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Togo buries Eyadema
13/03/2005 23:35 - (SA)
Lome - Togo officially mourned its former president on Sunday with a funeral attended by regional leaders working to calm the country's presidential-succession struggle.
The military, supported President Gnassingbe Eyadema during 38 years of rule until his death on February 5, opened the funeral with a 21-gun salute before ruling-party officials made speeches over Eyadema's casket.
"Those who believe in God will die one day, but they will live forever in the Lord," said Eric Kpabe, a member of parliament. "Eyadema is therefore not dead; he will live forever for the Togolese people."
The presidents of Niger, Benin, Ghana, Ivory Coast and Nigeria joined the state funeral in the capital, Lome, along with Michel Barnier, the foreign minister of France, Togo's former colonial master.
Eyadema's body, preserved for over a month in the capital, was expected to be transported later to northern Togo, for burial at a later date in his home village.
Hours after Eyadema's death, the military announced that his son, Faure Gnassingbe, would become president. Congress, stacked with ruling-party members, amended the constitution in an attempt to grant the move retroactive legitimacy.
Protesters angry at the move clashed with security forces in Lome, leaving several demonstrators dead, and African leaders quickly stepped in with condemnation and sanctions against what they branded a military coup.
Gnassingbe stepped down under heavy pressure led by Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo and a West African leaders' bloc, and promised to hold elections on April 24.
The deputy speaker of parliament, Bonfoh Abass, is leading Togo until a new leader is chosen by voters. Gnassingbe has said he will stand in the elections.
Eyadema, who had been Africa's longest-ruling leader, led one of postcolonial Africa's first coups d'etat in 1963 and assumed direct power four years later.
Fond of well-tailored French suits and often wearing dark sunglasses indoors, Eyadema was for many Africans the quintessential "Big Man" who brooked no dissent and ruled harshly.
He used troops and repressive rule to resist the wave of democracy that rolled across the rest of sub-Saharan Africa in the 1990s. His regime was accused of torturing and murdering opposition-party members.
Togo, a former French colony that gained independence in 1960, has an annual per-capita income of US$270 from an economy based on cocoa, coffee production and mining. The country sits between Ghana and Benin on the Gulf of Guinea on the west coast of Africa.
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