Women Say Sankara Monument Would Be Symbol Of Truth

March 13, 2000

Ruth Nabakwe
PANA Correspondent

PARIS, France (PANA) - The recommendation made by a commission set up in
Burkina Faso to investigate the death of journalist Nobert Zongo, but which
went further to suggest that assassinated former President Thomas Sankara be
accorded a national hero status, has received wide support by the African
community in Paris.

Women from Burkina Faso met to deliberate on what they termed "the women's
fight against unpunished crimes" in their country.

According to the women, "rape cases of women by the Burkinabe military as
well as state-instigated violence," were some of the issues they focussed
during the day-long debate Saturday.

While the 1998 Zongo killing may perhaps be the latest thorn in the flesh of
the Burkinabe authorities, the 1987 Sankara killing continues to haunt the
regime of President Blaise Compaore, who took over after the young leader's
death.

In an era when crimes against humanity are being pursued and punished, the
mystery of the two killings, at least as far as the Burkinabe women are
concerned, has yet to be resolved.

"For how long will crimes go unpunished? the women wondered, emboldened by a
week in which the just-ended International Women's Day focused on world
attention on issues affecting women.

On Sankara's brutal demise, a 1987 initiative undertaken by Italy's Radical
Party co-president, Marco Panella, aimed at bringing to justice those
responsible for Sankara's killing, never saw the light of day.

Hamuli Rety, lawyer as well as president of a Congolese Political Movement,
known as CRID, was among two other French advocates - Irene Terrel and Jean
Jacques de Felice - who were chosen by Panella to identify the judicial
aspects necessary to pursue that type of crime (like Sankara's killing) to
its conclusion, in conjunction with the Burkinabe authorities.

"At the time, international tribunals to judge crimes against humanity such
as the ones we know of today in Arusha and Yugoslavia, had not yet been set
up. There was therefore a need to find a competent authority working in
conjunction with the Burkinabe authorities, to investigate and bring to
justice Sankara's killers," Rety told PANA.

He said prior to Sankara's death, the Italian parliament had adopted a
motion, on the initiative of Panella's Radical Party, in which Sankara's
government would sign an interdependence treaty between Burkina Faso and
Italy.

However, after the bloody coup, further action after the motion was passed,
were blocked.

Panella insisted that the objectives of the treaty could not be realised
until "those responsible for Sankara's assassination were brought to
justice."

A 16 December, 1987 issue of the leading Francophonie magazine, Jeune
Afrique, quoted Panella stating that "those who seize power by killing
should not estimate that they are morally, politically and juridically
authorised to continue killing in order to maintain themselves in power. It
is because of that that they must be judged and condemned."

"It's regrettable that Panella's positive initiative to bring Sankara's
killers to justice was not pursued to its conclusion," Rety said.

"However, it's encouraging to note that the Burkinabe people themselves have
taken the initiative to ensure Sankara goes down in history as a national
hero as well as steps to erect a monument in his honour," he added.
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