Talks on forming government of national unity end in failure

Talks on forming a government of national unity between newly elected President Faure Gnassingbe and Togo's main opposition parties have ended without agreement, but the failure of these negotiations caused little surprise on the streets of the capital Lome on Friday. Gnassingbe held talks with exiled opposition leader Gilchrist Olympio and other prominent opposition figures in the Nigerian capital Abuja on Thursday. They met in the presence of Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo and five other West African heads of state. Obasanjo, the chairman of the African Union, urged both sides to honour a pledge they gave to him 24 hours after the disputed 24 April election, to form a power-sharing government no matter who won. But the opposition leaders refused to even recognise Gnassingbe's victory in an election which they said was riddled with fraud. “There was no agreement on a power-sharing government. We gave our conditions,” said Yaovi Agboyibo, the coordinator of the six-party alliance that opposed Gnassingbe's bid to succeed his late father, Gnassingbe Eyadema, who ruled Togo with an iron hand for 38 years. “The African leaders want us to quickly do a deal with Gnassingbe, without considering the merit of our complaints that his so-called election was a fraud,” one opposition supporter in Abuja told IRIN after the talks broke up. “That is unacceptable to us.” Government and opposition representatives contacted by IRIN on their return to Lome, declined to comment further on the outcome of the Abuja meeting. But many people on the streets of the capital simply expressed bitter resignation. “The heads of state present at Abuja, for the most part, were friends of Faure and the RPT (the ruling party). I don’t think that it is possible to find a solution with people like that,” said one employee of an import/export business, who gave his name as Herve. “What I fear is that it will come from this to more weapons,” said Marie, a hairdresser. “Look, this is a small country, if they start fighting we are all dead!” Togo was plunged into turmoil by the death of Eyadema on 5 February. The ruling Rally of the Togolese People (RPT) party and the armed forces initially overode the constitution to proclaim the late president's son as head of state. Gnassingbe stepped down three weeks later under international pressure and agreed to hold a presidential election. But he bounced back into power at the end of April as the RPT candidate after being officially credited with 60 percent of the vote. His election victory sparked off opposition protests which were ruthlessly suppressed by the security forces. Diplomats estimated that around 100 people were killed in the post-election violence, but one local human rights group said the death toll was nearer 800. Over 31,000 refugees fled to Ghana and Benin. A joint communique issued by the African leaders at the end of the Abuja meeting urged all parties in Togo “to desist from acts of violence, impunity and vandalism that contribute to insecurity in the country” while continuing to work for the establishment of a government that is representative of the country’s “political forces”. An alliance of Togo's six main opposition parties has demanded an independent probe into its allegations of fraud in the election, before they hold substantive discussions on power sharing. The opposition alliance claims that the poll was really won by its own candidate, Emmanuel Bob-Akitani, who was officially credited with just 38 percent of the vote. The opposition was dealt another blow on Thursday, when 75-year-old BobAkitani, retired mining engineer, was flown to hospital in Paris after suffering a stroke.