By Julio Morejon Tartabull
Journalist of the International Newsroom of Prensa Latina
Compaoré, who was found guilty of the 1987 assassination of his predecessor – pan-African leader Thomas Sankara – returned to the Burkina Faso capital of Ouagadougou on July 7, where he met with the current interim president, Lt. Col. Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba, met on issues of social cohesion and terrorism.
In public opinion, this political behavior is seen as a turning point and is directly related to two problems affecting the country: a certain internal rejection of the military junta and the pressure of sectarian armed groups, mainly in the northern region.
However, a key sector understands that this is an opportunity given the impunity with which Compaoré has acted after he betrayed Sankara and was in power from 1987 to 2014 when he tried to amend the constitution to end his term to extend, was overthrown. of mandate.
His ouster was carried out by the army after a massive opposition, expressed in multi-day popular demonstrations that brought to power Michel Kafando, whom General Gilbert Dienderé attempted to overthrow in 2015, former President Compaoré’s henchman confirmed.
“Prior to the former president’s return, Sankara’s family, through their lawyers, demanded that Compaoré be arrested upon landing in the country, a demand joined by social organizations involved in the 2014 actions,” explained digital website france24.com .
Compaoré’s presence, whether temporary or permanent, is viewed with suspicion by the most critical and by citizens who have not benefited in the last eight years of a fragile government, including that led by Roch Mark Christian Kaboré, which was overthrown last January by Lieutenant Colonel Sandaogo Damiba.
It was Sandaogo Damiba who came up with the idea of meeting with those in power to agree on how to deal with the current crisis that the country is going through.
“In addition to the efforts of the forces involved (Army of Burkina Faso) and the people at large against the terrorists, we thought it appropriate to examine with our predecessors the best conditions to create and consolidate a solid cohesion among the Burkinabes,” said the lieutenant colonel.
The coup leader added that the participation of opponents in the meeting “distorted the meaning and scope of this initiative,” stressing that the urgency to keep the country alive requires a synergy of measures that he does not have the luxury of allow the slightest amount of time to be wasted in controversies.
RECONCILIATION OR IMPUNITY?
It is obvious that if there are no ‘hidden cards’ and fair play takes place, the future of Blaise Compaoré, who has been granted citizenship by Ivory Coast President Alassane Dramane Ouattara, must be discussed, making it difficult to carry initiate extradition proceedings.
In addition, there is a need to assess the political implications that a trial of this nature would have in the West African sub-region, where the economic community of countries in the region recently softened its punishment of Burkina Faso’s military junta.
Therefore, the question of whether or not to punish the assassin, who was convicted by a military court back in 2021 along with others involved, including General Dienderé, should be punished not only as a legal question but also as a political one, which has repercussions beyond Burkina’s borders addition could have Faso.
Incidentally, Gilbert Dienderé — who was the leader of the presidential guard that betrayed Sankara and served under Compaoré’s command — attempted a coup in 2015, and public sources linked the action to the executor’s obedience to the exiled former president.
Observers string together some events, such as the fact that terrorist attacks by armed groups with a distorted Islamic creed gained a clear presence in the Burkinabe context from 2015, a year after the fall of Compaoré.
In any case, the head of the military junta assured the population that his meeting with the former president was “not intended to consecrate impunity, but rather to contribute to the search for solutions for a Burkina Faso of peace and cohesion”, although critics assign a reading relative to the total possession of power.
jihad
When Lieutenant Colonel Sandaogo Damiba referred to national cohesion, he also linked it to the security principle that every state must guarantee its citizens, which has been severely limited in the African country by the escalation of extremist actions.
“Burkina Faso has been torn apart by Islamist terrorists since 2010. Groups linked to (…) Islamic State and al-Qaeda have killed thousands and displaced some two million people,” reads a news summary on the digital website aleteia.org of the attacks carried out.
But it was in 2015 – according to other sources – that it began to suffer a wave of attacks by fundamentalist factions that have claimed more than two thousand lives and displaced 1.9 million people, and which now remain as a threat that the multifactorial crisis aggravated. Burkina Faso
One of the military’s arguments for the overthrow of Marc Kaboré (2015-2022) was the weakness of his government towards the radical associations, but after the coup the security forces still could not win a decisive battle in respect, hence the general concern.
That said, neither before nor after has the situation changed for the good of the population and analysts do not rule out that this is the main reason to urgently play the delicate card of reconciliation that could give way to Compaoré, who despite his background has followers in the country he ruled for 27 years.
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