Tough times for dependents of thousands who fled post election violence

Nearly five months after election violence in Togo, thousands of opposition supporters remain exiled in Benin and Ghana, making life difficult for the dependents they left behind. In this central Togolese town of Atakpame, Father Seraphin Abokitse currently provides food handouts to 550 people struggling to make ends meet since the family breadwinner fled Togo in the violence that followed controversial polls in April. "We don't talk about displaced people anymore," said Abokitse, explaining that all of the 2,300 people who fled to nearby hills had returned "but there are still 550 people who have been abandoned by their parents or husband to whom we give rice, oil and soap." Most of the recipients are women and children. But Abokitse, who works for the Catholic Relief Services (OCDI), said funds for these handouts would not last after the end of September. Some 38,000 people fled the tiny country after Faure Gnassingbe was declared winner of the 24 April presidential election in results violently contested as fraudulent by opposition supporters. The polls were held following the death in office of his father Gnassingbe Eyadema. Since the election President Gnassingbe has made repeated calls for the tens of thousands of refugees in Benin and Ghana to return home, but with little success. The refugees say government supporters or security forces will persecute them if they step foot in the country. Most of the exiles are young men, and for those left behind the absence of the main breadwinner is making life ever more difficult in a country where annual GDP per head is little over US $300. As the new school year approaches next week, Abokitse says many of the refugee children will need help with the payment of school fees. "School restarts on Monday, and school fees are 5,000 CFA (US $10) for state schools. We are trying to find a way to pay all of their fees for them," Abokitse said. Homes that were wrecked in the violence too have yet to be repaired. Some families have set up camp in the grounds of the National High School in Atakpame where the UN's refugee agency earlier this week distributed mosquito nets, buckets and other essential non-food items. Though Atakpame market still attracts traders from the north and south of the country and the street bars are filled late into the evening with lovers supping beer, most residents still remember the events of April with deep bitterness. "We have lived through difficult times here and I don't want to relive them ever again," said Komlan, an electrician. "Today one speaks about reconciliation but all the authors of crime must be judged, or at least publicly recognise their wrongs if they are to be forgiven," he said. The government and the UN human rights commissioner have both carried out investigations into the violence that followed the April polls. Neither report has been published, though the government has promised to make its findings available by the end of September. Human rights group Amnesty International in June reported government forces had used live ammunition against opposition supporters who staged demonstrations up and down the country to protest Gnassingbe's victory.