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2000 &
'99
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tld .bf $US= 740.775 XAF 5.9.01
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An incorruptible man
A major anti-corruption drive began in 1987. The tribunal showed Capt. Thos. Sankara to have
$450 a month salary; his most valuable possessions a car, 4 bikes, 3 guitars, a fridge and a
broken freezer. He was the world's poorest president. Sankara refused to use air conditioning in
his office on grounds that such luxury was not available to anyone but a handful of Burkinabes.
When asked why he did not want his portrait hung in public places, Sankara said "There are 7
million Thomas Sankaras".
Chronicle of a revolution
2.84 Tribute payments to & obligatory labour for traditional village chiefs
outlawed.
84.84 All land & mineral wealth are nationalized. Country's name changed from
colonial Upper Volta to Burkina Faso, words from two different local languages meaning 'Land of
the Incorruptible'.
9.22.84 Day of solidarity: men are encouraged to go to market and prepare meals to
experience for themselves conditions faced by women.
10.84 Rural poll tax is abolished.
11.84 'Vaccination Commando'. In 15 days 2.5million children are immunized against
meningitis, yellow fever and measles.
12.3.84 Top civil servants & military officers are required to give month's pay and
other civil servants to give half a month to help fund social development projects.
12.31.84 All domestic rents are suspended for 1985 and a massive public housing
construction program begins.
1.1.85 Launch of campaign to plant 10million trees to slow Sahara's advance.
8.4.85 All-women parade marks the anniversary of the Revolution.
9.10.85 Mounting hostility of region's conservative regimes revealed at meeting in Yamoussoukro, Côte d'Ivoire.
Feb-Apr 1986 'Alpha Commando' literacy campaign in 9 indigenous languages
involves 35,000 people.
End of 1986 UN-assisted program brings river blindness under control.
10.15.87 Sankara is assassinated in a coup d'état along with 12 aides. Makeshift grave a
shrine for days; thousands pay respects. Popular feeling forces new regime to give Sankara
decent grave.
villager's assessment of Sankara
'I wasn't surprised when he was killed; the Revolution took me by surprise but that didn't. He had
bad men around him, people who just wanted to get fat and drive around in big cars. Many things
changed in the Revolution. Not always in the best way. But because of the Revolution we know a
little more about the type of politicians we need. It taught us to work by ourselves for ourselves.
But Sankara wanted everything to happen too quickly; he expected too much.
If I were President myself I would do just as Sankara did and send my ministers out to the villages
to learn what it's like there and give the peasants help. Sankara's very best idea was to
teach us that it wasn't enough to live with what we get in wages each month; we should get by
with the minimum and give the rest to the development of the country instead of always asking for
aid from overseas."
An eminently corruptible man
Capt. Blaise Compaoré played a key part in the 1983 Revolution; he led the march on the capital
that released Sankara from house arrest to become President. Compaoré himself served as
Justice Minister & Sankara's effective second-in-command. … One of his early acts was
to buy a presidential plane to reflect his personal prestige. …
Chronicle of a 'rectification'
10.15.87 Compaoré
assumes Presidency, backed by Maj. Jean-Baptiste Lingani & Capt. H. Zongo.
11.87 Committees for Defence of the Revolution, the local bodies which had replaced
traditional élites, are abolished.
1988 Civil servants salaries are increased; special tax that forced them to contribute to
health & education projects is scrapped.
12.88 World Bank report lauds unusually high standards of financial management in
Burkina Faso during the revolutionary years while noting the increasing incidence of corruption
since Compaoré's takeover.
9.89 Lingani & Zongo attempt to oust Compaoré in coup and are executed.
12.31.89 Sankara supporters detained without trial for over a year. Lecturer Guillaume
Sessouma dies during torture.
12.90 Draft constitution guarantees freedom of association & expression and property
rights. Provides for an elected President & National Assembly.
Early 1991 Structural-adjustment pkg agreed with IMF involving privatization &
liberalization of the market.
5.91& All political prisoners are released.
12.91& Blaise Compaoré wins presidential election. He is only candidate;73% of
electorate do not vote.
1993 IMF lends Burkina $67m for 1993-5 on condition it continues implementing free-
market policies.
1.94 CFA franc halved in value in relation to the French franc at the insistence of Paris
& IMF.
3.94 Compaoré sacks PM to install loyalist
villager's assessment of Compaoré
" … trade unions bought off, for example … He's our President, we agreed to that – but
his policies come from France. Every order comes from France and he never asks the Assembly's
opinion. There is no real opposition. Politics here means who will give money. People who want to
become ministers or deputies look to develop themselves first and the country after; they all know
the Western way of life, they want everything easy. Politics is just a means of becoming rich and
giving you a big car. And Blaise gives money to opposition groups so they will divide and, voilà, no
opposition. Another Sankara simply couldn't arrive out of the current democratic landscape."
3.28.00 Joost R. Hiltermann Exec. Dir. Arms Div.
Evidence suggests large weapons shipments Burkina Faso declared it was purchasing for its own
use may in fact have been illegally diverted to other end-users, and that Burkinabe govt resources,
including the VIP wing of the Ougadougou airport & a govt-registered plane, may have been
used to facilitate such diversions. April 1999 ECOMOG commander in Sierra Leone, Maj.-Gen.
Felix Mujakperuo, accused Burkina Faso of facilitating an illegal arms shipment to Revolutionary
United Front (RUF) rebels in Sierra Leone in violation of a UN embargo. At press conference in
Freetown, he claimed that on 5.14.99, a Ukrainian-registered cargo plane had delivered sixty-eight
tons of weapons & ammunition to Ouagadougou. There, he alleged, the plane parked in the
airport's VIP terminal and the weapons were transferred onto a plane destined for Liberia, which is
also subject to a U.N. arms embargo, then shipped onward to the RUF inside Sierra Leone.
Mujakperou also reported the incident to the UN.
The Ukrainian govt responded to these allegations in 6.1.99 letter to U.N. committee responsible
for monitoring RUF embargo, to which it appended relevant documents. Ukraine maintained that it
had sold the weapons to Burkina Faso govt. Documents provided, of which Human Rights Watch
obtained copies, show Burkina Faso govt issued an end-user certificate to the Ukrainian state-
owned company Ukrspetsexport for the purchase of weapons & ammunition in a deal
arranged by the Gibraltar-based Chartered Engineering & Technical Company, Ltd. The end-
user certificate explicitly states that the ministry of defense of Burkina Faso, "the final consumer" of
the goods listed, was committing itself to refrain from re-exporting the equipment without the
agreement of the govt of Ukraine. The end-user certificate indicates that the deal involved 3,000 AKM (Kalashnikov) assault rifles, fifty machine guns, twenty-five rocket-propelled grenade launchers (RPGs), five Strela-3 (also known as SA-7) missiles, and five Metis anti-tank guided missile systems, as well as ammunition for these weapons. It is important to note that, according to an authoritative source on national arms inventories, Jane's Infantry Weapons, Burkina Faso has been using NATO |
4.01 Mazal U'Bracha Magazine
5.23.00 ANN/IRIN
3.13.00 PANA Citing how the external policy of Burkina Faso is based on the search for peace, Ouedraogo recalled that the country, while chairing the OAU in 1998-1999, strongly condemned Unita and Jonas Savimbi and urged Africans to solve crises and conflicts through dialogue and consultation. He also denied the existence of training camps for Unita forces in Burkina. According to Ouedraogo, Burkina is making continuous efforts for a lasting solution to the Angolan crisis under the aegis of the Lusaka peace agreement and UN security council resolutions.He, therefore, said Burkina could not have any link with Unita. "We are going to raise these charges during Wednesday's session of the security council and ask the committee of experts for an explanation", he emphasised. |
In another case, Burkina Faso also was named as a transshipment country for weapons that were
delivered to Sierra Leone. In an Oct. 1999 article published in the Washington Post, author James
Rupert reported that ECOMOG said 5 aircraft, incl one whose registration matched that of a
Boeing 727 owned by the Burkinabe govt, had carried weapons to the RUF via Liberia. Quoting
ECOMOG, Rupert told HRWatch that the flights from Ouagadougou to Robertsfield Intl Airport in
Liberia took place in Feb. & Sept. 1998, and that the Burkinabe Boeing 727-14, registration
number XT-BBE, "was seen offloading arms on 26 & 29 February 1998, each time after flying
Rabat [Morocco]-Ouagadougou-Robertsfield."
Interviews conducted by HRWatch in Burkina Faso in June 1998 further suggest that flights to
parties under intl embargo regularly transited through Ouagadougou airport. Pilots & staff
indicated that flights carrying arms or fuel regularly arrived from central Africa to refuel in
Ouagadougou on their way to other destinations. An official at the airport said, "It can be one
of any number of locations: Kinshasa, Brazzaville, UNITA. We don't ask questions."
In light of these serious allegations, we urge you to immediately appoint an independent
commission to carry out a full inquiry. We further request that you make public the methodology of
the inquiry and its findings at the earliest possible date.
Tole Sagnon
5.97 interview Norbert Zongo by
Keith Snow
4.11.01 S/2001/351 SecGen rpt Developments since prev. rpt (S/2000/977)
Long-dormant gold industry of Burkina Faso has become that nation's second largest source of revenue, after cotton; much of the initial investment capital came from the United States and Canada.
Burkina Faso easily qualifies as a candidate for HIPC initiative. Its total debt was $1.3bn at the
end of 1996, 51% of GNP. The debt service ratio is limited because 84% of the long-term
debt is on concessional terms with low interest rates & long pay-back periods. Under the
HIPC initiative, debt should be reduced by $115m by 2000 providing the country continues the
implementation of economic reforms. The country receives large quantities of aid, both bilateral
& multilateral; net official development assistance flows were $418m in 1996, accounting for
65% of investment and 10.6% of GDP. France is largest donor, typically giving about a
quarter of the total, followed by Germany, Netherlands, Denmark and Japan. Multilateral aid
comes from the EU, the IDA, the African Development Bank, the IMF and the UN Development
Pgm.
A key part of the govt's development plans is exploitation of country's large mineral resources. As
well as gold, there is potential for diamonds, manganese, copper, zinc and bauxite among others.
As a share of officially recorded GDP, investment has been quite high, at 25% in 1997. Public
investment accounted for around 11% of GDP in that year. In 1993 a new Mining Code was
enacted, providing tax & other concessions for investment in the mining sector. This was
updated, with concessions for foreign investors made more liberal, in 1997.
Gold's importance to Burkina Faso
Burkina Faso has large but underexploited mineral reserves. Gold is the dominant element in the
mining sector; its development is a key feature of current policy. Currently it is the third largest
export after cotton & livestock; its contribution is expected to rise. Further liberalisation of
mining regulations in 1997 facilitated the award of four new exploration contracts that year,
bringing the total number of exploration permits in operation to 137. Investment in mining potential
was estimated at CFA 25bn ($42.8m) in 1997, nearly 2% of GDP. Poura, the largest deposit,
has reserves estimated at around 25 tons. The mine, previously source of most of the country's
gold output, underwent rehabilitation under lease to Sahelian Goldfields which will own 90% of
the project, while the state will hold 10%. It was officially reopened Oct. 1998, which should
give 1999 exports a substantial boost. Sahelian Goldfields hopes to raise production to 4 ton per
year. Other companies active in Burkina Faso are … In total the govt hopes total gold
production might reach 6 tons/yr by 2000. If plans are fulfilled, gold should account for at least
10% of exports that year.
Much gold output has been produced by semi-industrial and artisanal methods, supported by the
state-owned purchasing and marketing monopoly, the Comptoir Burkinabe des Metaux Precieux,
although this will change with the reopening of Poura. Official data for production are lower than
those of GFMS, which allows for informal & unrecorded output. Export data are from official
sources and exclude gold traded via parallel channels. In volume terms, gold output fell by
12.9% a year between 1990-97 to 2.3 tons. Production in 1998 rose slightly to 2.7 ton. The
value of exports has tended to fall because of the drop in output and 1997 steep fall in the intl price
of gold although the effect on the economy was partly offset by the devaluation of the CFA franc in
1994.
Despite this fall in export revenues deriving from gold, gold exports were still sufficient to cover
more than a quarter of the country's debt-service obligations in 1997. They would have played an
even greater role were it not for the sharp fall in the international price of gold in 1997.
| tons Output 1997 | tons Output 1998 | 1997 Merchandise exports $m | 1997 $m Gold exports | Gold exports as % merchandise exports | Gold exports as % debt service | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Burkina Faso | 2.3 | 2.7 | 397 | 18ª | 4.5 | 38 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Côte d'Ivoire | 4.0 | 3.4 | 4,085 | 20ª | 0.5 | 2 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| DR Congo | 9.6 | 4.8 | 1,395 | 11 | 0.8 | 22ª | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Ethiopia | 2.8 | 2.9 | 604 | 15ª | 2.5 | 3 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Ghana | 55.7 | 73.3 | 1,511 | 593 | 39.2 | 97 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Guinea | 7.1 | 13.1 | 797 | 100ª | 12.5 | 14ª | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Mali | 17.1 | 22.0 | 562 | 202 | 35.9 | 272 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Namibia | 2.3 | 1.9 | 1,441 | 27 | 1.9 | na | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| S.Africa | 492.5 | 473.8 | 30,935 | 5,398 | 17.4 | na | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sudan | 4.7 | 5.7 | 580 | 49 | 8.4 | 86 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Tanzania | 5.3 | 5.5 | 717 | 2 | 0.3 | 1¹ | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Uganda | na | na | 671 | 65ª | 9.7 | 48 ¹ | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Zimbabwe | 26.3 | 27.1 | 2,490 | 250ª | 10.0 45¹ | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Others | 7.3 | 7.0 | 40,893 | 30 | 0.1 | na | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Total | 637.0 | 643.2 | 87,078 | 6,780 | 7.8 | na | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Total ex. S.Africa | 144.5 | 169.4 | 56,143 | 1,382 | 2.5 | na | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Total SSA H IPCs | 115.9 | 140.4 | 44,600 | 1,105 | 2.5 | na | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
ª WGC estimate ¹ 1996
in depth academic dissertations on BF women's roles
8.10.00 Abdoulaye Gandema InterPress Authorities indicate they would like to allocate these resources to the social sector; women demanded govt specify what belongs to them at the outset. ''It is necessary that Burkinabe women concretely see their fair share of this benefit which will enable them to fight poverty & achieve a better future,'' affirmed Madeleine Ouangrawa, head of B.Faso's Coalition of Women's Assoc.& NGOs. The women already defined their priorities. Majority think investment in women's education, great number believe money should ensure economic freedom for those who make up over half of Burkina Faso's 11 million people. For Ouangrawa, who took part in the Special Gen.Assembly of UN in June, priority education. June meeting was held to review the progress nations had made in implementing the Beijing Platform of Action, adopted at 1995 4th World Conf. on Women in China. ''Shown in New York there is intrinsic link between poverty & level of education,'' explained Ouangrawa. ''When a country educates both men & women, benefits are automatically felt in hygiene, health and citizenship,'' she said. Amadou Yaro, an accountant, said, ''I would have liked to see this reduction accompanied by certain conditions. The govt should inject this surplus in the social sectors, with accountability ... History abounds with examples of countries which received a lot of money only to squander it.''
1995 to 1997, B.Faso devoted 3.6% of GNP annually to education. Despite this, one of lowest
levels of education in the world. 1997 per UN Development Pgm (UNDP), primary education rate
was 25% for boys 16% for girls. Burkinabe women take an active part in economic
development. Authorities should stress economic independence of women. ''It is not possible to
have emancipation without economic independence. It is necessary for us to stress to the
authorities the need to give women the means of becoming true agents of development, instead of
simply being consumers,'' says journalist Nathalie Some. ''We must assure in each field, pgms incl
co-ordination pgm between NGOs, govt & media,'' Some said. The Summit in NY invited
govts to create development funds for women. … Usually, women receive small loans from
institutions such as the Funds for Support of the Gainful Activities of Women (FAARF). But these
cannot come close to solving numerous problems women have. Clementine Ouedraogo, president
of Promo-Femmes-Developpement, association which assists women on administrative &
domestic matters, says women should be given subsidies to satisfy their economic needs.
''Poverty in most areas is so severe that the small credit is not sufficient. When the women refund
their loans, then, with 100 percent repayment, that does not mean they are doing well; it means
that not to lose face within their community, some prefer to be impoverished more, even going to
the extent of selling their goods, to refund these credits," affirms Ouedraogo.
3.13.00 Ruth Nabakwe Panafrican News Agency (Dakar) While the 1998 Zongo killing may perhaps be the latest thorn in the flesh of the Burkinabe authorities, the 1987 Sankara killing continues to haunt the regime of President Blaise Compaore, who took over after the young leader's death. … On Sankara's brutal demise, a 1987 initiative undertaken by Italy's Radical Party co-president, Marco Panella, aimed at bringing to justice those responsible for Sankara's killing, never saw the light of day. Hamuli Rety, lawyer as well as president of a Congolese Political Movement, known as CRID, was among two other French advocates, Irene Terrel & Jean Jacques de Felice, who were chosen by Panella to identify judicial aspects necessary to pursue that type of crime (like Sankara's killing) to its conclusion, in conjunction with the Burkinabe authorities.
"At the time, intl tribunals to judge crimes against humanity such as the ones we know of today in
Arusha & Yugoslavia, had not yet been set up. There was therefore a need to find a
competent authority working in conjunction with the Burkinabe authorities, to investigate and bring
to justice Sankara's killers," Rety told PANA. He said prior to Sankara's death, the Italian
parliament had adopted a motion, on the initiative of Panella's Radical Party, in which Sankara's
government would sign an interdependence treaty between Burkina Faso & Italy. However,
after the bloody coup, further action after the motion was passed, were blocked. Panella insisted
that the objectives of the treaty could not be realised until "those responsible for Sankara's
assassination were brought to justice."
3.27.98 PANAFRICAN NEWS AGENCY (PANA)
Ben Obinwa Nnaji auth., Blaise Compaore, architect of Burkina Faso revolution Jean R. Guion auth., Blaise Compaore, realism and integrity "portrait of the man behind rectification in Burkina Faso" Ludo Martens auth., Sankara, Compaorâe et la râevolution burkinabáe
On 12.1 Paulin Yameogo, director of opposition-linked weekly San Finna, was arrested and taken
to National Security HQ in Ouagadougou. He is accused of publishing photograph of Ilboudo
Hamidou, bearing marks of torture, after his arrest by presidential guard soldiers 12.97 Hamidou
was detained at same time as David Ouedraogo, chauffeur of President Blaise Compaoré's
brother, who was tortured to death 1.98 (RSF)
On the same day Boureima Sigue, dir. private daily Le Pays, was arrested & released some
hours later, following publication of opposition text calling for guarantees to 'the security of all
protesters' and an end to 'the terrorist methods used by the minority who cling to power'.
(RSF)
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