Government expresses shock and anger

On Tuesday the government expressed "shock and anger" at the LDHs accusations saying that it had "obviously decided to put its humanitarian status at the service of the political battle launched by Amnesty International against Togo", according to state radio monitored by the BBC. The government also said that when the AI affair surfaced in May, the Togo's national human rights commission contacted the LDH in "its concern for objectivity" towards establishing the truth, state radio said. In a working session on 21 May between the two organisations, the chairman of the LDH, Julien Togbadja, said that his organisation was in permanent contact with Togolese refugees but "none of them has given us such information", state radio reported. However, the LDH said that it would conduct its own independent investigation into the allegations, the results of which were published on Monday. Meanwhile another organisation, Benin's Commission beninoise des Droits de l'Homme, said its own investigation into the AI allegations showed no no evidence of such corpses.