TOGO: Police shoot tear gas to break up opposition protest

Record ID: 277204

  • Title: TOGO: Police shoot tear gas to break up opposition protest
  • Date: 18th March 2011
  • Summary: LOME, TOGO (MARCH 17, 2011) (REUTERS) PROTESTERS BURNING TYRES IN LOME VARIOUS OF SOLDIERS SHOOTING TEAR GAS CANISTERS TYRES BURNING VARIOUS OF POLICEMEN SHOOTING TEAR GAS CANISTERS (SOUNDBITE) (Mina) UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN SAYING: "We are not free in Togo, we were forbidden to speak, to protest. They hit us and shot tear gas in our homes and Faure Gnassingbe said nothin
  • Embargoed: 2nd April 2011 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Togo, Togo
  • Country: Togo
  • Topics: Police,Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVAA59RNRXEKOJZB05PM1G0K789Z
  • Story Text: Togo police fired tear gas on Thursday (March 17) to disperse opposition supporters who wanted to demonstrate against a government's new law that would restrict the right to protest in Togo.
    Several hundred supporters responded to the call of opposition leaders and gathered in the neighborhood of Be, in the capital Lome, where the protest march began.
    But it didn't long for trouble to break out and the police moved in to break up the demonstration, protesters erected barricades and burned tires.
    The police responded by firing tear gas and throwing stones into the crowd.
    "We are not free in Togo, we were forbidden to speak, to protest. They hit us and shot tear gas in our homes and Faure Gnassingbe said nothing. We must fight for our freedom and democracy in Togo," said an identified woman.
    According to a report published by the opposition 54 people were injured, seven seriously, during the clashes.
    53 other people, including a parliamentarian, were arrested by police.
    The government has yet to comment.
    The Togolese government adopted on March 2, a controversial draft law establishing conditions for exercising freedom of assembly and demonstrations, specifically aimed at restricting large gatherings in public places or threatening to disturb the peace.
    The bill has been heavily criticised by the Togolese opposition, for what they claim is a restriction on their right to freedom of expression.
    They says the bill, far from allowing people to enjoy their right to protest under the constitution restricts them further.
    Jean Pierre Fabre, president and leader of the National Alliance for Change (ANC), the main opposition party said that Togolese opposition will continue to organise marches to fight for the withdrawal of the bill.
    "We demand the immediate withdrawal of the bill, the bill passed by the ministers regarding the freedom to protest, but beyond that, we demand the release of all those who were arrested today and held at the police station," Fabre said.
    Critics say the attempt to bring in the new law is a direct response to the unrest happening elsewhere in north Africa but the government has denied any connection.
    Protest rallies have erupted across the West African nation since President Faure Gnassingbe, son of former dictator Gnassingbe Eyadema, was re-elected in a March in a poll that many claim was rigged.
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