When Tavio Amorin was shot down in a Lome street on July 23rd, 1992, France condemned his murder and said his killers should be brought to justice. Yet, seven years later, the men who assassinated the president of the Togolese human rights commission are still at large and the French head of state, Mr Jacques Chirac, is marking the anniversary with a friendly visit.
Mr Chirac's 48-hour stay in Lome is the most controversial of a tour through four west African countries aptly called the "tropical gulag" by one French newspaper. The two other French-speaking countries - Guinea-Conakry and Cameroon - have had the same rulers for 15 and 17 years respectively. Only Mr Chirac's English-speaking hosts in Nigeria, which emerged from 15 years of military dictatorship last February, have shown a real commitment to change.
The Elysee Palace says Mr Chirac will use the journey to insist "on how important it is that democracy and the rule of law take root." But more cynical observers wonder to what extent Mr Chirac's fourth African tour since 1995 is a continuation of La Francafrique - the post-colonial arrangement whereby Paris kept African dictators in power as guarantors of "stability" and secret political party funding.
Over the past two years of co-habitation between the conservative Mr Chirac and the Socialist government of Mr Lionel Jospin, France has tried to modernise its African policy. It has closed some military bases, venturing into Anglophone Africa and issuing appeals for the respect of human rights. Yet France remains the only Western power to maintain troops permanently in its former African colonies. It is also the continent's first creditor and most vocal international protector.
Now the cosy relationship of Paris with Gen Gnassingbe Eyadema, who came to power in Togo in 1967, has come under scrutiny, thanks to the human rights group Amnesty International, whose secretary general, Mr Pierre Sane, this week addressed an open letter to Mr Chirac demanding "an end to the state of terror in Togo."
Gen Eyadema shares the distinction of being the world's longest-ruling head of state with another friend of Mr Chirac, President Omar Bongo of Gabon.
In a May report, Amnesty denounced the "climate of total impunity for murder, torture and other human rights violations" in Togo. After President Eyadema's re-election in June 1998, Amnesty reported, "hundreds of people, including members of the military, were killed by the security forces. Corpses were washed up on the beaches of Togo and neighbouring Benin for days afterwards."
Lome responded by arresting five human rights workers, forcing two others into exile and threatening a lawsuit against Amnesty.
Mr Chirac will travel to Togo on a "working visit" to try to reconcile opposition parties with President Eyadema - a condition for the resumption of European aid. The EU suspended economic co-operation with Togo in 1993, after at least 61 people were killed by the army. France, however, resumed its military co-operation with Lome the following year.
Yet, as Amnesty damningly points out: "The hundreds of political killings and dozens of `disappearances' in recent years in Togo are largely attributable to members of the Togolese Armed Forces and the Gendarmerie Nationale. The perpetrators have rarely - if ever - been brought to justice." Amnesty appealed to France to stop providing weapons to Togo. Bullets found after attacks on the homes of opposition leaders last year were French-made. France services Togolese aircraft which witnesses said were used to dump bodies on the coast of Togo and Benin in 1998.