April 2011 - Centre for Civil Society - University of KwaZulu-Natal

the west-central area had been sacked.
But the response of two student unions (ANEC Koudougoud and UGEB) to
the announcement that police officers guilty of misconduct would be
arrested, while continuing to reiterate that Zongo had died of meningitis,
was: ‘You announce the arrest of policemen involved without clarifying the
circumstances of his death. Who amongst the guilty have been
arrested?’[9] The regime ordered security forces to barracks. Investigations
were launched, one on the events in Koudougou, the other on what
happened in Kindi and a third to focus on Poa.
Nonetheless, the events in Burkina Faso also have a domestic momentum.
They have their roots in local conditions. Indeed, since the end of the socalled
revolutionary period after the coup d ‘etat on 15 October 1987,
which took the life of Thomas Sankara, there have been several face-offs
with the regime of Blaise Campaore, some after violence in schools. In May
1990, medical student and ANEB activist Dabo Boukary was tortured to
death at the base of the presidential guard. For years, the authorities
maintained he escaped; it was only during the big university strike in 1997
that they hinted that he was in fact dead. On 9 May 1995, Garango
students marched in support of their teachers fighting for better working
and living conditions. Two students, Emile Zigani and Blaise Sidiani were
killed. On 6 December 2000, Flavien Nebie, 12, was shot in the head during
a march protesting the invalidation of the academic year by the University
of Ouagadougou. The fact that the case dragged on for so long and passed
from magistrate to magistrate shows the lack of seriousness in dealing with
the death. Till today, Flavien Nebie’s death has not been clarified. The
verdicts handed down to the two policemen who assassinated Emile Zigani
and Blaise Sidiani eight years later speak volumes - one was given a 12
month suspended sentence while the other was simply let off.
The subservience of justice to political power is evident in these cases, as
it was in that of Thomas Sankara and Oumarou Clement Ouedrago[10] and
explains partially why far from decreasing, demonstrations are on the
increase.
The press was not exempt from such attacks. Norbert Zongo, the director
of the weekly ‘The Independent’ and three of his companions were
assassinated on 13 December 1998. Zongo was investigating the death of
David Ouedraogo, the chauffeur of Francis Campaore, the president’s
brother.[11] This event marked a turning point in the mobilisation against
impunity.
Unprepared for the scale of public protest which had spread throughout
the country and involved all sectors of society, the regime began to waver
and the country saw one of its most serious crises since the revolution.
Thousands of people came out in the streets of Ougadougou and the
provinces when news came that Norbert Zongo had died in a car
‘accident’. People attacked symbols of state, including the headquarters
of the presidential party, the Congress for Democracy and Progress (CDP).
More than 20,000 people turned out for the funeral of the slain journalist
on 16 December and public emotions ran high for several months after his
death.
The authorities didn’t take long to clamp down on the protests, even if it
paid lip service to a negotiated solution, and there were arrests, militias
were set up, sanctions were taken against strikers and schools were shut
down. Eight years later, all charges were dismissed in the Zongo affair.
The current situation in Burkina Faso, insofar as it is a spontaneous,