Burkina Faso parliament set ablaze in protest

[Palmares]

Burkina Faso parliament set ablaze in protest

At least one dead in clashes after demonstrators storm assembly in protest against vote to allow president another term.

Anti-government protesters in Burkina Faso have set parliament ablaze in a surge of violence that forced the government to at least temporarily scrap a vote on constitutional amendments that would allow President Blaise Compaore to extend his 27-year rule.

At least one person was killed in Thursday's violence, according to news agencies.

Hundreds of people broke through a heavy security cordon and stormed the National Assembly building in the capital Ouagadougou, ransacking offices and setting fire to cars, before attacking the national television headquarters.
Police had tried to control the crowds using tear gas, but the demonstrators were able to push through the barricades and make their way into parliament.

The crowd then headed towards the presidential palace as a government helicopter flew overhead, shooting teargas at protesters.

Security forces fired live rounds and tear gas at protesters near the presidency in the Ouaga 2000 neighbourhood, Reuters reported.

Lawmakers had been due to vote on Thursday on a government plan to change the constitution to allow Compaore - who took power in a coup in 1987 - to stand for re-election again next year, when he was due to stand down.
Most deputies had not yet arrived for the vote when protesters, who had set up barricades outside parliament from early on Thursday, stormed the building.

The government, facing its worst crisis since a wave of mutinies shook the country in 2011, later announced it was calling off the vote but it was not immediately clear if this was a temporary move.

State television was ransacked and forced off the air.

The ruling party headquarters in Burkina Faso's second city of Bobo Dioulasso and city hall was also torched by protesters, witnesses told the AFP news agency.

"The president must deal with the consequences," said Benewende Sankara, one of the leaders of the opposition which had called for the people to march on parliament over the Compaore law.

Burkina Faso is typically known for relative stability and economic growth in a volatile region, but tensions have been rising ahead of the vote, which the European Union had warned could jeopardise stability.

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/africa/2014/10/protesters-storm-burkina-faso-parliament-20141030103451460862.html

http://daylifeimages.newscred.com/imageserve/7845a8938c8e50baa42db06bee34985d/666x405.jpg?fit=scale&background=000000

[Illegalitarian]

Apparently Sankara had this thing about Burkina Faso making its own clothes and loved it when people wore these clothes with enthusiasm.

Most people liked western clothes, though, so they would only wear their domestic made clothes whenever Sankara was in the area. They called them "Sankara is coming" clothes.


Sankara is a symbol of anti-government resistance and rebellion in the nation now and is thought of as a hero and great revolutionary by the majority of the population. It would be cool if a cohesive revolutionary movement formed and adopted "Sankara is coming" as a staple phrase of the movement, I bet that would haunt ol' Compaore to his core.

[Palmares]

President Blaise Compaore is refusing to step down. As if the burning down of parliament wasn't a sign of at least this.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/sns-rt-us-burkina-politics-20141007-story.html

[Hrafn]

"I would like to leave behind me the conviction that if we maintain a certain amount of caution and organization we deserve victory[....] You cannot carry out fundamental change without a certain amount of madness. In this case, it comes from nonconformity, the courage to turn your back on the old formulas, the courage to invent the future. It took the madmen of yesterday for us to be able to act with extreme clarity today. I want to be one of those madmen. [...] We must dare to invent the future." - T. Sankara

[GiantMonkeyMan]

I think it's a bit premature to attach the spirit of Lankara to these protests in some ways. There seems to be a popular uprising against the President and the state of the living conditions etc that the army has taken advantage of to enact a coup.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/10/30/burkina-politics-military-idUSL5N0SP6AV20141030


Oct 30 (Reuters) - The head of Burkina Faso's armed forces announced on Thursday the dissolution of the national assembly and the creation of a national transitional government to last a maximum of 12 months, though he did not say who would lead it.

"A transitional body will be put in place in consultation with all parties. A return to the constitutional order is expected in no more than 12 months," General Honore Traore told a news conference after a day of violent protests in the capital. (Reporting by Mathieu Bonkougou in Ouagadougou and Bate Felix in Dakar; Editing by Daniel Flynn)

The army has fired live rounds at protesters occupying the parliament buildings to disperse them and other protesters are calling for a popular retired general, Kouame Lougue, to be installed as President. I'm not exactly going to cry over another dictator getting toppled but things could equally develop in more negative ways.

[Hrafn]

I think it's a bit premature to attach the spirit of Lankara to these protests in some ways. There seems to be a popular uprising against the President and the state of the living conditions etc that the army has taken advantage of to enact a coup.

I disagree. The Sankarist movement, which is of course only a pale reproduction of him, is a leading opposition group. There's also this Al Jazeera article.

http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2014/10/burkina-faso-thomas-sankara-africa-che-guevara-2014103017525682241.html

Here's some excerpts.


Many of the protesters say the history of the slain 1980s leader partly inspired them to rise against Blaise Compaore, who has been in power for 27 years and was trying, by a vote in parliament, for another five.

Though some see Sankara as an autocrat who came to office by the power of the gun, and who ignored basic human rights in pursuit of his ideals, in recent years he has been cited as a revolutionary inspiration not only in Burkina Faso but in other countries across Africa.

In the weeks before the current chaos, Al Jazeera spoke to people in the capital, Ouagadougou, and found many who predicted that Sankara’s memory, and Compaore's attempt to seek another five-year term, may soon spark an uprising.

[...]

But his policies, and his vision, are still cherished both by some locals who were around when he was in power and, significantly, by many young people who were born since his death.

[...]

Although there is less poverty now than back then, a growing number of Burkinabés had, in recent years, started to feel that Sankara's nationalisation policies may have made the perpetually arid nation a more prosperous and self-reliant place than it is today.

[...]

"When you wake up in the morning and you remember you are a Burkinabe, you automatically recall the person who thought up that local name and stamped it on us," Ishmael Kaboré, a 47-year-old lawyer in Ouagadougou, told Al Jazeera.

[...]

But many people spoken to by Al Jazeera believed things would be better today if he was still alive, and that sentiment is partly responsible for Thursday's events.

"Young people who were not alive during Sankara’s administration are beginning to look back more at that period because something is wrong in the country today," 23-year-old University of Ouagadougou student, Ibrahim Sanogo, said.

[Hrafn]

Blaise Compaore has reportedly stepped down.

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/africa/2014/10/burkina-faso-president-2014103113130587467.html
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-29851445

[Palmares]

Indeed it's true.

When he initially refused to resign, there were calls in the opposition to continue protesting. So they did. He only held out for one more day, if that.

[Ethics Gradient, Traitor For All Ages]

The uncritical praise of sankara is a little unsettling to read. In spite of some of his progressive policies he was still an authoritarian marxist-leninist who took power and then maintained it with armed goons, with all of the same features that manifest themselves under any other ml dictators; the banning of unions, other leftist groups, and of course the free press.

It's nice that Compaore is gone, but the military is still in charge. Garbage in, garbage out.

[Hrafn]

Yes, it's a bit uncomfortable.

Still, I hope that these protests can open up for a more active, non-singular political environment in the country.

[Ethics Gradient, Traitor For All Ages]

Unlikely, the protesters supposedly cheered upon hearing that he had been replaced with a general. The military ran the country under Sankara until they decided to replace him with Compaore. Now that they've used him up they will simply pick a new face, probably the general who just took power.

[Hrafn]

Still. A new unstable military leadership with no historical legitimacy, brought to power by a heavily violent protest movement, versus a three decades old, stagnant single-party rule.

[Ethics Gradient, Traitor For All Ages]

Compaore was from the military..just like Sankara. What chain has been broken exactly?

[Hrafn]

Ugh. You're impossible. Do you really love the status quo that much?

[Ethics Gradient, Traitor For All Ages]

Its been the same party rule from sankara until today: The Military. I'm not trying to burst your bubble, but the only thing that has happened is that some buildings were burned down. I love a good riot and everything, but you're looking for something that's not here. If the protests continue and spread that will be a good thing, but it looks like they won't.

[Hrafn]

There is no bubble to burst. No one is more pessimistic than me, don't even try. I said I hope, not that I think it will. It seems to me like you're awfully fond of Compaore, though.

[Ethics Gradient, Traitor For All Ages]

What gives you that impression?

[Illegalitarian]

Comparing him to Sankara and waxing on about his "rampant authoritarianism" and the fact that he "banned unions and the free press" (someone doesn't know that the most powerful unions in the country and the media had strong links to the French government, who in the end were responsible for ousting him) or that he used "goons" (Sankara was quick to recognize the excesses of the revolutionary guards and curbed their role greatly) probably doesn't help to give an impression that you're not fond of him, or at least indifferent.

[Ethics Gradient, Traitor For All Ages]

One military dictator is as 'revolutionary' as another. Do you guys feel optimistic about sisi as well?

[Hrafn]

What gives you that impression?

Everything. You're quite blatantly against militant protests against various regimes.

[Illegalitarian]

Military involvement of any kind if authoritarian and terrible context be dammed? :unsure:

[Ethics Gradient, Traitor For All Ages]

Everything. You're quite blatantly against militant protests against various regimes.

I said that if they continued and spread that it would be good?

[Ethics Gradient, Traitor For All Ages]

Military involvement of any kind if authoritarian and terrible context be dammed? :unsure:

I don't think the military is a satisfactory substitute for a revolutionary movement

[Illegalitarian]

I don't either, I just think it's pretty narrow minded to dismiss Sankara on the basis that he was a "military dictator" rather than looking at the picture as it is. Or rather, as it was


In the end he did a lot more good than bad, and though his model isn't one desirable for the whole world it did a lot to lift a lot of people out of the abject poverty and oppression they were in.

[Ethics Gradient, Traitor For All Ages]

So did Mao's policies and Stalin's and Roosevelt's, pulling people out of poverty is not in itself a revolutionary act. The military is its own context, and it's not revolutionary

[Illegalitarian]

It's also not an act worth berating though

[Ethics Gradient, Traitor For All Ages]

Where did I berate those policies? I even explicitly pointed them out in my first post.

[Palmares]

A military Colonel is now the head of state, backed by the military of course. Whilst Compaore has fled to Ivory Coast.

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/africa/2014/11/deposed-burkina-faso-president-ivory-coast-20141111231323345.html

[Ismail]

According to Al Jazeera:

Burkina Faso's opposition parties and the African Union have rejected the army's seizure of power in the West African country after the resignation of President Blaise Compaore. A coalition of opposition parties and civil society groups met late on Saturday and issued a statement in which they described the army takeover a confiscation of people's victory.

"The victory of the popular uprising - and consequently the management of the transition - belongs to the people and should not in any way be confiscated by the army," the coalition of opposition parties and civil society groups said in the statement.

"Our consultation reaffirmed that this transition should be democratic and civilian in character," it said, announcing a demonstration in the vast Place de la Nation for Sunday morning.Obviously Sankara didn't have a consistent ideology but he was certainly one of Africa's best leaders, which is why the workers and students in the country invoke his name and why the bourgeois opposition parties are forced to do the same. One thing of slight interest is that his country was the only one besides Vietnam, Laos and Kampuchea which had a period of national mourning following Hoxha's death in 1985. Also a pro-Albanian guy was in his cabinet.

[Decolonize The Left]

The uncritical praise of sankara is a little unsettling to read. In spite of some of his progressive policies he was still an authoritarian marxist-leninist who took power and then maintained it with armed goons, with all of the same features that manifest themselves under any other ml dictators; the banning of unions, other leftist groups, and of course the free press.

It's nice that Compaore is gone, but the military is still in charge. Garbage in, garbage out.

While I agree with you here in general, in particular it would be hard to claim that this is a neutral or regressive action. We witnessed militant activity on the part of a large group of people against an authoritarian state. That is a progressive action and one which ought not be written off entirely despite the realities of political power and change of hands.

[Palmares]

Burkina Faso declares Michel Kafando interim president:

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-30076907

[Ethics Gradient, Traitor For All Ages]

While I agree with you here in general, in particular it would be hard to claim that this is a neutral or regressive action. We witnessed militant activity on the part of a large group of people against an authoritarian state. That is a progressive action and one which ought not be written off entirely despite the realities of political power and change of hands.



Im not sure why my comments are confusing people as to how i felt about the protests. I was as excited as anyone else to see parliament burn, my critism was aimed squarely at people wearing rose tinted glasses regarding Sankara. Just for the record going forward, I can't think of a situation where I would oppose a government building getting burned down anywhere on the plant.

[Palmares]

Burkina Faso's Lt Col Isaac Zida named prime minister

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-30113675