World IN BRIEF : TOGO : Military Ruler Gives Up Power

Togo’s President Gnassingbe Eyadema agreed to surrender power to a prime minister chosen by a pro-democracy conference, effectively ending his 24-year military rule. In accepting the appointment of interim Prime Minister Kokou Koffigoh, Eyadema backed off his earlier attempts to suspend the conference that appointed Koffigoh as part of a transition to democracy in the West African nation. There was no response to Eyadema’s announcement from the 12,000-man army, whose senior officers warned last week that their troops remained loyal to Eyadema and that any threat to his power risked civil war. Koffigoh, a human rights leader and head of Togo’s Bar Assn., is to name a transitional government to organize elections scheduled for next June 14.