Gnassingbe, Etienne Eyadema

President of Togo 1967-2005 (26.12.1936 Pya/Togo - 5.02.2005 Lome/Togo)
Born in the small village Pya, Sergeant Etienne Eyadema gained some public attention after shooting Sylvanus Olympio, the first president of Togo, on 13. January 1963. After the killing he looked for shelter in the American embassy, where he waited for the opposing counterpart Oympios, Nicolas Grunitzky to come back from abroad and take power. As sort of award Eyadema was promoted to become Lieutenant-Colonel in the Togolese army, a quite powerful position, he used for a coupe d´etat in 1967. So he seized power and became president of Togo on 14.04.1967. He became well-known for human rights violations and dealt in a brutal manner with anybody he regarded as opposition. 1991 the national assembly tried to remove Eyadema from power, but with backing of the military he had the better arguments on his side and forced his way back to power in 1992. Following the wave of democratic reforms which swept over the African continent, he introduced some pseudo democratic reforms. From 1993 multiparty elections became standard, but this did not stop Eyadema in 1998 to put the vote count to a hold, when his counterpart Gilchrist Olympia seemed to get the majority of the votes. To avoid this to happen again during the 2003 elections, Eyadema banned the son of the first president of Togo from participation. Although it was well-known, that Eyadema were suffering from health problems, his death on 5. February 2005 due to a heartattack came as a surprise.