wfn.org | WCC NEWS: Togo elections a sham, negotiations needed say

["WCC Media" <Media@wcc-coe.org>]

World Council of Churches - News Release
Contact: +41 22 791 6153 +41 79 507 6363 media@wcc-coe.org
For immediate release - 20/05/2005

ELECTIONS A SHAM SAY ECUMENICAL PARTNERS OF TOGO CHURCHES

Six ecumenical bodies, including the World Council of Churches (WCC), have
appealed to the African Union and the Economic Community of West Africa
(ECOWAS) to bring the government of Togo and opposition parties to the
negotiating table so that they may together seek a solution to the current
crisis.

The ecumenical appeal was made in an 18 May joint statement that emphasized that the election was "a sham", and that its results "in no way legitimize the power in place".

The statement insisted that any viable solution to the crisis must rapidly
remedy the situation of insecurity and intimidation of the population,
which includes human rights violations, as well as restore a strict
respect of democratic principles.

It also highlighted that "once again, it is the people of Togo who are
paying the heaviest tribute to the situation left by the sham of the
recent elections, with 20,000 refugees in neighbouring Bénin and Ghana
and several hundred dead".

Violence erupted in Togo following presidential elections on 24 April and
the announcement that Faure Gnassingbe, the son of former president
General Gnassingbe Eyadéma, had been elected to succeed his father as
president.

The statement was the third to be issued within the space of a month by an
ecumenical group invited by the Evangelical Presbyterian Church of Togo,
the Catholic Church and the Methodist Church of Togo to visit the country
from 28 March to 3 April.

In its first statement at the end of its visit, the delegation of
ecumenical partners of the Togolese churches signalled the advisability of
postponing the elections. A second, 28 April, statement testified that the
elections were "hastily organized" in a manner that prevented people from
registering on the electoral lists.

All three joint statements - of 2 and 28 April and 18 May - were signed by
the Bremen Mission, Communauté d'Eglises en Mission (CEVAA), Service
Protestant de Mission (DEFAP), Fédération Protestante de France, World
Alliance of Reformed Churches (WARC) and the World Council of Churches
(WCC).

The full text of the three statements is available on the WCC website:

18 May 2005 (available in French only):
http://wcc-coe.org/wcc/what/international/3rd-togodeclaration-f-05.html

28 April 2005:
http://wcc-coe.org/wcc/what/international/2nd-togodeclaration05.html

2 April 2005:
http://wcc-coe.org/wcc/what/international/togodeclaration05.html

Additional information: Juan Michel,+41 22 791 6153 +41 79 507 6363
media@wcc-coe.org

Sign up for WCC press releases at
http://onlineservices.wcc-coe.org/pressnames.nsf

The World Council of Churches is a fellowship of churches, now 347, in
more than 120 countries in all continents from virtually all Christian
traditions. The Roman Catholic Church is not a member church but works
cooperatively with the WCC. The highest governing body is the assembly,
which meets approximately every seven years. The WCC was formally
inaugurated in 1948 in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Its staff is headed by
general secretary Samuel Kobia from the Methodist church in Kenya.