Amnesty International Report 2003 - Burkina Faso

Covering events from January - December 2002

BURKINA FASO
Head of state: Blaise Compaoré
Head of government: Ernest Yonli
Death penalty: abolitionist in practice
International Criminal Court: signed

A human rights organization found scores of unburied bodies, believed to be those of criminal suspects extrajudicially executed by the security forces. No progress was reported in investigating these killings. The judicial commission set up to investigate the killing in December 1998 of Norbert Zongo and his three companions remained blocked.

Background

Parliamentary elections in May led to the ruling Congrès pour la démocratie et le progrès, Congress for Democracy and Progress, winning a majority of parliamentary seats. In June the Secrétariat d'Etat chargé de la promotion des droits de l'homme, Secretariat of State for the Promotion of Human Rights, was upgraded into the Ministère de la promotion des droits humains, Ministry for the Promotion of Human Rights. In November the government launched an operation to repatriate citizens of Burkina Faso subjected to xenophobic attacks in Côte d'Ivoire.

Extrajudicial executions

In February the human rights organization Mouvement burkinabé des droits de l'homme et des peuples (MBDHP), Burkinabé Movement for Human and Peoples' Rights, reported that 106 bodies had been found between October 2001 and January 2002 in various parts of the country. According to MBDHP, the bodies were handcuffed and bullet-ridden. The organization attributed the killings to extrajudicial executions of alleged criminals by the security forces in the context of a security operation launched by the government in October 2001. In February, the Ministry of Justice announced it would open a judicial investigation commission but by the end of 2002 there was no indication that such a commission had been opened. The Ministry of Security opened an internal investigation, but its terms of reference were not made public. The government acknowledged that several people had been killed and said it would support families of victims who sought justice.

Impunity

There was no progress in the investigation of the killings in 1998 of the prominent journalist Norbert Zongo and Ablassé Nikiema, Ernest Zongo and Blaise Ilboudo. According to the judicial commission of inquiry, the ill-health of one of the main suspects was the cause of the delay.