TOGO: All calm in the heartland of the ruling elite

[XXPANTHAXX]

KARA, 3 Jun 2005 (IRIN) - Walking around the lush hills in
the northern town of Kara, there is no sign of violence and
fear that engulfed the rest of Togo following disputed
presidential elections.

While in the south many people are nursing their gunshot
wounds and hiding out in the bush, the residents of Kara are
in a more celebratory mood after seeing the son of their most
famous resident elected president.

Kara is the hometown of the late Gnassingbe Eyadema, who
ruled this tiny West African nation for 38 years until his
death in February. His son Faure Gnassingbe was elected to
the presidency in a 24 April poll that opposition said was
rigged.

Gnassingbe's victory triggered street battles between
opposition protestors and government security forces from the
southern coastal capital of Lome to the north-central farming
town of Sokode.

But Kara was an oasis of calm.

"There have not been any problems or violence here. We have
never had people challenge the result - only people in the
south have had that," one humanitarian worker in the town
told IRIN.

On the streets of Kara, many people are still wearing the
election day T-shirts handed out by the ruling party, which
are emblazoned with a besuited Gnassingbe in mid-sentence and
slogans blaring "For peace and development vote Faure!".

Kara, which lies 350 km from the capital, is the main town
for Eyadema's ethnic group, the Kabiye. His son has more
mixed roots, with a mother from the south, but the town is
still behind him.

"I voted for Faure as he brings peace! All the others will
chase the Kabiye and the people from the north out of the
south. That's what they wanted to do after Gnassingbe Eyadema
died," said Melanie Atchole, who was still proudly sporting
her election T-shirt.

Diplomats say the Kabiye and in particular family members of
the late president, have tight control over the country
politically, economically and militarily.

"After 38 years in office, the Eyadema clan is firmly
entrenched. He had lots of children and many of them have
positions of power, not just Faure," said one diplomat who
refused to be named.

Gnassingbe's brother, Ernest, was in charge of the army's
parachute regiment and had been favourite to succeed his
father until he fell ill. Another sibling Rock is president
of the Togolese Football Federation.

Brother Kpatcha heads the state body SAZOF, which oversees
investments into and exports out of the country.

Opposition supporters across the country told IRIN how state-
sponsored thugs, often Kabiye, were bussed in from out of
town to terrorise residents.

"Lorry loads of young men from Kara arrived in town the day
the results were announced. They were armed with machetes,
clubs and arrows. They burned houses while the military
looked on," one resident in Sokode recounted.

It was tale echoed in Lome, the central town of Atakpame,
Aneho in the southeast and Kpalime on the western border.

Back in Kara, the local government officer, himself a Kabiye,
said he was unaware of such reports.

"I know nothing of that. But there are Kabiye everywhere. It
is not necessarily the Kabiye of Kara," said Yata Pepa
Walakyem from the terrace of his official residence in
Kara. "As for the lorries, I don't know of any such thing
being organised and I think I would if that were the case."

Nonetheless, Kara remains the main training centre for the
Togolese military.

It was with the backing of the military that Gnassingbe first
seized power within hours of his father's death, before he
was forced to stand down and hold elections, under pressure
from the international community.

"In every family [here in Kara] you will find a military
person - it's been like that since colonial times....it's
become a tradition," explained Walakyem, whose own father was
a soldier and has six members of his family now serving.

But southerners are tired of that tradition, which they say
enabled Eyadema to rule the country like a king and accord
the same advantages to his son.

"Many people here in the south would rather this country
split in two than this carry on. Let them have their monarchy
in the north so that we can have our democracy in the south,"
said one old woman in Lome, whose father was an independence
activist in the 1950s.