In Benin, President Patrice Talon, who was simply re-elected, shouldn’t be contemplating forgiving opponents who’re presently in jail and who might be convicted of making an attempt to destabilize the nation. He stated this on April 30 on RFI and France 24. How does the opposition react? Physician of Economics Komi Koutché was Minister of Finance to President Boni Yayi. He faces a heavy conviction for embezzlement and lives in exile in america. He chairs the opposition platform S’engager pour le Bénin and solutions questions from Christophe Boisbouvier.
RFI: To justify the discount in turnout in comparison with 2016, President Talon highlights the violence that has marked this 12 months’s election marketing campaign and he accuses a number of opposition figures of planning an armed rebellion earlier than the April 11 election that will have aimed to overthrow him. Do you’re feeling focused?
Komi Koutche: By no means earlier than President Patrice Talon had there been scenes of violence. However since 2016, as he’s in energy, all three election rallies he has organized haven’t been in a position to finish with out the harmless Beniner falling below the bullets of a militia that’s specifically assembled in the intervening time.
At the moment, President Patrice Talon has privatized the economic system, he has privatized the institutional arsenal, he has privatized the forex … And to proceed this, he has solely violence left. It is obvious that Benin’s democracy, as you will have identified since 1990, is at present a democracy that’s midway there.
President Patrice Talon raises public sources by his firm Bénin Management. He collects, he provides what he desires to the treasury. It controls the port, it controls the airport, it controls the lodge sector … It has taken hostages and stifled all financial actors. And when somebody is, they’ve just one factor left: to create an empire and use workers, folks they’ll manipulate to have the opportunity to proceed it. And as a result of there is simply brute drive.
Dr. Komi Koutché, you say that violence comes from energy. However in early April, simply earlier than the election, you recorded two movies urging the Beninese to reveal in opposition to the regime. Was it not a requirement for rise up?
I am in america, the benchmark for democracy on the earth, and also you perceive that with all of the virtues of democracy that I take pleasure in, right here in america, I can not demand violence. I known as for peaceable non-violent demonstrations, handkerchiefs in hand, and the folks adopted this peaceable demonstration en masse till a militia was ordered to overtly hearth on the individuals who demonstrated peacefully.
There are presently a number of opposition figures in jail. Amongst them is Reckya Madougou and Professor Joël Aïvo. However authorities say justice has proof that these folks deliberate violent acts within the north-central a part of the nation. What do you think that?
What sort of justice are you speaking about? Benin not has justice. Republican justice has been changed since 2016 by President Patrice Talon’s personal justice. The African Courtroom of Human Rights has been ready to provide clear directions on what could be known as “authorized deviations”, which President Patrice Talon makes use of at present to suppress his opponents.
The instances of Reckya Madougou and Joël Aïvo are illustrative. These two instances are illustrative of those discrepancies. Reckya Madougou is accused of financing his supporters for 15 million CFA francs. You perceive what it does for a candidate from a celebration just like the Democrats … She is criticized for making 15 million accessible to her supporters to attraction her candidacy. We’re in a democratic nation, protest is a advantage of democracy. I don’t suppose it is absolutely cheap and widespread sense for a candidate to be criticized for having financed as much as 15 million CFA francs – in case you convert to euros you will notice that it’s nothing in any respect – the proven fact that he’ll clarify how his candidacy was rejected, if the protest is absolutely a advantage for democracy.
Joël Aïvo is accused of cash laundering and calls for rise up. After I take the cash laundering side in a down-to-earth method for the previous Minister of Finance that I’m, cash laundering means cash that’s earned from a felony origin and recycled for an objectively justified goal. Joël Aïvo, we’ve not but discovered from which felony supply he might make this cash.
So in plain language, it was merely a matter of beautifying the few uncommon heads that also remained and behind which the folks might ally if the election was open. However in case you solely quote the instances of Joël Aïvo and Reckya Madougou, it’s as a result of you’re silent concerning the nearly 500 outdoors arrests which were made since this election parody was organized.
Three weeks in the past, and this week in a letter from Emmanuel Macron to Patrice Talon, the Prime Minister of Benin known as for respect for democracy and human rights. However cannot the President of Benin seize the chance to unite the folks of Benin with the Western classes?
Are these the western classes? These are reasonably individuals who need the Benin Democratic label to be preserved! I noticed the letter from america, I noticed the newest letter from President Macron that President Talon, along with his propaganda cell, handed away as a congratulatory letter.
I would really like to congratulate President Macron, who has not modified. I had the chance to fulfill him whereas we had been each nonetheless younger ministers within the Franconian Council of Ministers. I don’t suppose he has modified his precept. He might have finished like everybody else, needed to reward him and congratulate him, however he gave him lesson in democratic morality. America did the identical. It is not about giving classes, it is extra about interesting to purpose. President Patrice Talon is now fully at odds with all of the rules that introduced him to energy.
► Pay attention additionally: Unique interview – Patrice Talon, Benin’s president: “A number of opponents deliberate an rebellion to convey me down”
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