| UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA - AFRICAN STUDIES CENTER |
ABIDJAN, 10 May (IRIN) - Students staged protests in Ouagadougou on Monday following the publication of a report naming members of the presidential guard as suspects in the December murder of an independent journalist, media sources told IRIN.
The protesters, who were prevented by police and gendarmes from reaching the city centre, called for the arrest of the suspects, one source said.
He added that the Burkinabe cabinet of ministers began meeting on Monday to discuss the report, produced by an independent commission, which also called on the authorities to conduct an investigation into all unexplained disappearances and murders in the country.
The 11-member commission was set up to look into the death of independent journalist Norbert Zongo, found dead in his car along with three other men on 13 December 1998. It issued its final report on Friday.
The commission found that Zongo "was murdered for purely political reasons because he was committed to the practice of investigative journalism and had committed himself and his newspaper to fighting for the respect of human rights and justice and against mismanagement of the public good and impunity".
It linked his death to the investigations he had carried out and "in particular, his recent investigation of the death of David Ouedraogo, the chauffeur of Francois Compaore, adviser to the presidency".
At the time of his demise, Zongo had been following up the death of Ouedraogo, who reportedly died after being questioned by presidential guards in connection with the theft of a large sum of money from Compaore, the brother of the Burkinabe president.
The commission said it had no conclusive evidence on Zongo's killers but that it had noted contradictions and discrepancies in the testimonies of six presidential guards it had questioned. "That does not mean they are guilty but makes them serious suspects," it said.
It also recommended that the state take care of the immediate families of the four men and that "laws governing the police be rigorously applied so that a distinction can be made between military and police duties".
The presidential guard should be limited to protecting the president, added the commission, made up of three representatives of the government, one each from the local bar and the Association des Journalistes du Burkina, three human rights campaigners, a publisher, an academic and a member of Reporters sans Frontieres.
Ouagadougou students, who were able to read extracts of the document in local newspapers over the weekend, attempted to demonstrate in central Ouagadougou on Monday. Police and gendarmes prevented them from reaching the city centre, but in other parts of the capital, students placed burning tyres and other barricades on roads, and even set fire to traffic lights, the media source told IRIN.
The authorities reacted by closing schools in the capital and instructing students to return home.
The source said he was not sure how many people were arrested but that he saw at least a dozen protesters being driven through a capital street in a police vehicle.
[ENDS]
Date: Mon, 10 May 1999 17:15:45 +0000 (GMT) From: UN IRIN - West Africa <irin-wa@wa.ocha.unon.org> Subject: BURKINA FASO:Protests follow report on journalist's death [19990510]
Editor: Ali B. Ali-Dinar
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