The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Gen. Gilbert Diendere

  • Burkina charges former coup leader over murder of Sankara

    Authorities in Burkina Faso have charged a general who led a failed coup in September with complicity in the 1987 assassination of President Thomas Sankara, senior security sources told Reuters.

    Sankara’s murder was one of the most high-profile killings in Africa’s post-independence history and the charge against Gen. Gilbert Diendere appears to represent a breakthrough in a case that has haunted the West African country for decades.

    It follows a pledge by the transitional government to investigate the murder and a decision in May to exhume the remains of a body believed to be Sankara’s, which was buried at a cemetery on the outskirts of the capital Ouagadougou.

    “Gen. Gilbert Diendere is formally charged in the Thomas Sankara case,” said a senior security source with direct knowledge of the case. Diendere was charged last month with complicity in assassination and attack, the source said.

    Diendere’s lawyer, Mathieu Some, told Reuters on Sunday his client had been charged over Sankara’s death and he would prepare his legal defence. The charges are yet to be made public.

    At least 10 others, less senior than Diendere, have already been charged. The senior security official said most were soldiers in the elite presidential guard of former President Blaise Compaore, who was ousted in October 2014.

    Diendere was Compaore’s intelligence chief and right-hand man. In September, he led the presidential guard in a short-lived coup in which soldiers took transitional President Michel Kafando and the prime minister hostage.

    The coup failed and in its aftermath, the presidential guard was disbanded and Diendere sought refuge at the Vatican embassy. He was then arrested and charged with murder and threatening state security. He is still in detention.

  • Burkina coup leader charged with crimes against humanity

    The leader of last month’s failed coup in Burkina Faso, Gen. Gilbert Diendere, has been charged with crimes against humanity, a senior military justice official said on Friday.

    The elite presidential guard led by Diendere took the country’s president, prime minister and cabinet members hostage, soon before scheduled elections.

    Protests erupted against the revolt, and Diendere was forced to hand back power after a week, Reuters reported.

    “Gen. Diendere is being prosecuted for crimes against humanity. We have formally charged 23 people,” Col. Sita Sangare, Burkina Faso’s director of military justice, said.

    Judicial sources said last week he had been charged for lesser offences alongside former foreign and security minister, Djibril Bassole, accused of supporting the coup.

    Bassole, also a former joint United Nations-African Union mediator in Sudan’s Darfur conflict, denies the accusations, his lawyer has said.

    Charges against all the defendants ranged from threatening state security and murder to concealing the bodies of the dead and fraud, Reuters quoted Sangare as saying to journalists.

    “The possible sentences could include the death penalty if it is established that murder was preceded by cruel treatment or followed by acts of cruelty,” Sangare added, without spelling out whether Diendere or Bassole might face execution.

     

  • Burkina court charges general, ex-minister over coup

    A court in Burkina Faso on Tuesday charged a general and a former foreign minister with crimes including threatening state security and murder in the wake of a short-lived coup last month, judicial sources said.

    Gen. Gilbert Diendere led a putsch by elite presidential guard soldiers that saw them take the country’s president, prime minister and members of the transitional government hostage less than a month before elections, Reuters reported.

    Though the week-long power grab failed, some of his forces resisted an order to disarm, forcing the army to attack their base in the capital Ouagadougou last week. Diendere, a former spy chief, was handed over to authorities on Thursday after initially seeking refuge in the Vatican embassy.

    Djibril Bassole, once foreign minister, was also arrested in connection with the coup.

    The two men, who are close allies of deposed longtime leader Blaise Compaore, were each charged with 11 offences, according to two sources familiar with Tuesday’s proceedings.

    Other charges included colluding with foreign forces to destabilise interior security, voluntary assault, and willful destruction of property, the sources said.

    At least 11 people were killed and 271 injured as the presidential guard crushed protests against their actions.

    Burkina Faso is due to hold presidential and general elections on Sunday.

     

  • Burkina coup leader handed over to government

    The leader of a short-lived coup in Burkina Faso, Gen. Gilbert Diendere, was handed over to authorities on Thursday after seeking refuge in the Vatican embassy, sources in the transitional government said on Thursday.

    Diendere, a former spy chief, was at the head of a week-long power-grab by Burkina Faso’s powerful presidential guard last month, during which the interim president and prime minister were held hostage, Reuters reported.

    He had sought sanctuary in the embassy in the recent days after the transitional government – tasked with guiding Burkina Faso to elections this month – was returned to power amid international pressure and popular protests.

    “He has been handed over to Burkinabe authorities,”  a judicial source close to the transitional government told Reuters.

    A military source said Jean Baptiste Ouedraogo, the former president of Burkina Faso, escorted the former putschist to the capital Ouagadougou’s main gendarmerie camp in a heavily armed convoy.

    Earlier, Prime Minister Yacouba Isaac Zida had said the government had provided guarantees to the Vatican embassy that Diendere’s life would be respected if he was handed over. Zida said he would be handed to judicial authorities.

    Diendere said he led the coup because of proposals to dismantle the elite presidential guard, the RSP, and to exclude allies of deposed president Blaise Compaore from running in this month’s scheduled presidential election.

     

    The putsch lasted a week and the government was restored last Wednesday. During its first post-coup cabinet meeting it formally disbanded the RSP and launched an inquiry into the military power-grab.

  • Burkina Faso coup leaders’ assets frozen

    Burkina Faso has frozen the assets of the leader of last week’s failed coup, Gen. Gilbert Diendere.

    Another 13 people suspected of involvement have also had their assets frozen, the state prosecutor said.

    Interim President Michel Kafando was reinstated on Wednesday after an intervention from the army and West African leaders, the BBC reported.

    On Friday, his government ordered the presidential guards’ unit that carried out the coup to be disbanded.

    At least 10 people were killed and more than 100 injured in clashes during the take-over which Gen. Diendere described as “the biggest mistake.”

    In a statement announcing the latest move, state prosecutor Laurent Poda said the assets of 14 people, including Gen. Gilbert Diendere and his wife Fatou Diendere, a MP for the former ruling party, would be frozen for three months.

    During this period, they would only be able to withdraw 300,000 CFA ($512) a month.

    On Friday, the first full meeting of the government since Mr. Kafando’s reinstatement decided to disband the presidential guard (RSP) and to dismiss the minister in charge of security.

    The RSP – a unit of 1,200 well-armed and well-trained men – is loyal to Blaise Compaore, the country’s long-time ruler who was ousted in a popular uprising last year. They were unhappy about being integrated into the regular army.

  • Burkina to return to civilian ‘rule after coup’

    Burkina Faso will reinstate an interim government led by President Michel Kafando, Benin’s leader Thomas Boni Yayi said on Saturday, in what would be a victory for the street over army coup leaders.

    Seeking to end violent clashes between soldiers and protesters and salvage an October presidential election, African mediators held talks with junta head Gen. Gilbert Diendere, Reuters reported.

    “We may hope again,” Reuters quoted Boni Yayi as saying to reporters after a third round of talks with Diendere.

    “We are going to relaunch the transition that was underway – a transition led by civilians, with Michel Kafando,” he added, saying that more details of the “good news” would be provided on Sunday.

    Senegal’s President Macky Sall, who is also mediating in the crisis as head of regional bloc ECOWAS, did not comment after the talks. His office earlier confirmed he was seeking to broker Kafando’s return to power.

    It was not clear if the alleged deal included amnesty for Diendere, a shadowy general who served as a spy chief under ousted President Blaise Compaore.

    Nor was it clear if the election schedule could be restored.

    Diendere did not deny that an initial agreement had been reached. “I always said that I will not cling to power. It’s now a question of terms,” he told reporters after the meeting.

  • Coup: AU suspends Burkina Faso, threatens sanctions

    The African Union has suspended Burkina Faso and will impose sanctions on coup leaders if they do not restore the interim government and release its leaders, it said on Friday.

    Soldiers from the elite presidential guard (RSP) stormed into a cabinet meeting on Wednesday and abducted President Michel Kafando and Prime Minister Zida, disrupting a transition period due to end with polls next month, Reuters reported.

    Gen. Gilbert Diendere, a former spy chief, was named junta head the next day.

    The AU statement followed a meeting of the Peace and Security Council in Addis Ababa. It gave coup leaders 96 hours, or until September 22, to restore the transitional government or face travel bans and asset freezes.

    “Council decides to suspend, with immediate effect, the participation of Burkina Faso in all AU activities,” it said, adding that members of the RSP linked to the kidnappings would be held legally accountable for their actions.

    Burkina Faso, whose citizens toppled President Blaise Compaore last year as he sought to extend his 27-year rule, had been seen as a model by pro-democracy campaigners across sub-Saharan Africa.

    The coup has been condemned by the United States, former colonial power France and the United Nations.

  • Burkina Faso military frees interim president

    The military junta in Burkina Faso that took power in a coup has freed interim President, Michel Kafando and two of his ministers from detention, the junta’s leader said on Friday, as security forces fired in the air to quell protests.

    The decision to free Kafando appeared to signal possible flexibility by Gen. Gilbert Diendere and the junta ahead of talks on Friday with Senegalese President Macky Sall, current chairman of the West African ECOWAS bloc, Reuters reported.

    Sall and Benin President Thomas Boni Yayi are due to mediate in the wake of Thursday’s coup that was condemned by the United States, former colonial power France and the United Nations, which demanded the resumption of a democratic transition.

    “I confirm that President Kafando has been freed. He is in good health,” Diendere told journalists, adding that interim Prime Minister, Yacouba Isaac Zida, was under house arrest.

    The takeover derailed a transition that started last October after street protests toppled President Blaise Compaore after 27 years in power and was due to lead to elections on October 11.

    That uprising became a beacon for democratic aspirations in Africa at a time when long-term and authoritarian rulers from Rwanda to Congo Republic are seeking to scrap term limits.

    Diendere was Compaore’s military advisor and he said the putsch was triggered by a transitional government proposal to dismantle the presidential guard and a fear of instability after Compaore’s supporters were barred from contesting elections.

    Security forces in Ouagadougou fired in the air on Friday to disperse demonstrators who burnt tyres and blocked neighbourhood streets on a second day of protests against the coup. At least three died and 60 were wounded on Thursday.