On 7 June 2000 the United Nations and the OAU jointly announced the establishment of a Commission of Inquiry into allegations of hundreds of extrajudicial killings in Togo in 1998.

Amnesty International members in Senegal, Côte d'Ivoire, Benin, Mali, Burkina Faso, Tunisia, Morocco and Ghana will appeal to their governments to use their influence to ensure that the Togolese government ceases its campaign of attempting to silence witnesses and destroy evidence which could be used by the Commission of Inquiry.

Amnesty International members in Africa will also urge their governments to: - ensure that the terms of reference of the inquiry will guarantee a credible and effective investigation; - ensure that the necessary measures are taken to protect witnesses; - call for investigations to be carried out into torture, arbitrary arrests, 'disappearances' and extrajudicial executions of at least the last decade, not of just one event.