In Burkina Faso, thirty-four years later, start of trial of assassination of Thomas Sankara

Blaise Compaoré, brother of weapon and intimate friend of the “father of the Burkinabe revolution”, is the main accused of the 14 defendants judged in Ouagadougou.

Le Monde with AFP

On October 15, 1987, the former president and “father of the Burkinabe revolution”, Thomas Sankara, was killed during a coup: thirty-four years later, the trial of the alleged authors of his assassination Opens, Monday, October 11, before the Ouagadougou military court.

This trial, long-awaited by the families of the victims of the 1987 Putsch who had brought to the Blaise Compaore, will be held under high surveillance of the defense and security forces in a country with a jihadist violence since 2015.

Principal accused, Blaise Compaore, 70 years old, lived, since it was overthrown by a popular insurrection in 2014, in Côte d’Ivoire, which he obtained nationality, and will not appear before the Tribunal : His lawyers denounced “a political trial” before “an exceptional jurisdiction”.

According to Stanislas Benewendé Sankara [no family relationship with Thomas Sankara], a family lawyer of the leader “revolutionary” since 1997, “the absence of compaore is a contempt for the justice of his country of origin” and “denote Somewhere also his possible guilt “. But, he judges, even if this trial “is not yet the end of the tunnel, we are starting a judicial corner that is very important”.

“Discolonize mentalities”

Arrived in power by a coup in 1983, Thomas Sankara was killed with twelve of his companions by a commando at a meeting at the headquarters of the National Council of Revolution (CNR) in Ouagadougou. He was 37 years old.

Of the fourteen accused also appears General Gilbert, 61, one of the main leaders of the army during the 1987 putsch.

Pecually become a particular Chief of the Compaore President, General Donodéré served in Burkina a twenty years of prison for a coup attempt in 2015.

mm. Compaoré and diedréré are both accused of “complicity of murderers”, “concept of corpses” and “attack on state security”.

Sankara right arms, Blaise Compaore has always denied having sponsored the assassination of his brother of arms and intimate friend, although the 1987 putsch has brought it to power.

Soldiers of the former presidential guard of Compaoré, including the former Chief Warrant Officer Hyacinthe Kafando, suspected of having been the head of the commando and who is currently on the run, are also among the accused.

The death of Thomas Sankara, who wanted to “discolor the mentalities” and upset the world order by defending the poor and the oppressed, was a taboo subject during the twenty-seven years of power of Mr. Compaoré. The case was restarted in 2015 by the democratic transitional regime and an arrest warrant issued against Mr Compaoré by Burkinabe Justice in March 2016.

“Sponsors outside”

On a trip to Ouagadougou in November 2017, the French President Emmanuel Macron had greeted Thomas Sankara’s memory and announced the lifting of secret-defense on documents relating to his assassination.

According to Halouna Traoré, former companion of Sankara and unique survivor of the coup of 1987, the “trial brings us, we, Burkinabè, to look at us in the mirror, to see the harm we made To ourselves with the complicity of the outside, because the hardware side of the coup was in Burkina, but the sponsors are outside “.

If he welcomes the trial, the International Justice Network for Thomas Sankara, Justice for Africa notes the risk of “amputated from the international component” that could shed light on the role of France , from the United States and West African countries such as Côte d’Ivoire de Félix Houphouët Boigny and the Togo of Gnassingbe Eyadema, then ulcerated by the anti-imperialist positions of this young revolutionary adulted by African youth.

According to the International Memorial Committee Thomas-Sankara (CIMTS), “except last minute constraint”, the widow of Thomas Sankara, Mariam, who has lived since 1990 in Montpellier in the south of France, should attend the opening trial.

/Media reports.