President Thomas Sankara would have been 62 years old if he hadn’t been assassinated by the henchmen of Blaise Compaoré, the current president of Burkina Faso, and of Gilbert Diendéré, the current personal Chief of staff of the former. The latter has been knighted in the National Order of the French Legion of Honour, during a stay in France in May 2008.
President Thomas Sankara embodied the hope of a whole continent and he’s viewed today as the model leader, determined, righteous, brave and creative. He used to disturb by his uncompromising stands against western superpowers, whilst setting up an alternative, self-centred development mode.
Since then, evidence has lent weight to the theory of an international plot (see the file at http://thomassankara.net/?p=1104).
Unfortunately, everything seems to be done to prevent his assassination from being investigated, in Burkina as well as in the other countries. In November 2011, Blaise Compaoré was invited to the International Criminal Court to make a speech about peace whereas claims have been made during Charles Taylor’s trial before the Special Court for Sierra Leone, that he should have been indicted as well. Meanwhile, powerful lobbies, particularly in France and in the USA, act to improve Blaise Compaoré’s image on the international scene. France and the USA are specifically targeted as they are named by Liberian witnesses as two of the countries that have taken part in the plot against President Thomas Sankara.
However, our signature campaign (see http://thomassankara.net/?p=876) led to a request, by French delegates, to start a parliamentary inquiry commission at the National Assembly, in July 2011 (see http://thomassankara.net/?p=1097), notably thanks to the valuable support of the French organisation SURVIE (http://www.survie.org/).
But the pressure must be raised; otherwise no justice will be obtained. 2012 will be the year of the 25th anniversary of Sankara’s assassination. It must be the year of truth and justice.
We call on citizens, parties and associations to intensify the campaign with new public initiatives.
Without waiting for a criminal investigation, we call on journalists to make inquiries, on historians to start new research studies, on documentary makers to direct new films, so that the truth about the assassination of Thomas Sankara can be known, at last.
We call on the elected officials, the members of the French Foreign Affairs Commission, the candidates for the coming elections to speak out for the opening of the parliamentary inquiry.
The coordinators of the Justice for Sankara, Justice for Africa campaign
December the 21st, 2011, in Ouagadougou, Paris, Turin, Liège, Madrid and Toulouse.