Sunday, February 06, 2005
Telegraph | News | The tyrant of Togo dies after heart attack
Telegraph | News | The tyrant of Togo dies after heart attack: "The tyrant of Togo dies after heart attack
By David Blair, Africa Correspondent
(Filed: 07/02/2005)
After beggaring his people and basking in the plaudits of Paris for almost four decades, the last of West Africa's Francophone tyrants died at the weekend, bringing to an inglorious end an era of Machiavellian French statecraft.
President Gnassingb� Eyadema of Togo, who gloried in France's 'special relationship' with Africa, suffered a heart attack at the age of 69, hours before he was due to leave his tiny domain for Paris.
Mr Eyadema was Africa's longest-serving despot and dominated Togo from the moment that he seized power in 1967.
Thereafter, he styled himself 'Le Guide', murdered his opponents, hounded thousands into exile and staged a series of rigged elections, once claiming a 99.95 per cent 'Yes' vote in a referendum on his rule. But President Jacques Chirac paid tribute to a 'friend of France' and a 'personal friend' after his death, adding: 'My thoughts turn towards the Togolese people. I am sure they will find themselves gathered together democratically in this ordeal.'
For decades an intense desire to safeguard the primacy of the French language and French influence over the continent has led France to back a cabal of tyrants.
Once France's African colonies gained independence in 1960, Paris established a loyal block of French-speaking countries. Some, like the Central African Republic, had great mineral wealth. Its ruler, the 'Emperor' Jean-Bedel Bokassa, was an occasional cannibal and caused a scandal by giving diamonds to Valery Giscard D'Estaing when he was the French president in the 1970s.
Other French allies"
By David Blair, Africa Correspondent
(Filed: 07/02/2005)
After beggaring his people and basking in the plaudits of Paris for almost four decades, the last of West Africa's Francophone tyrants died at the weekend, bringing to an inglorious end an era of Machiavellian French statecraft.
President Gnassingb� Eyadema of Togo, who gloried in France's 'special relationship' with Africa, suffered a heart attack at the age of 69, hours before he was due to leave his tiny domain for Paris.
Mr Eyadema was Africa's longest-serving despot and dominated Togo from the moment that he seized power in 1967.
Thereafter, he styled himself 'Le Guide', murdered his opponents, hounded thousands into exile and staged a series of rigged elections, once claiming a 99.95 per cent 'Yes' vote in a referendum on his rule. But President Jacques Chirac paid tribute to a 'friend of France' and a 'personal friend' after his death, adding: 'My thoughts turn towards the Togolese people. I am sure they will find themselves gathered together democratically in this ordeal.'
For decades an intense desire to safeguard the primacy of the French language and French influence over the continent has led France to back a cabal of tyrants.
Once France's African colonies gained independence in 1960, Paris established a loyal block of French-speaking countries. Some, like the Central African Republic, had great mineral wealth. Its ruler, the 'Emperor' Jean-Bedel Bokassa, was an occasional cannibal and caused a scandal by giving diamonds to Valery Giscard D'Estaing when he was the French president in the 1970s.
Other French allies"
