2023-07-31 19:06:01
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This is a statement from the Labor Action Unit (UAS) on the national news.
The national situation in recent weeks has been marked by the following major facts: the introduction of new taxes, the continuation of the kidnappings of citizens and the manu militari subtraction of the “Komsilga healer” from legal proceedings.
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About the new taxes
On July 20, 2023, three new taxes came into force, namely 5% on telephones, 10% for private television subscriptions and 1% on land transfers. These taxes have complicated the lives of citizens, especially since they arise following the introduction, in February 2023, of other taxes applied to drinks, cigarettes, cosmetics and perfumery products. Before that, the price of fuel had experienced an unprecedented increase of 100F.
Since then, the market has been marked by continuous increases in the prices of the various products. Unquestionably, life has become much more expensive, plunging citizens into disarray. Only the difficult security situation explains the understanding attitude of the citizens. But the government must not abuse the situation, especially since the measures affect consumers almost exclusively and spare those who hold the capital or the great means.
It should be recalled in this regard that the Union Action Unit (UAS), with regard to the deduction of 1% of workers’ wages for the contribution to the patriotic support fund, had recommended that the government look at the side of the many niches likely to provide significant resources to the state.
It is in this case the remains to be recovered estimated at hundreds of billions, numerous cases of embezzlement and looting of resources and public property also estimated at several hundreds of billions of CFA francs. We observe that instead of going in this direction, the government continues to go after the meager resources of the poor populations whose purchasing power has deteriorated very sharply.
At the same time, we note that the revision of the mining code carried out by the government, rather than aiming to increase the share of the State in the capital of mining companies, consisted simply of tapping the mining fund for local development to finance the patriotic fund.
Finally, we observe that the duty to control prices no longer seems to be on the agenda, something that leaves consumers at the mercy of speculators of all kinds.
About citizen abductions
One of the latest cases is that of Issouf NIKIEMA, former deputy mayor of Komsilga, kidnapped at midday in the streets of Ouagadougou on July 21, 2023. According to the person concerned, who was released after 72 hours of detention, his captors suspected of being involved in a plot to overthrow power! Instead of a regular summons, hooded individuals in an unregistered vehicle blocked his vehicle and proceeded to kidnap him.
Before that, kidnappings of citizens were carried out in Ouahigouya, in Bobo-Dioulasso (a student and an imam) to which must be added forced recruitment and extrajudicial executions. This practice of kidnappings and extrajudicial executions is unacceptable especially on the part of a power which restored the constitution and which was invested by the Constitutional Council.
About the manu militari removal of the “Komsilga healer” from legal proceedings
The UAS is closely following the surreal developments of the incredible case of the “healer of Komsilga” relating to cases of torture, in particular on a fifty-year-old man. In this case, 9 people implicated, including the traditional healer named Amsétou NIKIEMA from the commune of Komsilga were arrested and brought before the Prosecutor of Faso at the Ouaga II High Court. The latter issued warrants of committal against them in the afternoon of July 28, 2023.
Prior to their transfer to the Ouagadougou House of Arrest and Correction (MACO), a group of heavily armed and hooded soldiers surrounded the premises of the High Court (TGI) Ouaga II with the aim of freeing the “healer of Komsilga”! At the end of a long night of resistance and vigil of the actors of justice and the prison security guard in the face of intimidation and pressure from the military and the Minister of Justice Edasso Rodrigue Bayala, the “healer of Komsilga” was handed over to the military.
As indicated by the Attorney General at the Ouagadougou Court of Appeal, Mr. Laurent PODA in a press release dated July 29, 2023: “In the same night, around 4 a.m., the named NIKIEMA Amsétou was taken from the van, on instructions from the Director General of the Prison Administration [M. Eloi GUIGMA] and handed over to soldiers allegedly members of the National Intelligence Agency. The director of the prison administration arrested, indicates that he acted on the orders of the Minister of Justice”.
The storming of the premises of a judicial institution by the military, the pressure and the interference of the Executive in legal affairs are extremely serious and unacceptable facts in a State in normal times, even less in the current context of the Burkina Faso. While these facts related by the Intersyndicale des magistrats du Burkina and the Attorney General at the Court of Appeal of Ouagadougou are “established in their materiality and unquestionable in their veracity”, according to the latter, the Government, through its door -spoke, Rimtalba Jean Emmanuel OUEDRAOGO, evokes “misunderstandings and misunderstandings” and announces “inclinations of manipulation and recovery”!
From all the above, the UAS, faithful to its mission of defending the material and moral interests of workers and of citizen watch:
– invites the government to review its resource mobilization policy to give priority to recovering what is owed to the State and saving the purses of poor citizens;
– demands from the government that the substantial means be made available to the competent structures to ensure control of the prices and quality of products on the market;
– challenges the government and the MPSR 2 on the issue of kidnappings and extrajudicial executions of citizens in order to elucidate the case of these illegal structures (which resemble death squads) and to proceed with their dissolution;
– challenges the transitional government on the imperative need to respect the separation of powers;
– congratulates and encourages all the actors of the TGI Ouaga II who have accomplished their work in a professional manner in the case of the “healer of Komsilga”;
– lends its support to the actors of Justice who have called for a suspension of activities until the reinstatement of the lady removed from Justice;
– vehemently condemns the intrusion of the military into the premises of the TGI Ouaga II, the government’s interference in the judiciary, undermining the independence of justice;
– demands the immediate reinstatement of the “Komsilga healer” at MACO and sanctions against the authors and sponsors of this heinous act worthy of the package;
– calls on its activists and sympathizers, the democrats, to contribute to citizen monitoring and to get involved in the fight against all abuses that call into question the well-being and safety of citizens.
Ouagadougou, July 31, 2023
For Secretaries General:
Have signed :
The monthly President of the trade union centres, Ernest OUEDRAOGO, Secretary General/USTB
The President of the Month of the Autonomous Trade Unions, Alain SOME, Secretary General/SYNTRAPOST
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