Posted on 02/27/2005 2:44:16 AM PST by thoughtomator
LOME, Feb. 26 (Xinhuanet) -- Togo's military-installed President Faure Gnassingbe on Friday evening announced his decision to step down and run for president in April elections, mitigating a three-week political crisis gripping the African country.
Hours after his declaration, UN spokesman Fred Eckhard said UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan welcomed Gnassingbe's resignation.
Early Saturday, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) said it would immediately drop sanctions against Togo.
On the same day, the African Union (AU), which had just declared sanctions against Togo on Friday, welcomed Gnassingbe's resignation, praising it as paving way for restoration of the ruleof the constitution in Togo.
The AU's rotating chairman, Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, hailed the step-down of Gnassingbe as a victory of democracy.
Gnassingbe had been under growing pressure from the United Nations and West African leaders to resign since he was installed Feb. 5 after the death of his father, Gnassingbe Eyadema, who ruled the country for 38 years.
While Gnassingbe's move mitigated the crisis in Togo and won applause from abroad, the international community urged the African country to hold a just presidential election.
The 53-nation AU said in a statement on Saturday that Togo had "cleared the path for a return to constitutional order," but that it needed to do more to ensure "the success of a democratic process, notably the organization of free elections, transparent and open to all."
The AU stressed the need for "dialogue among all the political actors in Togo to ensure a transition based on consensus."
Togo's acting president Abass Bonfoh, who was chosen as the newhead of the national assembly in a late Friday night vote, on Saturday promised free and open elections in April.
"We will try, in the prescribed timeframe, to organize free andtransparent elections so as to satisfy all of the Togolese people," Bonfoh said.
Hearing Gnassingbe's step-down, both Gnassingbe supporters and foes rallied in Lome, the country's capital, on Saturday morning.
Tens of thousands of supporters rushed into streets, backing the ruling party's Friday nomination of Gnassingbe as presidential candidate.
Meanwhile, hard-liners from six opposition parties rallied around 20,000 people, demanding a "total return to constitutional legality."
Gnassingbe's opposers demanded former parliament speaker Fambare Natchaba Ouattara to become the interim president.
Jean-Pierre Fabre, leader of the main opposition Union of Forces for Change (UFC), declared: "What we want is a whole and not stray bits and pieces."
Fabre said that the election of Bonfoh is "useless, because it is a continued coup."
The late President was a dictator ruling the country for 38 years.
He was allied with the French - When he died he was actually on his way to France. Chirac held a warm eulogy for his old friend.
There is no dearth of dictatorships in Africa. The African Union had as far as I know friendly relations with the old dictator.
So why, when the military named the son of the old dictator as president until elections could be held, suddenly the EU, France, the African Union and eventually the US reacts against the authoritarian rule in Togo.
Did the various state deptartments just find Togo on their maps, or is there something more sinister going on?
They amended their constitution to allow the military-installed son to fill the rest of the father's term - which lasts until 2008. It wasn't popular, blood in the streets, and all that.
The number one reason is that the people of Togo made clear they weren't going to take it any more.
Would you like that dictatorship here.
No thanks, I'll take it Togo.
We're not in Kansas anymore, Toto...
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