K. Koutché: “P.
Talon is today at the antipodes of all the principles which brought him to power ”
Audio 05:03
Former Beninese Minister of Finance, Komi Koutché.
By: Christophe Boisbouvier Follow
12 mins
In Benin, President Patrice Talon, who has just been re-elected, does not plan to pardon the opponents who are currently in prison and who could be sentenced for attempting to destabilize the country.
He said it on April 30 on
RFI
and
France 24
.
How does the opposition react?
The doctor of economics Komi Koutché was the finance minister of President Boni Yayi.
He is facing a heavy conviction for embezzlement and lives in exile in the United States.
He chairs the opposition platform
S'engager pour le Bénin
and answers questions from Christophe Boisbouvier.
Publicity
RFI: To justify the drop in participation compared to 2016, President Talon highlights the violence that has punctuated this year's electoral campaign and he accuses several opposition figures of having planned, before the April 11 election , an armed insurrection which would have aimed to overthrow him. Do you feel targeted?
Komi Koutché:
Never, before President Patrice Talon, had there been scenes of violence.
But since 2016, which he has been in power, all the three electoral meetings he has organized have not been able to end without the innocent Beninese falling under the bullets of a militia specially mounted for the occasion.
Today, President Patrice Talon has privatized the economy, he has privatized the institutional arsenal, he has privatized the electoral space… And therefore, to perpetuate this, he only has violence left.
Clearly, Benin's democracy, which you have known since 1990, is today a democracy that is totally at half mast.
President Patrice Talon is the collector of public resources through his company Bénin Control.
He collects, he gives what he wants in the state coffers.
It controls the port, it controls the airport, it controls the hotel sector… It has taken hostage and suffocated all the economic operators.
And when someone is like that, they only have one thing left: to set up an empire and use employees, people they can manipulate to be able to perpetuate it.
And for that, there is only brute force.
Doctor Komi Koutché, you say that violence comes from power. But at the beginning of April, just before the election, you recorded two videos in which you called on the Beninese to demonstrate against the regime. Wasn't that a call for insurrection?
I am in the United States, the benchmark country for democracy in the world, and you understand that with all the virtues of democracy that I enjoy, here in the United States, I cannot call for violence.
I called for peaceful, non-violent demonstrations, handkerchief in hand, and the people followed this peaceful demonstration overwhelmingly, until a militia was ordered to go and shoot openly on the populations who were in peaceful demonstration.
Currently, there are several opposition figures in prison. Among them, Reckya Madougou and Professor Joël Aïvo. But the authorities say that justice has proof that these people planned violent actions in the north-central part of the country. What do you think ?
What kind of justice are you talking about?
Benin no longer has justice.
Republican justice has been replaced since 2016 by the private justice of President Patrice Talon.
The African Court of Human Rights was able to give clear instructions on what should be called "
judicial aberrations
", which President Patrice Talon uses today to suppress his opponents.
The cases of Reckya Madougou and Joël Aïvo are illustrative. These two cases are illustrative of these aberrations. Reckya Madougou is accused of having financed his supporters for 15 million CFA francs. You see what that does for a candidate from a party like the Democrats ... She is criticized for the fact that, to appeal the rejection of her candidacy, she makes 15 million available to her supporters. We are in a democratic country, protest is a virtue of democracy. I do not think it is really reasonable and common sense that a candidate is criticized for funding up to 15 million CFA francs - if you convert into euros, you will see that it is nothing at all - going to explain how his application was rejected,if the protest is a virtue of democracy.
Joël Aïvo is accused of money laundering and calls for insurrection.
When I take the money laundering aspect, in a down to earth way, for the former finance minister that I am, money laundering involves money earned by a criminal origin and recycled for an objectively justifiable end.
Joël Aïvo, we have not yet been told from what criminal source he was able to earn this money.
So in plain language, it was simply a question of embellishing the few rare heads that still remained and behind which the people could ally themselves, if the elections were open.
But if you only cite the cases of Joël Aïvo and Reckya Madougou, it is because you are silent about the nearly 500 extrajudicial arrests that have been made since this electoral parody was organized.
The United States, three weeks ago, and France, this week, by a letter from Emmanuel Macron to Patrice Talon, call on the head of state of Benin to respect democracy and human rights. But can't the President of Benin take the opportunity to unite the Beninese population against the Western lesson-givers?
Are these the Western lesson givers?
These are rather people who want the Beninese democratic label to be preserved!
I saw the letter from the United States, I saw the recent letter from President Macron that President Talon, with his propaganda cell, passed off as a letter of congratulations.
I want to congratulate President Macron, who has not changed.
I had the opportunity to meet him while we were both still young ministers in the Council of Ministers of the Franc Zone.
I believe he has not changed his principle.
He could have done like everyone else, wanted to praise him and say his congratulations, but he gave him a good lesson in democratic morals.
The United States did the same.
It is not a question of giving lessons, it is rather a question of appealing to reason.
President Patrice Talon is now completely at odds with all the principles that brought him to power.
►Also listen: Exclusive interview - Patrice Talon, President of Benin: "Several opponents have planned an insurrection to bring me down"
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Exclusive maintenance
Patrice Talon, President of Benin: "Several opponents planned an insurrection to bring me down"