« Blaise Compaore asks for forgiveness »

Following his sentence in absentia to life imprisonment for the assassination of Thomas Sankara, former President Blaise Compaore sent a message to the Burkinabe people in which he asks forgiveness from the family of Thomas Sankara but also from all the victims during his tenure as head of state.

“I apologize to the people of Burkina Faso for all the acts that I may have committed during my magisterium and more particularly to the family of my brother and friend Thomas Sankara”

“I assume and deplore from the bottom of my heart all the suffering and drama experienced by all the victims during my mandates at the head of the country and ask their families to grant me their forgiveness”. The task of reading this message from the former President addressed to the Burkinabe people and specifically to the Sankara family fell to the Burkinabe government spokesman Lionel Bilgo.

It is a message that has aroused many reactions and criticisms because two weeks before, the former President of the Burkinabe Republic in exile in Côte d’Ivoire for years made a brief visit to his country without being arrested. This visit was made at the request of the current transitional President who came to power during a coup in January, with the aim of sealing national reconciliation.

Expressing his deep gratitude to the transitional authorities, Blaise Compaore invited the Burkinabe people to “a sacred union, to tolerance, to restraint, but above all to forgiveness so that the higher interest of the Nation prevails”.

His physical condition also aroused emotion because he appeared emaciated during his short visit.

If the current Burkinabe head of state seems to favor the path of forgiveness and reconciliation, can the same be said of the people and the Sankara family?

Indeed, his recent visit has created a wave of criticism within civil society and the political class, opinions being necessarily mixed on the approach to adopt in the face of this new situation.

As for the Sankara family, it has not yet spoken.

Reconciliation is not synonymous with impunity, the opinion of those concerned should therefore be made known soon