Commemorating the 22nd anniversary of the assassination of Captain Sankara in the Burkinabe capital, Ouagadougou, they gathered at the Daghnoen cemetery, a district in Ouagadougou, around the tombs of their idol and his companions who were assassinated on 15 October, 1987 during a coup.
"The Sankarists" parties and their members slammed "the hypocrisy of the international facilitator President Blaise Compaore, who thinks he can use diplomacy to make people forget all the pain he inflicted on his people".
The chairman of the organising committee of the event, Malick Yamba Sawadogo, said: "This despicable and horrible assassination that can be qualified as villainous, savage, shameful and degrading for the human race, has convinced one that the international reaction will never willingly allow our states to be free and worthy."
He particularly accused France and Ivory Coast for "allegedly being involved in President Sankara's asassination".
"Renaissance and hope" is the theme the Sankarist parties chose to commemorate the 22nd anniversary of his death.
On 15 October every year, since the assassination of Captain Sankara, a charismatic leader who launched the revolution in Burkina Faso between 4 August, 1983 and 15 October 1987, his supporters gather at the cemetery where he was buried with 12 of his close companions.
They sing the national anthem, lay wreaths on the thirteen tombs and make speeches in which they recall the works of the former President and demand that justice be served for him and his companions.
"He (Compaore) is wandering in Ivory Coast, Togo, Guinea to help solve crises, while forgetting that his own country is plagued by a crisis," declared Mr. Benewende Stanislas Sankara, Chairman of the Union for the Renaissance/Sankarist parties, a group of political parties defending Captain Sankara's ideals, who also is the leader of the opposition in Burkina Faso.
Mariam Sankara, who lives in France with their two two sons, sent a message in which she said that the ideals for which her husband fought still arouse hope for a better world.
"The world events, the manifestations of sympathy and friendship particularly during the 20th anniversary of his assassination, prove that his message has been heard by African youth and other young people from around the world," she added.
Captain Sankara seized power from Major Jean-Baptiste Lingani in the then Upper Volta on 4 August, 1983. With other comrades-in-arms, including Captain Blaise Compaore, who was Minister of Justice, they launched a "revolution".
It was also under his rule that the country's name was changed from Haute-Volta (Upper Volta) to Burkina Faso on 11 August 1984.
Captain Sankara tremendously influenced Burkinabes, thanks to his eloquence and simplicity. His supporters said at his death he only owned a house affordable by any ordinary Burkinabe.
They hail his cutting down of government expenditure, building affordable houses for civil servants, as some of his achievements.
He firmly opposed capitalism and rejected the idea that African countries should pay off their debts.
In 1985, at the 37th session of the United Nations General Assembly, he said: "Those who lent us money, are those who colonised us. They are the very people who managed our economies. We are not responsible for the debt which is an intelligently orchestrated way to conquer Africa. If we do not pay off (the debt), our backers will not die."
Despite his huge popularity, he was assassinated along with 12 of his closest collaborators on 15 October, 1987 in a coup which was led Captain Blaise Compaore.
Ouagadougou - 16/10/2009
Pana
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