TOGO: FOREIGN DIGNITARIES AND GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS GATHER IN LOME FOR FUNERAL CEREMONY OF LATE PRESIDENT OF TOGO GNASSINGBE EYADEMA

Record ID: 646751

  • Title: TOGO: FOREIGN DIGNITARIES AND GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS GATHER IN LOME FOR FUNERAL CEREMONY OF LATE PRESIDENT OF TOGO GNASSINGBE EYADEMA
  • Date: 13th March 2005
  • Summary: (BN16)LOME, TOGO (MARCH 13, 2005) (REUTERS) 1. GIANT PORTRAIT OF LATE PRESIDENT GNASSINGBE EYADEMA OF TOGO OVERLOOKING BUILDING 0.04 2. WOMEN SEATED 0.07 3. NIGERIA'S PRESIDENT OLUSEGUN OBASANJO ARRIVING AT PALAIS DES CONGRES 0.11 4. NIGER 'S PRESIDENT MAMADOU TANDJA, IVORY-COAST'S PRESIDENT LAURENT GBAGBO, BENIN'S PRESIDENT MATTHIEU KEREKOU,ARRIVING AT PALAIS DES CONGRES 0.21 5. WOMEN CRYING (2 SHOTS) 0.28 6. TOGO ARMY OFFICERS STANDING SALUTING 0.31 7. SOLDIERS PLACING COFFIN ON TABLE 0.34 8. IVORY-COAST PRESIDENT LAURENT GBAGBO PLACING WREATH/ PRAYING (2 SHOTS) 0.40 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 28th March 2005 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: LOME, TOGO
  • Country: Togo
  • Reuters ID: LVA17XU9KWOIRILNBSC4CF11CVEA
  • Story Text: Foreign dignitaries have paid their respects to late
    President Gnassingbe Eyadema.



    Government ministers, lawmakers, family members as
    well as the presidents of Nigeria, Ghana, Niger, Ivory
    Coast and Benin and other foreign dignitaries gathered at
    the marbled Palais des Congres in the capital Lome for the
    funeral ceremony for late President of Togo, Gnassingbe
    Eyadema on Sunday (March 13).

    Outside, thousands of members of Eyadema's party, the
    Rally of Togolese People, followed the event on television
    screens under tight security.

    But Togo's two main opposition parties, which plan to
    challenge Eyadema's son in presidential elections due next
    month, did not attend the ceremony for Africa's longest
    serving ruler.

    Overlooking the building was a giant portrait of the
    deceased president, who seized power in a 1967 coup.

    Eyadema's coffin, wrapped in the red, yellow and green
    Togolese flag, was placed on a podium.

    Former colonial power France, whose President Jacques
    Chirac was a close friend of Eyadema, was represented by
    Foreign Minister Michel Barnier.

    Eyadema's death on Feb. 5 sparked a political crisis as
    the army bypassed the constitution and named his 39-year
    old son Faure Gnassingbe president, triggering African
    sanctions, street protests in Lome and international
    outrage.

    Gnassingbe eventually bowed to the huge pressure and
    stepped aside, although he will run in the elections due on
    April 24 as the official candidate of the ruling party.

    The country's main opposition leader, Gilchrist Olympio
    of the Union of Forces for Change (UFC), has announced his
    intention to stand and plans to return to Togo from his
    exile in Paris this week.

    But the constitution, which was amended in 2002, bars
    him from standing because it requires any presidential
    candidate must have lived in Togo for at least a year
    before the election.

    Eyadema, 69, survived numerous assassination attempts, a
    plane crash and bloody pro-democracy protests in the 1990s.

    A former wrestling champion who loved to sport dark
    suits and rarely removed his sunglasses, he was a young
    soldier when he staged one of the continent's first
    post-colonial coups in 1963. Eyadema took power in his own
    name four years later and ruled Togo virtually unchallenged
    for nearly four decades, becoming the archetypal African
    "Big Man".

    His body was expected to be flown to his native village
    of Pya, 420 km (260 miles) north of Lome, where a family
    wake also attended by members of his party will take place
    on Monday night. The burial is scheduled in Pya for Tuesday.



  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2015. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
Register