UN Approves Legal Inquiry into Burkina Faso Presidential Assassination

This month marks the twentieth anniversary of the death of
Thomas Sankara, the revolutionary and former President of Burkina Faso
who was assassinated in 1987.

Sankara was known as the Che of Africa. He gave Burkina Faso its
name – changing it from Upper Volta – and personally wrote the
country's national anthem. He was popular for not living extravagantly;
he traded in the government's fleet of Mercedes for Renaults and rode
his bike to work. He also stood up to Western Imperialism, countering
the World Bank and IMF.

Circumstances surrounding Sankara's death remain a mystery, however
recently the UN Human Rights Commission ruled in favor of an
international legal inquiry into the assassination, as presented by an
internal legal team coordinated in Canada.

FSRN's Stefan Christoff reports from Montreal.