uncharacteristic of Ivorian traditions. But several forces seemed to be at work. General Guei, a French-trained career officer with a relatively low profile, was himself dismissed as armed forces chief by Mr. Bedie in 1995 after rumors of a coup were circulated. The general has said he was not involved in plotting a coup and was working on his farm when the mutineers asked him to be their spokesman.
The young soldiers who took part along with hooligans in the looting that began on Thursday complained about pay and working conditions. The government has recently been showing virulent nationalism and a xenophobic attitude toward migrant workers; a third of the 19 million population is from neighboring countries. More recently, the governing Democratic Party, dominated by members of Mr. Bedie's Baoule ethnic group, has tried to prevent Alassane Ouattara, an International Monetary Fund official who was Mr. Houphouet-Boigny's prime minister, from becoming a candidate in a presidential election next October. Mr. Bedie contended that Mr. Ouattara was a citizen of Burkina Faso and thus ineligible to run.
The government also jailed leaders of Mr. Ouattara's party, the Rally for the Republicans, who were freed by the mutineers. The new junta has some apparent links to Mr. Ouattara's party. Gen. Lassana Palenfo, another prominent member of the junta, was once Mr. Ouattara's security minister.
The junta expressed satisfaction with the departure of Mr. Bedie under what the French Foreign Ministry described as ''safe and dignified circumstances.'' Mr. Bedie spent two days hiding inside a French military base near the Abidjan airport under the protection of 550 French marines. Some cabinet ministers are being held by the junta, which said the detention was for their own protection. At least two appeared on television endorsing the coup, one of them surrounded by soldiers.
Mr. Bedie's wife and children were among the entourage of about 12 people allowed to leave with him. He was greeted at the airport in Lome, Togo's capital, by the Togolese president, Gnassingbe Eyadema. Asked by Agence France-Presse whether Mr. Bedie could end up in France, a spokeswoman for the Foreign Ministry here replied that she did not know whether he wanted to come, but ''if he wishes to, he has the option of doing so.''
On Saturday, France reinforced its garrison with 40 troops from Gabon and positioned 300 more in Senegal to aid in any possible evacuation of the 20,000 or more French citizens in Ivory Coast. But General Guei refused permission for any more French troops to enter and guaranteed the safety of French citizens and property. He said an increase in troop strength could lead to a bloodbath, but also seemed to fear that France might try to restore Mr. Bedie to power.
Source: New York Times
Tuesday, February 2, 1993
Thousands Are Fleeing Togo After New Spate of Killings
Women carrying children on their backs trudged along the beach today toward Ghana, joining an exodus of thousands fleeing new attacks by soldiers. Soldiers loyal to Togo's leader, Gen. Gnassingbe Eyadema, are accused of killing hundreds of political opponents to keep him in power. Six people were killed over the weekend, in an area known as an opposition stronghold, in the latest outbreak of violence. About 100 troops and paramilitary police also ransacked central Lome and nearby suburbs today.
President Eyadema, who has ruled this West African nation since 1967, agreed in 1991 to let opposition parties install a transitional Government, but then blocked its efforts to take power.
Source: New York Times
President Eyadema, who has ruled this West African nation since 1967, agreed in 1991 to let opposition parties install a transitional Government, but then blocked its efforts to take power.
Source: New York Times
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