Two members of the International Network “Justice for Sankara Justice for Africa” handed over to Claude Bartolone and to all the deputies of the national assembly two letters from April 30 and May 5, 2015, one sent from 25 deputies of the burkinabè National Council of the Transition and one from the chairman of the parliamentary group of civil rights organizations on behalf of the 25 deputies of his group, demanding the opening of a congressional investigation committee on the assassination of Thomas Sankara.
Attesting the aspiration of “light being brought into this affair“, Mr. Claude Bartolone declined for the following reasons: “such a congressional investigative committee would not have any power to investigate in other countries” and “the judicial procedures now implemented in Burkina” seem to him “the appropriate judicial instrument to seek the responsible persons in this affair“.
These are our comments on this response:
– We remind that the details of the assassination of Patrice Lumumba could have been revealed in 2001 as a result of a congressional investigation in the Belgian parliament – an assassination that had not happened on Belgian ground.
– Several testimonies relegate to a French participation in an international complot. An investigation in France parallel to the one in Burkina Faso seems appropriate.
– Only the existence of an open judicial procedure in France is, according to the regulation of the national assembly, a just reason to inhibit a congressional investigation. Such a procedure does not exist.
After the exhumation of the presumed remains of Thomas Sankara and his fellows and the meeting of his widow Mariam Sankara with deputies of the national assembly, many French organs evoked the possibility of a French participation in an international complot for the assassination of Thomas Sankara (in French: http://thomassankara.net/?p=1775 et http://thomassankara.net/?p=1787)
It is high time that France stops fleeing the questions about its grave history in Africa. The political leaders repeatedly confirm their attachment to the good relations of friendship and cooperation with Burkina Faso. The friendship to-be with this country and his people will pass by the French will to introspect the possible French participation in this assassination, which a congressional investigation committee is perfectly able to do. France has to stop pretending not to be concerned. It is also one of the most appropriate means to “bring light into this affair“.
The international network “Justice for Sankara Justice for Africa” is not going to dwell on this response and will take new initiatives to reveal the truth about the probable French participation in this assassination.
In the meantime, we invoke:
– the deputies of the national assembly who signed the demand of the opening of a congressional investigation committee on the assassination of Thomas Sankara and his fellows, and the other deputies that we ask to follow suit,
– all friends of Burkina Faso, all persons who love justice, to extensively sign and make sign the petition asking the opening of a parliamentary investigation on the assassination of Thomas Sankara and his fellows on https://www.change.org/p/public-et-d%C3%A9cideurs-parlement…
In Paris, Ouagadougou, Dakar, Berlin, Madrid, Ottawa, Turin, July 11, 2015
The International Network “Justice for Sankara Justice for Africa”
Contact: contactjusticepoursankara@gmail.com
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Claude Bartolone letter’s
