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. _________________________________________________________________ MSN Messenger http://www.msn.no/computing/messenger Den raskeste veien mellom deg og dine venner ¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤ To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html To Search in the Gambia-L archives, go to: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/CGI/wa.exe?S1=gambia-l To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to: [log in to unmask] ¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤