COTONOU, Benin
Silence has fallen around the political opposition in Benin, once a beacon of multi-party democracy, where arrests have proliferated since presidential elections less than four months ago.
'It's better not to say anything, not to see anything, and most of all,
to support the president,' said an opposition leader who asked to remain
anonymous.
'It's simple -- we
are scared of getting arrested like the others.'
Critics say the West
African country has veered into authoritarian rule under President Patrice Talon,
a former cotton magnate first elected in 2016.
After that victory,
major opposition figures were targeted for investigation by a special court and
went into exile.
Since the last
elections on April 11, which Talon won with 86 percent of votes, 'the situation
has worsened and the fear of speaking out, of ending up in a jail, has never
been stronger,' said Benin-based analyst Expedit Ologou.
Press contact with
opposition leaders and civil society figures, in what was once a vibrant
political forum, has shrivelled.
'I would rather not speak to the press', 'can I speak off the record?', 'let's wait and see' were frequent responses to AFP for interview requests this month.
The trigger for this
self-imposed blackout has been the arrest of two key opposition leaders, Joel
Aivo and Reckya Madougou, who were disqualified from running in this year's
election.
Aivo was arrested
just days after the vote, and stands accused of undermining state security.
A few weeks before
the vote, Madougou was arrested, for plotting terrorist acts to undermine the
ballot.
Both say the charges
are politically motivated.
'If the regime is
capable of imprisoning personalities as respected and important, then no-one is
safe,' said the leader of a France-based organisation supporting Benin's
opposition.
'Aivo and Madougou
are the most emblematic cases but there are many more young opposition members
who have ended up in jail before and after the election.'
Critics of the
government say at least one hundred opposition members are currently
detained.
Authorities in Benin
did not respond to AFP's request for comment on their claim.
'After these arrests,
many of us have fled to neighbouring countries,' said a source close to Aivo,
who in mid-April moved to Togo.
There, and in Nigeria,
'about a hundred young people have arrived' recently, many with little
resources but too scared to go back home, he said.
One is 33-year-old
Bill Souleymane Kingninohou, a local representative of the Democrats opposition
party.
He left Cotonou on
April 7 and headed to Togo, where he has since asked for asylum.
'A police officer
threatened me by phone, and people close to me were arrested, so I left,' he
said, adding that his family stayed behind.
'It's better than
ending up in prison,' he added.
Many of those who fled are from the centre of the country, said the source close to Aivo, where violence erupted during the campaign.
In the lead-up to the
vote, two people were killed when troops opened fire to clear opposition
protesters blockading a major highway.
Government officials
say security forces responded after they came under fire.
For his second term
in office, hopes were that Talon would attempt to ease tensions. But three
months after the vote, 'there is no sign of any political dialogue,' said
Ologou.
Presidential
spokesman Wilfried Houngbedji told AFP that the country had a 'chief opposition
leader in accordance with the law.'
'Nobody is stopping
anyone from speaking out, from criticising. You simply have to take
responsibility for your words,' he said.
The opposition gained
no seats in the National Assembly in the 2019 legislative elections.
In such a scenario,
under a law passed that year, the title of chief opposition leader goes to the
opposition candidate who garnered most signatures of support from elected local
officials.
That title thus fell
to Paul Hounkpe, leader of the Cowry Forces for an Emerging Benin (FCBE) -- a
party criticised by its founder ex-president Thomas Boni Yayi, a Talon rival,
as having become too close to the government.
'After the press, the
unions, it's now political parties which are under pressure,' said journalist
Vincent Foly, director of a pro-opposition paper, La Nouvelle Tribune, banned
three years ago.
Even parties seen as
radical, such as the Democrats and the Social Liberal Union, are in a 'state of
lethargy,' he said.
'There are no more
meetings, protests or even strong statements from their leaders,' said Foly.
'And the regime has no interest in sitting down with the opposition if they don't have to.'
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