Covering events from January-December 2001
Burkina Faso
Head of state: Blaise Compaoré
Head of government: Ernest Yonli
Capital: Ouagadougou
Population: 11.9 million
Official language: French
Death penalty: abolitionist in practice
2001 treaty ratifications/signatures: Optional Protocol to the UN Women's Convention; Optional Protocol to the UN Children's Convention on the involvement of children in armed conflict
A member of the security forces was indicted for the extrajudicial executions of four people, including a leading investigative journalist, in 1998. The government set up a national human rights commission.

Background

Tens of thousands of Burkina Faso nationals who faced growing hostility in Côte d'Ivoire returned to Burkina Faso in the early months of 2001, putting the country's economy under increased pressure.

There were concerns about Burkina Faso's role in the diamonds for arms trade linked to large-scale human rights violations in Liberia and Sierra Leone.

National human rights commission

In late October the government created a national human rights commission with a brief to raise awareness of human rights and to organize human rights education.

Impunity

In early February an officer of the Régiment de la sécurité présidentielle, the presidential security force, was indicted on charges of murder and arson in connection with the deaths in December 1998 of Ernest Zongo, Ablassé Nikiema, Blaise Ilboudo and Norbert Zongo, a leading investigative journalist. An independent Commission of Inquiry had recommended in May 1999 that the officer be prosecuted. No further progress was recorded on this case following the indictment.

President Blaise Compaoré announced a controversial national day of reconciliation at the end of March to ease the ongoing national and international tension about the slow progress of investigation and prosecution in cases of human rights violations. The family of Norbert Zongo and the widow of Thomas Sankara, the former Head of State killed in unclear circumstances in the coup which brought the current President to power in October 1987, refused to take part in the ceremonies.

In October, during a visit by President Compaoré to France, Reporters sans Frontières, a non-governmental organization working for freedom of the press, tried to initiate a prosecution against him on charges of crimes against humanity in connection with the alleged extrajudicial execution of Norbert Zongo. The French prosecutors refused to open a suit against President Compaoré.

In January, one of the suspects who had been named by the May 1999 Independent Commission of Inquiry investigating the death of Norbert Zongo, died in hospital after several months of illness. He was one of three members of the Régiment de la sécurité présidentielle convicted of causing the death by torture in January 1998 of David Ouédraogo, chauffeur of François Compaoré, presidential adviser and brother of the President. A potential key witness in the case of the death of Norbert Zongo, he was serving a 20-year prison sentence at the time of his death.

AI country reports/visits

Reports

  • Burkina Faso: Amnesty International welcomes progress in the Norbert Zongo Case (AI Index: AFR 60/001/2001)
  • Burkina Faso: The long and dangerous fight for justice – West African human rights defenders under attack (AI Index: AFR 60/003/2001)

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