In Senegal, around a hundred people gathered this Friday, June 21 to denounce the repression of press freedom and freedom of expression by the military junta in power in Burkina Faso. This solidarity demonstration was organized at the call of the Senegalese Coalition of Human Rights Defenders and the organization Amnesty International.
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With our correspondent in Dakar, Léa-Lisa Westerhoff
HAS Dakarthere are about a hundred of them chanting while raising their fists, white t-shirts with the inscription “human rights defenders in danger”, who came to express their solidarity with the Burkina Faso.
“ This is to say : Enough with the political detentions in Burkina Faso. This is to say enough with the gagging of opinions in Burkina Faso. It means liberating Guy-Hervé and other prisoners of conscience in the country. This is to say that the war against terrorism and insecurity must be carried out in complete transparency. “, explains Alfred Bulaka, regional director of Article19, an independent international human rights organization.
Return to the principles of a rule of law
A new newspaper, The event, was suspended Thursday and citizen arrests are increasing outside of any legal procedure. For Ousmane Diallo, Sahel researcher for Amnesty International, it is absolutely necessary to bring into play a form of pressure from African citizens. “ It is important that the Burkinabè, that the victims of this arbitrary detention (…) feel that in Dakar, in Bamako, in Conakry, in Niamey, almost everywhere, people are following their situation and showing solidarity and calling on the authorities to stop this harassment against independent voices “, he declares.
For a little over an hour, the demonstrators called on the authorities to comply with international commitments, to respect human rights, freedom of expression and to return to the principles of the rule of law.
We, as Senegalese civil society, have a duty of solidarity towards the civil society of Burkina Faso, in particular towards Guy-Hervé Kam who has always been present to defend human rights activists, pro-democracy activists. , all over the African continent. For the last three years he was the lawyer of the Senegalese opponents who were persecuted and today he himself is persecuted by a regime which wants to silence all criticism. We just want to send them a strong message to say that you can muzzle civil society in Burkina Faso but African civil society in Senegal and other countries will raise their voices to tell the whole world what is happening in the country. We strongly condemn the suspension of the media. The suspension of press freedom in Burkina must stop. The media must continue to function.
For Seydi Gassama, director of Amnesty in Senegal, it is important that civil society mobilizes everywhere