MILITARY TAKEOVER FEARS IN LOME, TOGO

AFP,LOME
15 April 2009

Fear and uncertainty gripped the Togolese capital on Tuesday after elite troops stormed the home of President Faure Gnassingbe's brother.

Speculation something serious was afoot was fuelled by President Gnassingbe's decision to cancel a trip to China. Media reports said at least two soldiers were killed during Sunday night's raid.

Prosecutors said the assault on the home of Kpatcha Gnassingbe was to arrest soldiers and civilians linked to Togo's ruling party and "suspected of trying to undermine state security."

A statement from the head prosecutor's office read out on Monday on state television mentioned several arrests including five officers, without specifying where.

Kpatcha Gnassingbe, an influential member of Togo's ruling party, the Rally of the Togolese People (RTP), was holed up inside his house on Tuesday refusing to comment, an AFP journalist said.

While there was no mention of an attempted coup, Lome residents - fearful of a return to political violence that has haunted Togo in the past - were anxious for official news.

With no comment from the president, the military or the main political parties, they gathered anxiously around newspaper kiosks desperate for more details on what was going on.

"I am really scared, I was not expecting something like this to happen. We are really not safe," said businessman Alain Dovoin.

Newspaper vendor Pierre Amou said he had slept in the same room as his children with "doors and windows closed tight."

Witnesses told AFP on Monday that special forces had overcome troops on guard duty at Kpatcha Gnassingbe's home, which they partially looted, shooting inside and around the house.

"It was a heavily armed unit of the (elite) Rapid Intervention Force. They neutralised the soldiers who were watching over the house," one source close to the president's brother told AFP.

"Mr Gnassingbe was there, but not in the rooms targeted by the attackers. They encircled the building and were firing in all directions for at least three hours."

While rumours abounded on the streets, the RPT said nothing.

Ruling party officials contacted by AFP refused to comment on the matter. "The case is in the hands of the justice department," one party official said on condition of anonymity.

The same hush from the opposition, a sign the affair is extremely sensitive and one that directly affects the Eyadema family, which has held sway over Togolese politics for more than 40 years.

Sylvanus Olympio was the first post-independence president of Togo. He was assassinated in a 1963 coup in which Faure Gnassingbe's father, Gnassingbe Eyadema, took part and later became president himself.

Eyadema ruled until his death in 2005 when Faure was appointed the new president by the army. After international protests he stepped down to allow elections, which he won, returning to the presidency the same year.

His brother Kpatcha was elected in October 2007 member of parliament for the ruling party stronghold of Kara, north of the capital.

Considered an RTP heavyweight, he had already been defence minister between 2005 and 2007, a sensitive portfolio to hold in a country where the military retains a lot of clout.

"Kpatcha is undeniably a man in the circle of power, which is why I am extremely worried," said Pierre Adevin, a journalist for a private Togolose radio station.

"It is in the interests of Faure and Kpatcha to get along, because we do not wish to relive certain situations in this country," Adevin said, hinting that relations between the two were never good and alluding to Togo's troubled past.

AFP