How Burkina Faso's Blaise Compaore sparked his own downfall
November 1, 2014
Blaise Compaore sparked public anger after he tried to extend his 27-year rule[/caption]
There was just one more year to go before change could finally come, through the next presidential election.
After 27 years of Blaise Compaore, the people of Burkina Faso were set to wait patiently until November 2015. But Mr Compaore’s attempt to force a constitutional change sparked near unanimous outrage. “It’s as if he was disconnected from reality or not acknowledging what was going on,” Rinaldo Depagne, director of ICG’s West Africa programme, said. “With nearly a million people in the streets [in a country of 17 million], any sensible politician would have withdrawn their proposed bill.” But he didn’t. Country on edge Frustration and anger had been growing over the past few years in Burkina Faso and there had been multiple warnings that the society was on the edge of a social-political crisis. Violent protests erupted in 2011 throughout the country. First out were the students, following the death of one of their number in police custody. Shopkeepers, traders, magistrates, lawyers, peasants and finally the rank-and-file soldiers followed. But they didn’t form a mass movement and this is what “saved Blaise Compaore”, according to Mr Depagne, who lived in Burkina Faso for a number of years. [caption id="attachment_13610" align="alignright" width="624"]

Mr Compaore was close to former Libyan leader Colonel Gaddafi[/caption] Hours before Mr Compaore resigned, a letter he had received earlier this month from French President Francois Hollande – who has now welcomed his resignation – emerged in the media to reveal that France was ready to support him in finding a job within the international community at the end of his mandate, if he withdrew his proposed bill on presidential term limits. But this wasn’t enough. And there was one particular scene during this popular unrest earlier in the week that could have had Mr Compaore worried. Angered youth took down a statue of him in Bobo Dioulasso, the country’s second largest city. Quite symbolically, the statue was erected in the mid-1990s next to that of Col Gaddafi, who had just visited the country. Even though that signal was probably the strongest yet, Mr Compaore still thought he could get his bill passed in parliament two days later. Instead, he precipitated his own downfall. *Source BBC]]>
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Compaore is a traitor to his country, his people, and the Continent and MUST be brought to trial instead of fleeing with a fortune from the treasury and a Chateau in France.