Word: sankara
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast--A group led by President Thomas Sankara's chief adviser declared him a "a traitor to the revolution" yesterday and seized the government, the West African nation's official radio announced...
...Sankara, an army captain, overthrew Jean-Baptiste Ouedraogo on Aug. 4, 1983, with the help of Capt. Blaise Compaore, who led the coup yesterday...
Burkina Faso's Sankara has also inherited a country in economic torpor, and one that because of a chronic drought has actually become poorer since he took over in a coup in August 1983. Sankara has cut civil servants' wages and raised taxes. One problem is that his regime's inflammatory rhetoric keeps bubbling to the surface, making some countries hesitant to offer economic aid. Last month, for example, a government-run newspaper compared President Reagan to Hitler, prompting the U.S. to cut back its commitment to two development projects in forestry and agriculture. France, which in 1984 contributed...
Despite his problems, Sankara is widely admired at home, in part because he has reformed the country's judicial system by introducing what he calls "people's courts." Says a Western diplomat in Ouagadougou: "He means it when he says he is for social justice for all." Sankara believes his goal of "two meals a day and safe drinking water" for all of Burkina Faso's people can be achieved. The main hope for economic development lies in the exploitation of natural resources, which include gold, copper and diamonds. One instance of Sankara's example-setting parsimony: when the electrical...
Inevitably, Rawlings and Sankara have acquired enemies. At the end of last year, Sankara antagonized Burkina Faso's landlords, many of whom are military officers, when he decided to aid the poor by decreeing a yearlong moratorium on the payment of rent. Rawlings has also been criticized, particularly by expatriate Ghanaians who have demanded free elections and a return to , civilian government. Nonetheless, Frances Ademola, who owns an art gallery in Accra, speaks for most middle-class Ghanaians when she says, "We have learned to love Jerry Rawlings. What we fear most is that he will be assassinated...