In a message read by the government spokesperson, the former president says “assume and deplore all the sufferings and dramas lived” during his twenty-seven years in power.
Le Monde with AFP
The former Burkinabé president Blaise Compaoré, condemned in absentia to perpetuity for the assassination of his predecessor, Thomas Sankara, in 1987, asked “forgiveness” to the family of the latter, Tuesday, July 26, but also to the ‘Together of the “Burkinabé people” for “suffering” endured during their twenty-seven years in power.
“I ask forgiveness from the Burkinabé people for all the acts I have been able to commit during my magisterium and more particularly to the family of my brother and friend Thomas Sankara”, indicates the ex-head of the State in a Message read by government spokesperson Lionel Bilgo. “I assume and deplore from the bottom of my heart all the sufferings and dramas experienced by all the victims during my terms at the head of the country and asks their families to give me their forgiveness,” continues Mr. Compaoré.
Blaise Compaoré, 71, had arrived in power in 1987 in favor of a putsch who had cost the then life to the then president, Thomas Sankara, Pan -African icon with “progressive” ideas, of which he was one of the loved ones friends before he was killed. In April, at the end of a six-month trial-flush, the Ouagadougou military court had condemned him in absentia in life imprisonment for his role in this assassination.
The death of Thomas Sankara, who wanted to “decolonize mentalities” and upset the world order by defending the poor and oppressed, was a taboo subject during the twenty-seven years of power of Mr. Compaoré. Tilled by the street in 2014, he has lived since in Côte d’Ivoire but was able to make a brief return of a few days in his country, in early July, without being arrested. In his message, he thanked the Ivorian president, Alassane Ouattara, for having made this return.
He was invited by Lieutenant-Colonel Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba, current transitional president, who came to power during a coup in January, with the aim of “sealing national reconciliation” with former Burkinabé heads of state in the face of jihadist attacks that mourn the country. After meeting the new strong man in the country, Mr. Compaoré appeared to be emaciated by his side. This visit had aroused a rain of criticism within the political class and civil society, which believe that reconciliation should not be synonymous with impunity.
expressing his “deep recognition” to the transitional authorities, Mr. Compaoré called in his Tuesday Burkinabé message “to a sacred union, to tolerance, to restraint, but above all to forgiveness so that the interest prevails superior of the nation “. “Our country, Burkina Faso, has lived for a few years one of the most serious crises in its history, which threatens it to its very existence. This nation deserves better than the fatal fate that terrorists want to reserve it”, he continued.
m. Compaoré is accused of having spent a pact with armed groups to preserve his country from jihadist attacks during his years in power. Since its fall in October 2014, Burkina Faso has sinned into a serious security crisis marked by deadly jihadist attacks that are multiplying, in particular in the north and east of the country.
On January 24, Lieutenant-Colonel Damiba overthrew the elected president Roch Marc Christian Kaboré, made unpopular by his “helplessness” in the face of insecurity. But the putschists were quickly confronted with bloody attacks, like the 86 civilian massacre in Seytenga (North) in June. The violence, attributed to armed jihadist movements affiliated with Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group, have left thousands of deaths and nearly 2 million displaced since 2015.