Couvre-feu
on Wonderous Wanderland (Burkina Faso), 17/Apr/2011 12:18, 34 days ago
It was already the fifth night since our arrival that the government announced an official curfew, this time starting at 7pm till 6am. It is a very strange experience living in a city of 1.2 million inhabitants and hearing absolutely no traffic - with exception of a single motorcycle or car hurriedly passing by now and again. Even more, you can actually hear dogs bark in the distance, the sound of a cockerel who’s got the time mixed up, and faint voices and music here and there coming from radio’s and televisions hidden behind closed curtains. If we didn’t know better, it would be very easy to imagine we’re in a small village, instead of the country’s capital city. Let me make one thing very clear: at the moment there’s no immediate danger - not at all (!) - and VSO is constantly on the look-out, keeping an even stricter safety policy than the one officially imposed, as a result of which we already had a few days of house arrest too. Nothing has changed dramatically, apart from the fact that the European mediahave picked up on it now (and most of them are NOT checking their sources properly!!).Having said this, something is definitely moving in Burkina. Besides the mutiny of the military and the presidential guard, there have been student protests - which have intensified since the suspicious death of a student after a police interrogation at the end of february - there have been strikes, protest marches against rising food prices, etc. After 24 years of being in power, the president - Blaise Compaore - seems to lose his grip a bit. Then again, he obviously hasn’t been a very ‘good parent’ lately either. His response up until now has been relatively weak and pragmatic. E.g. the night of March 22nd. Some soldiers go on a rampage because they don’t agree with the imprisonment of some of their colleagues, accused of attacking a civilian and of rape ofa minor. Result: their colleagues got released and no real punishments for the shooting and destruction of civilian property that night. Just a speech on national television saying....nothing really, except some apologies to the population in general, and the affected families in particular, and anencouragement to stay strong (?). (Apparently the culprits have been arrested again later, once order was restored, also to appease the magistrates who went on a strike after that night.)What happens when a child goes into a tantrum‘cause it wants something and you just comply? Right! Next time it’s not happy and wants something it uses the same strategy that seemed to have worked before. Moreover, its siblings who have witnessed all this might wanna try these same tactics as well (any parent knows this, right?!). So next,the presidential guard decides they finally - and understandably - do want to get their wages paid. Now, a ‘normal’ response - at least in my opinion - would be a strike, refusing to go to work. Not here! Following the example of ‘their colleagues’ they use their weapons - heavy ones too -to attack and loot shops all over the city again and this time also attacking the presidential palace, making the president even flee the city for a few hours. Result: they get their money, the government is dismissed, and the army chef replaced. Again no one gets punished!By now the general public really had enough. Their shops have been looted a few times, broken windows, forced gates, stolen cars, etc. So in turn they show their anger by attacking the head office of the president’s political party - setting it on fire - as well as the parliament building, and other buildings, vehicles, etc. The masses get out on the street everywhere in the town centre. Result: the president sends in his presidential guard (!) - who seems satisfied again - to restore order. It almost seems a very bad comedy, only that this isn’t a joke.Just a few examples to show that something indeed is changing here and that there is some underlying tension slowly moving to the surface, spurred on by the rising prices of food, fuel, electricity, etc. since the problems in Ivory Coast have escalated. Also, the confrontation with the constant news reports on people standing up against their regimes in other African countries seems to open the way to a mentality change here too....maybe. Nobody knows what will happen next. Everybody wants it to stop but a much repeated line when you talk to the locals here is:“it is time for the president to go.”