Protesters' prospects in Africa
By Elizabeth Mbundu, Hilversum
High food prices, exorbitant fuel costs and widespread corruption frequently trigger human rights demonstrations in different African countries. But just how free are protestors on the continent? RNW asked Amnesty International.
Spokesperson for the Dutch branch of the global organization Ruud Bosgraaf says the treatment of protesters varies per country.
In South Africa and Botswana, protesters are allowed to self-organize and are less likely to get fined, much less arrested.
But when demonstrators take it to the streets in Sudan, Angola, Zimbabwe, Uganda and Senegal, they are squashed by security forces. Sometimes injuries or even death are reported.
Yet it’s the worst in Eritrea and Ethiopia. “There is hardly any form of freedom of speech,” says Bosgraaf about two countries Amnesty International has followed for a while. “People in those countries don’t even organize themselves for a demonstration, as they would be immediately imprisoned, abused or tortured by security forces. Eritrea is known for putting people in sweltering shipping containers.”
The protest was the second in three days of demonstrations called by the opposition-led 'Save Togo' campaign seeking to reverse laws adopted by the ruling party-dominated parliament last month.
A witness said police deployed in the streets of the capital Lomé in the early afternoon and were still removing burning tyres and bricks.
"We will not give up..," said Jean-Pierre Fabre, leader of the ANC, a major opposition party. "We will not let the government unilaterally decide on matters relating to the elections. Everything must be agreed on through consensus."
There was no immediate statement from the government.
Address imbalances, say the opposition
The opposition wants constituencies redrawn to address imbalances it says favour the ruling party and is challenging a move to increase from 81 to 91 the number of seats in parliament.
Togo's President Faure Gnassingbe came to power in flawed and violent 2005 elections following the death of his father.
He was re-elected in a March 2010 poll that foreign officials said showed some improvement and some businessmen say he has taken some initial steps to push through some reforms.
Gnassingbe and his allies control over 50 of the current 81-seat parliament.
Source: Reuters
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this is absurd.i cant believe this is happening in this computer age.togoles should not relent,let them not be intimidated by those zone bees.this guys called the eyademas are not ready to leave and the togolese people should settle this once and for all.am using this medium to tell all our togolese communities here in nigeria to support this peaceful civil protest that has been brutalised by this absolute autocratic gorvenment of the eyadema family.this is not fair,we have suffered massively for more than three decades in the hand of this family.if this continue then i will assume that the togolese are feeble.what we are asking for is not too much.all we want is just the reversal of the undemocratic constitution back to two terms for the sittng president.i believe that there is no gorvernment anywhere in the world that is as strong as the people provided that the people are standing in unity against any anti human policies.more power to the elbow of our togolse brothers.may God see them through this hard time.Ametonou kokou emmanuel.
my wife just identified a civil "police" man in the first picture - it is the guy with the light blue shirt and the beige trowsers looking into the camera on the right side of that picture
Shops stay closed as soldiers started burning and luting. Nobody can go out because otherwise he risks his life. My sister saw a six years old baby die because of a tear gas attack: soldiers threw grenades into a church and blocked the exits. Violence is the governments strategy and of course people have to defend themselves.
The media shared numbers of 30 injured people over three days long - the true number nobody knows, but they are many many more - and many killed also.
Reuters is writing bullshit - since wednesday when the first news came up in internet I try to comment the wrong informations of BBC and Reuters which where taken over by all other media ...
The truth is like that: it began already on monday by a general strike and protest of 20000 peacefully sitting people at Ebe (one of the poor town parts of Lome) ... Police? Togo doesn't have police forces - they are called "soldier" and they are military ... They and the presidents guards attack with tear gas grenades and fast fire weapons as easily to be heard in the whole city. Dead people! Terror squads of the military where moving through the streets of Ebe, breaking into houses and beating up every living thing - children, women, men, old people - house by house.
Eritreans will never protested against their government because they know just like any body else their leaders are working with them hand in hand to build the country by their own sweat. They are not like those corrputed leaders in many african acountries where the leaders gumble the future of the country at the expense of the wider poplation. In Eritrea you talk only about one thing, how to make your mind free by becoming independent before you try to open your mouth. That is why Eritrea is not starving despite the sanctions and draught. No leader can claim to have done what Eritrean leaders have done. That is because the people are with them. It will take a while for the west to undersand Eritreans.
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