Committee for the Abolition of Illegitimate Debt

In April 2006, the UN Committee for Human Rights, spurred on by the Judiciary committee of the International Campaign for Justice for
Thomas Sankara (ICJS), working in the name of the family, concluded in favor of the plaintiffs. It further asked the state of Burkina Faso to elucidate the facts behind the assassination, in order to provide the family with a means for impartial justice, to correct his death certificate, to prove where he was buried, to compensate the family for the trauma they have suffered and to publicly divulge the committee’s decision.

On April 21, 2008, the UN Committee for Human Rights, in complete contradiction with the preceding decision closed the record without
an investigation having been carried out. Such a decision does no honor to this institution.

Certain members of the international community pretend to see in Blaise Compaoré a man of peace, even though he is notoriously implicated in
conflicts in Liberia and in Sierra Leone, in the arms’ traffic and the trafficking of diamonds for Jonas Sawimbi’s l’UNITA, then under UN embargo, and
more recently in the conflict that has torn apart the Ivory Coast.

This same international community asks us to cry over the, in fact, extremely rich continent, which is Africa, all the while working to perpetuate its submission. In reality the causes of Africa’s difficulties can be traced back to the international networks which initiate wars and assassinations in order to maintain their control over the continent’s resources — this, with the complicity of many western countries and certain African leaders.

More than 22 years after the assassination of Sankara, a historical personality, first rate african leader who is more and more seen as a reference for an honest, determined, creative and courageous leader; precursor of the fight for the preservation of the environment, the Burkina F. revolution has become a model for development. Sankara was assassinated because he denounced the odious debt Odious Debt According to the doctrine, for a debt to be odious it must meet two conditions:
1) It must have been contracted against the interests of the Nation, or against the interests of the People, or against the interests of the State.
2) Creditors cannot prove they they were unaware of how the borrowed money would be used.

We must underline that according to the doctrine of odious debt, the nature of the borrowing regime or government does not signify, since what matters is what the debt is used for. If a democratic government gets into debt against the interests of its population, the contracted debt can be called odious if it also meets the second condition. Consequently, contrary to a misleading version of the doctrine, odious debt is not only about dictatorial regimes.

(See Éric Toussaint, The Doctrine of Odious Debt : from Alexander Sack to the CADTM).

The father of the odious debt doctrine, Alexander Nahum Sack, clearly says that odious debts can be contracted by any regular government. Sack considers that a debt that is regularly incurred by a regular government can be branded as odious if the two above-mentioned conditions are met.
He adds, “once these two points are established, the burden of proof that the funds were used for the general or special needs of the State and were not of an odious character, would be upon the creditors.”

Sack defines a regular government as follows: “By a regular government is to be understood the supreme power that effectively exists within the limits of a given territory. Whether that government be monarchical (absolute or limited) or republican; whether it functions by “the grace of God” or “the will of the people”; whether it express “the will of the people” or not, of all the people or only of some; whether it be legally established or not, etc., none of that is relevant to the problem we are concerned with.”

So clearly for Sack, all regular governments, whether despotic or democratic, in one guise or another, can incur odious debts. and the diktat of the western
powers but also because he engaged in an independent policy, oriented toward the needs of his country, for the satisfaction of the
people of his country, while at the same time opening up to a pan-Africanism.

For these reasons we call for the support of the Judiciary Committee of the ICJS’s initiatives. For more than 12 years, the committee has relentlessly filed legal actions together with the Sankara family.

We demand that an independent investigation into Thomas Sankara’s assassination be carried out. It is the international community’s duty, the right of the Sankara family, and a necessity for the growth of the nation’s youth. Without such an investigation, with a history expunged of the true story concerning one of the major episodes of the 20^th century, the prospects of the continent cannot be fully realized.

We call the youth, the democratic parties, the social movements in Africa and beyond to continue to mobilize in order that the light be finally shed on this assassination. Justice needs to be done so that Africa can move towards an end to impunity.

FIRST SIGNATURES

Other organizations : CADTM, SURVIE, Coalition des Alternatives Africaines Dette et Développement (CAD-Mali), ATTAC Afrique, CEDETIM, AFASPA, CETIM, l’Etrange Rencontre, Mouvement des africains à Rome, Collectif Afrique de Lille, Casa della sinistra Thomas Sankara, Forum Sinistra Europea Genova, Associazione Culturale Punto Rosso Genova, Circolo ARCI Thomas Sankara, Fratelli Dell’Uomo ong, Association « Carlo Giuliani »

Parties : Italy : Partito della Rifondazione Comunista (Italie) ; Burkina : UNIR/PS, FFS, PAI ; France : NPA, Les Verts, PCF ; RND (Sénégal), Parti communiste du Québec,

Trade Unions : Solidaires (France), Syndicat National des Agents des Douanes du Niger SNAD (Niger )

People : Eric Toussaint , Jean Ziegler, Guy-Patrice Lumumba, Blandine Sankara, Firoze Manji (Pambazuka News), Robin Shuffield (cinéaste), Benéwendé Sankara, Fidel Toe, Nkodo Maurice, Abdoulaye Diallo (cinéaste), Moussa Demba Dembele, Camille de Vitry (documentariste), Antonio Lozano (écrivain), Jacques Jouet (écrivain), Alex Zanotelli (Missionario comboniano), Luigi Ciotti (Presidente di LIBERA), Haidi Gaggio Giuliani (Politica), Silvestro Montanaro (Giornalista, Documentarista), Roberto Silvestri (Giornalista), Sabina Guzzanti (Attrice-actrice), Luigi De Magistris (Europarlamentare, Presidente della Commissione per il controllo del bilancio comunitario), Carlo Bata (traduttore, scrittore), Davide Ferrario (regista), Renato Nicolini (Politico, drammaturgo), Roberto Faenza (Regista), Joël Vernet (écrivain)

contacts : contactjusticepoursankara (at) gmail.com

SIGN THE PETITION HERE !