The tyrant of Togo dies after heart attack
By David Blair, Africa Correspondent
(Filed: 07/02/2005)

After beggaring his people and basking in the plaudits of Paris for almost
four decades, the last of West Africa's Francophone tyrants died at the
weekend, bringing to an inglorious end an era of Machiavellian French
statecraft.

President Gnassingbé Eyadema of Togo, who gloried in France's "special
relationship" with Africa, suffered a heart attack at the age of 69, hours
before he was due to leave his tiny domain for Paris.

Mr Eyadema was Africa's longest-serving despot and dominated Togo from the
moment that he seized power in 1967.

Thereafter, he styled himself "Le Guide", murdered his opponents, hounded
thousands into exile and staged a series of rigged elections, once claiming
a 99.95 per cent "Yes" vote in a referendum on his rule. But President
Jacques Chirac paid tribute to a "friend of France" and a "personal friend"
after his death, adding: "My thoughts turn towards the Togolese people. I am
sure they will find themselves gathered together democratically in this
ordeal."

For decades an intense desire to safeguard the primacy of the French
language and French influence over the continent has led France to back a
cabal of tyrants.

Once France's African colonies gained independence in 1960, Paris
established a loyal block of French-speaking countries. Some, like the
Central African Republic, had great mineral wealth. Its ruler, the "Emperor"
Jean-Bedel Bokassa, was an occasional cannibal and caused a scandal by
giving diamonds to Valery Giscard D'Estaing when he was the French president
in the 1970s.

Other French allies, such as Gabon, had oil wealth. Some, notably Chad and
Djibouti, provided military bases. Rwanda before the genocide of 1994 had
little to offer except loyalty to the French language. This was enough for
France under Francois Mitterrand to arm and support a Hutu-dominated regime
bent on mass murder.

Togo offered nothing beyond a Francophone population, a reliable vote in the
United Nations General Assembly and a devout acolyte in the form of Mr
Eyadema.

But that was enough to win French protection for his regime. In 1985 French
troops even rescued him from an attempted coup. Hundreds died during a
rigged presidential election in 1998, when counting was abruptly stopped and
Mr Eyadema was simply declared the winner. Amnesty International found a
"persistent pattern" of extra-judicial killings and torture.

Togo's parliament last night elected Faure Gnassingbé, the late president's
son, head of the national assembly which allows him to rule until June 2008.

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