Burkina Faso will ask
Morocco to extradite ousted leader Blaise Compaore, interim Prime
Minister Isaac Zida told reporters on Thursday after the new
government's first meeting.
"We will ask Morocco to place
president Compaore at the disposal of Burkinabe justice", Zida said
during a meeting with journalists in Burkina's capital, Ouagadougou.
Compaore
fled Burkina Faso on 31 October after being ousted in a popular revolt
sparked by his bid to extend his 27-year hold on power. He first took refuge in neighbouring Ivory Coast before heading to Morocco on 20 November.
The
military seized power after he fled, but faced with intense
international pressure eventually agreed to hand power to an interim
government which will lead the West African country until elections in
November 2015.
Zida, who led the military takeover and has since
been named prime minister, vowed to root out widespread corruption after
lawmakers met for the first time on Thursday.
Companies suspected
of corruption will face audits and "if necessary we will nationalise
[them], because what was built with the money of the people must return
to the people", he said.
The military strongman also pledged to
reopen the case of popular former president Thomas Sankara, who ruled
between 1983 and 1987 before being assassinated in a coup led by
Compaore. Zida vowed that "justice will be done" in the case of
the former president, who was a widely loved Marxist and pan-Africanist
leader considered by many as the "African Che Guevara".
Interim
president Michel Kafando has said DNA tests will be carried out to
verify that the body buried at Sankara's funeral is really his. An
investigation will also be opened into the death of journalist Norbert
Zongo in 1998 while he was investigating the death of a driver working
for Compaore's brother, said Zida.
The
first session of Burkina Faso's new 90-member interim parliament was
held in a hotel, after the national parliament was torched during the
violent anti-Compaore protests. It includes 30 members from the
opposition, 25 representatives from civil society groups and 10 members
from Compaore's camp. The other 25 seats are held by the military.
One immediate decision by the new authority was to sack the former chief of state and Compaore loyalist, Gilbert Diendere.
Speaking
ahead of a meeting of French-speaking regional powers in Senegal, the
president of former colonial power France, Francois Hollande, said
Compaore's ouster should serve as a lesson to African leaders. Some
625 people are thought to have died during the two days of violent
protests that saw demonstrator’s storm parliament and other buildings,
ransacking offices and setting fire to cars.
In a wide-ranging
interview with French media, Hollande said the popular revolt which
ended the president's almost three decades of rule was "a sign that
Africans are committed to democracy and constitutional order".
"I
think this could serve as a lesson, to many heads of state, and not only
in Africa, not to change the constitutional order out of personal
interest", said Hollande.
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