Germany demanded on Saturday that the authorities in Togo punish gunmen who burned down the German cultural centre in the capital of Berlin's former colony. "I call upon the government in Lome to do all it can to identify and punish those responsible for these unspeakable acts of arson and vandalism," Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer said. Friday's attack on the Goethe Institut, which was set ablaze after coming under gunfire, came during unrest following a presidential election in which government supporters have accused the German embassy of backing its opponents, Reuters reported . Fischer also condemned anti-German propaganda in the West African state -- a reference a spokeswoman said included media reports that the German ambassador had been a Nazi: "The government must ensure that Germans living in Togo and German institutions are effectively protected and that the anti-German propaganda and unacceptable defamation of the German ambassador evidently being conducted by some groups is stopped immediately," Fischer added. The German Foreign Ministry said it had sent a special envoy to Lome for talks on Saturday with Togo's government and U.S. and French representatives. It has also issued a travel warning and urged all Germans to leave the country for the time being. "We now must ensure that a way out of this escalation of violence and lawlessness is found," Fischer said.
