Bastonnades in Kparatao: Instrumentalized, the chief-canton of the locality is forced to ratify the lie of the government

It all began on the night of February 24, 2018 when soldiers of what we call Togolese army arrive at Kparatao aboard two BENZ trucks. And as if the psychological pressure exerted since at least September 2017 on the populations of the native village of Tikpi Atchadam was not enough, they arrived this time provided with sticks and cords to make the inhabitants of the canings wild. Why? Only the military hierarchy can explain the motivations of this muscular descent in this village apparently without history.


 If the local population began to get used to regular patrols of soldiers from 22 pm, patrols elsewhere unjustified in a locality where there is no problem of insecurity, brutal burst of soldiers on the evening of this February 24 at 8:30 pm had surprised more than one.

It is clear that the victims of this punitive descent who does not say his name, from the village or among the passengers coming from Tchamba or Sokodé, are afraid to testify fearing for their safety. Hence the difficulty of bringing evidence.

But it is dishonest to continue to deny real facts as serious as Togolese power does. Facts that an impartial investigation within and around the village would confirm.
During last week's press conference Security Minister Yark Damehame denied that soldiers beat up peaceful people in Kparato. We can understand our minister when the military hierarchy, made up only of the Gnassingbe family and allies, does what it wants. But what we do not understand, why does not Mr. Yark resign when he, as security minister is not aware when others sow insecurity in the country? When, for example, he is not aware that two university professors are incarcerated and maltreated at the IRS, then we can conclude that there are parallel networks around Faure Gnassingbé who do what they want. impunity. These are the characteristics of a rogue state, an outlaw state.

After Yark's lies last Thursday, the coordinator of the coalition of the 14 parties of the Opposition Adjamago had come back to support the fact that there were military savagery in Kparatao the night of February 24th. We had published an article denouncing the untruths of the minister and a spokesman for the inhabitants of the village concerned in Tchaoudjo confirmed in an audio message that they had indeed been victims of military exactions in much more detail.

Decidedly the Togolese power, currently cornered on all sides, and caught in the act of lying, intends to continue in its logic even if it is necessary to touch the ridiculous. Has ridicule ever killed in Togo?

Despite a traumatized population, in shock after the punitive expeditions of October 2017 where many had had their salvation by taking refuge in the bush, despite the menacing regular unjustified presence of military, the aftermath of the last cants scarcely healed, the regime of Faure Gnassingbé does not intend to let go of the song and chose this time to humiliate the chief-canton of Kparato by sending a team of griot of the TVT to make him read a message left straight from the laboratories of the bunker of the prince. In this message the custodian of our habits and customs, the representative of our ancestors, must say that nothing would have happened the night of February 24, 2018 in his village. What a sacrilege!

Should we accuse the chief of not having resisted? For not saying no?

The element read by the canton chief is not yet broadcast, certainly, but regardless of the use they will make, personally I do not see the relevance of trying to play the Rambo in a dictatorship like that of Gnassingbe built on crime.

The excessive instrumentalization and politicization of the traditional chiefdom in Togo is not new, alas! What political authority could dare to behave this way in front of Moro Naba in Burkina Faso or before the King of Ashantis in Ghana?

For daring to stand up to the unfortunate Colonel Ouro-Koura Agadazi, the chief-township of Agouloudè was deprived of the status of chief town of commune to henceforth depend on the commune of Kparatao with chief town Kparatao; while the village of Agouloudè meets the criteria required to be chief town of commune.

Who knows what could have happened to the chief of Kparatao canton in the event of resistance on his part? The violence on his village and the assaults on his people by soldiers, without his being able to react, are in themselves a humiliation. With a regime militarized to the brink, who no longer knows to which saint to devote himself to solve the equation first posed by a son in the middle, anything can happen; and better stay on guard. This is why I personally do not throw stones at the Kparatao Chief-Canton as some are trying to do already.

Strongly the end of this regime of another age for the traditional chieftaincy regains its nobility, its respectability of old.

Samari Tchadjobo
Germany