Talk:Blaise Compaoré

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I was in Burkina Faso during the revolution. Please excuse my limited English !

About lasts edits : Compaoré didn't increase freedom of press he gave the country a real Freedom of press in the law. Formally Burkina Faso enjoy a real freedom of press, and IMO by judging what I could read of the Burkinabé papers on the net (and they are many Burkinabé papers online) this also a fact that Burkinabé papers use this Freedom. This is also a fact that Compaoré continued intimidation of the media.

Why was the national reconciliation not supported by the opposition ?

Because Sankara was really a charismatic leader, the kind of guy that appears obviously sincere even to many people who didn't share most of his political analysis. He had also great sense of media with a great sense of humour. And in many way the most rock'n roll political leader I've ever heard of he liked playing the guitar and driving fast motorcycles. He was also full of contradictions : a Marxist that love Western movies and believe in Jesus, a admirer of French culture and a opponent of French imperialism in Africa, a commando trained soldier and a war hero that was a pacifist in heart and also a strange mix of macho and feminist...

Sankara made a lot of mistakes but had also great successes, among them he managed to reduce corruption near zero with only a very moderate repression. His economic policy was efficient and he was praised by the World Bank while increasing social wellfare.

In comparison Compaoré appear as an habile politician seeking personal power.

I don't no if it's true but some people report that Sankara told "Blaise will kill me one of these day". During the revolution Compaoré had many strange (if not disastrous) initiatives as a minister of Justice puting the blame on Sankara. Nobody would seriously believe that Sankara wasn't executed. The assasination of Norbert Zongo and the execution of Linguani and (Henri) Zongo adds to his dark side.

However IMO the political works of Compaoré isn't evil : today Burkina isn't very far from European standards in terms of democracy and public finance management is among the best in Africa.

IMO Compaoré is clever and competent. He is the kind of guy that loves power and does exactly what he has to do to stay President. He's a probably cynical guy. But he isn't Stalin at all, he use Realpolitik and fear/repression with moderation, his policy is enough efficient and democratic not to feed the opposition. Anyway I don't think that there's many people that really love Compaoré. Who can love a guy that killed his friends ? Ericd 22:40, 2 Dec 2004 (UTC)

[edit] compaore

i was in burkina faso from 1997-98. Compaore is reviled there. He is not at all well liked. There was a climate of fear in Burkina Faso when I was there, especially after the death of Norbert Zongo. Anyone who knows the facts of the Zongo case and doesn't see any Compaore involvement is lying to themselves. Compaore's elections aren't real. The opposition boycotts because they know the elections are fixed. And the Zongo case illustrates that there is no real freedom of the press in Burkina.

Don't believe that I support Compaoré. I IMO the man is a serial killer. It's obvious that he's involved in the death of Norbert Zongo. Of course he's reviled while Sankara was loved. However there's a real evolution in the country. I read the Burkinabé press online sometimes and there's a freedom that was unkown at the time of Sankara. The same paradox was found in Algeria a few years ago there were journalist assasinations each month but the Algerian press was more diverse than in any other Arab country. Ericd 09:07, 13 Apr 2005 (UTC)