Compensation for victims of violence and rights abuses

Burkina Faso has allocated US $7.75 million to compensate families and victims of "political violence and rights abuses" and promote national reconciliation, officials told a news conference on Monday. Some families have however rejected compensation.

A government- appointed council identified in 1999 some 102 victims of political killings. Their graves could not be traced. Another 150 people were found to have been victims of plunder, military vandalism or unjust administrative sanctions.

The council recommended an annual remembrance day following unprecedented political unrest that erupted after the murder of journalist Norbert Zongo in December 1998. Zongo had been investigating the death in military custody of a driver to the president's younger brother. Investigations into his murder have stalled despite the indictment of a former head of presidential security.

"There is a price to pay for peace because without peace there cannot be development", Freeman Compaore, vice- president of the Managing Committee of the Compensation Fund for Persons and Victims of Political Violence, said in a press statement.

The families who have rejected compensation include that of former president Thomas Sankara, who ruled between 1983-87 but was murdered in a take-over by current president Blaise Campaore, that of Norbert Zongo and of Nezin Badembie, an army colonel killed during Sankara's 1983 military take-over. They have also refused to meet officials of the compensation fund, although the government apologised to them in 2001 and officials of the fund made direct appeals to them.

"We know that there are psychological wounds and other suffering but we must work together to reconcile all these people and move towards peace", Freeman Compaore said.

Burkina Faso has experienced five coups including Compaore's bloody takeover in 1987, in which hundreds of people were killed.

President Compaore set up the fund in 2001 during the annual 30 March day of remembrance, human rights and promotion of democracy. He also sought pardon for torture and other crimes committed by the West African state.