BURKINA FASO: Unrest closes campuses indefinitely

Universities in Burkina Faso have ground to a halt following more than two months of unrest, which was sparked by the death of a school pupil and snowballed into campus and civilian protests - during which six students are reported to have died - and an army mutiny. All campuses have been closed.

Students have demanded an immediate enquiry into the killing of their colleagues and of the school pupil Justin Zongo. Protests at campuses across the country prompted other groups - soldiers, lawyers, traders and artisans - to take to the streets.

Some soldiers embarked on violent demonstrations and attacked law courts. This infuriated lawyers, including law professors, who were already angry about a violent clampdown on student protests by the security forces. Concerned about popular uprisings like those that have swept Arab countries, the government ordered all campuses to be shut until further notice.

It was an incident at a secondary school in the sleepy town of Koudougou, 80 kilometres south of the capital Ouagadougou, that prompted segments of Burkina Faso society to blow off their pent-up anger against the state.

On 22 February, pupils at the private school le Guesta Kobore were told that a fellow pupil Justin Zongo had died of meningitis while in a police cell. He had been buried immediately.

But pupils did not believe the police. "We decided to go on a peaceful demonstration to show our anger over the death of Justin Zongo. He was simply beaten to death by the police," claimed classmate Rihanata Semde.

To calm frayed nerves, central region Governor Seydou Sanou promised to immediately set up an independent commission of enquiry into the pupil's death.

But this failed to satisfy students, who were also unhappy with living and study conditions on campuses and cashed in on the volatile situation to stage demonstrations in Ouagadougou, Koudougou and Bobo-Dioulasso.

Initially peaceful, the protests lasted for months and later turned violent, with the intervention of police on campuses. Several students were injured, and local media reported that six students had been killed. Police neither confirmed nor denied the killings.

At the burial ceremony of Assad Ouedrago, one of the students killed during a protest in Koudougou, student leaders pledged to intensify the struggle and to flush out Zongo's killers.

To try and contain student anger, Burkina Faso's President Blaise Compaore called for talks between Minister of Higher Education Joseph Pare, Interior Minister Jerome Bougouma and leaders of the student unions UNEF, UBEB and ANEB.

But the talks broke down because the students insisted that they would not resume class until the perpetrators of student deaths had been apprehended and punished. "We shall continue our campaign for justice", Mahamadi Fayama, President of ANEB, told reporters.

According to reliable sources, the hard-line position of the student leaders was grounded on belief that other segments of society would join them in a struggle against Compaore, who has been in power since a coup in 1987. Earlier this month he dissolved his cabinet and appointed himself defense minister.

"About 20 years ago, Blaise Compaore engineered the death of our national hero, Thomas Sankara. Since then he has been ruling the country. It is time for him to go", said one student leader who pleaded anonymity.

Leaders of the female wing of the country's major trade unions issued a communiqué in support of student demands for an enquiry into the deaths of their colleagues. They also urged Compaore to unconditionally release arrested students and to reopen universities.

"We as mothers of students cannot fold our arms while their future is at stake," said Angele Nacoulma, coordinator of KEBAYINA, an association for the defence of women's rights.

Amid the growing unrest, a section of the military embarked on demonstrations and made two demands: first, implementation of an enhanced salary scale whereby all soldiers would earn the same as those in the presidential guard; and second, the immediate release of five soldiers tried and jailed for molesting civilians.

The soldiers looted the stores of traders and artisans. In retaliation, the traders burned down a section of the ruling party's headquarters. Soldiers also damaged part of the court of justice in Ouagadougou. This angered lawyers, who had earlier condemned the repression of student protests by security forces.

Since the protests had started in universities and they had become centres for planning street protests, the government ordered all campuses closed. No new date has been announced for the resumption of studies.