The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Thomas Sankara

  • 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.

  • Sankara’s remains riddled with bullets – Lawyer

    An autopsy has shown the remains of Burkina Faso’s ex-president, Thomas Sankara, a leftist hero known as “Africa’s Che Guevara,” were riddled with bullets, strengthening assertions he was executed in a 1987 coup, a lawyer said on Tuesday.

    The disputed circumstances of the death of Sankara, a charismatic military captain famous for his trademark red beret, have clouded Burkina Faso’s politics since his former friend, Blaise Compaore, toppled Sankara’s government 28 years ago, Reuters reported.

    Compaore, who ruled landlocked Burkina Faso for 27 years until he was ousted by a popular uprising last year, has always denied involvement in Sankara’s death. Calls from Sankara’s family for an investigation were blocked during Compaore’s rule.

    A transitional government installed after Compaore’s fall gave permission for an investigation, and the body was exhumed in May, along with the remains of 12 soldiers buried with it.

    Benewende Stanislas Sankara, a lawyer for the family, said the results of DNA tests to prove the body’s identity were expected in two weeks.

    “The body was riddled with more than a dozen bullets in the arms, legs and chest,” said the lawyer, who is no relation to the former president.

    The lawyer said the initial findings supported the family’s contention that Sankara was assassinated at the age of 37.

    “The ballistics report and the autopsy confirm that President Thomas Sankara and his companions were killed by bullets from Kalashnikovs, automatic pistols and G3 rifles,” the lawyer said, noting these were weapons used by the Burkinabe military.

    “There is no doubt about the criminal origin of his death,” he said, adding that at least eight people had already been charged in connection with the case.

     

  • Burkina Faso exhumes Sankara’s remains

    Authorities in Burkina Faso began exhuming the remains of former president Thomas Sankara on Monday in a bid to establish responsibility for a murder that has dogged the West African country since 1987.

    Sankara’s relatives have for years pressed for the remains to be tested, saying they suspect it may not be that of the former president, who died in a coup that brought his former ally Blaise Compaore to power.

    Witnesses at the Daghnoen cemetery on the outskirts of the capital Ouagadougou said the exhumation of Sankara’s body and those of 12 colleagues had begun with the families of the victims and lawyers present.

    “We are worried. What if these are not the bodies of the people who are supposed to be in these graves?” asked Arouna Sawadogo, president of a civil society organisation. “If we open the supposed grave of the president of Burkina Faso and it is not him, what will happen?”

    Family members who witnessed the process told Reuters that only two of the 13 graves were exhumed by the end of the day and the process will continue on Tuesday with the exhumation of Sankara’s grave.

    Bones and some remains of clothing were found in the two graves that were exhumed under a heavy police presence, the sources added.

    Compaore faced questions about Sankara’s death throughout his presidency, but attempts to mount a judicial investigation stalled.

    Compaore fled after a popular uprising against his rule in October last year and was replaced by an interim government led by Michel Kafando who promised to authorise an exhumation.

     

  • Burkina Faso orders Sankara exhumation

    The government of Burkina Faso has ordered the exhumation of the remains of Thomas Sankara, the country’s former president who was killed in a 1987 coup.

    The move means the remains can be formally identified – a long-standing demand of Mr. Sankara’s supporters, who wanted proof that the remains were his.

    Mr. Sankara – seen as Africa’s Che Guevara – was hastily buried in a coup led by his successor, Blaise Compaore, the BBC reports.

    Mr. Compaore quit the presidency amid massive street protests last October.

    While he was in office, a Burkina Faso court blocked a request by Mr. Sankara’s family for his remains to be exhumed.

    Mr. Compaore has always denied being involved in the ex-leader’s killing, insisting that the “facts are known” and he has “nothing to hide.”

    The new government in Burkina Faso, headed by Michel Kafando, said Mr. Sankara’s family would be given the means to help identify the corpse, according to the AFP news agency.

    Miriam Sankara, the former leader’s widow, told the BBC French service the family had not asked for the government’s help – and had yet to be officially contacted.

    “We, the family cannot exhume the corpse,” she said. “We want the judiciary to do it.

    “And if they do it, it should be in the context of a judicial process that we have always demanded, in the context of finding out the truth and the helping in the search for President Sankara’s murderers. ”

    Mr. Sankara, a Marxist revolutionary, became president in 1983 after an internal power struggle. He led his country for four years until his death at the age of 37.