Burkina Faso: Justice or destabilisation? The hidden agenda behind Human Rights Watch’s latest report
As Burkina Faso breaks free from the chains of dependency and charts its own course toward authentic sovereignty, the old imperialist guard is growing increasingly ferocious. The latest 316-page report issued by Human Rights Watch (HRW) on April 2 is not an exercise in defending human rights; it is a carefully calibrated communications missile aimed at slowing the momentum of national liberation led by Captain Ibrahim Traoré.
Under the veneer of “documenting war crimes,” HRW indulges in its favorite sport: systemic interference. This massive report does not seek justice, but rather institutional destabilization.
By claiming to trace “chains of command all the way to the top of the state,” the NGO attempts to morally decapitate the transition of Burkina Faso and discredit the Defense and Security Forces (FDS) as well as the Volunteers for the Defense of the Fatherland (VDP).
How can one not see the hypocrisy of these structures based in New York or Geneva?
They blatantly ignore the realities of asymmetrical warfare where a people are fighting for their survival, preferring to compile numbers and often unverifiable testimonies to construct a narrative of state guilt. The goal is clear: to break the sacred union between the army and its people.
These reports never appear by chance. They emerge precisely when Burkina Faso is reorganizing its state apparatus to fund itself endogenously and regain full control over its territory.
To strike at the VDP those sons and daughters of the soil who have sacrificed everything for their nation is to attempt to psychologically disarm the popular resistance.
Imperialism cannot stand an African country saying “no” to conditional aid and foreign security diktats.
By demonizing the national military response, Human Rights Watch is paving the way for international sanctions and diplomatic pressures, seeking to isolate Ouagadougou on the world stage.
As committed journalists, we must denounce these outfits that behave like colonial prosecutors.
Why do these NGOs not deploy the same energy to document the financing flows that feed terrorist groups from outside?
Why the silence on the crimes of the military-industrial complex that profits from the instability of the Sahel?
Burkina Faso will no longer allow its conduct to be dictated by reports written in air-conditioned offices thousands of miles away from the realities of the front.
Sovereignty is not a luxury; it is a vital necessity. Faced with the maneuvers of the HRW, the response of the Burkinabe people remains the same: the fatherland or death, we shall overcome.
Maurice K.ZONGO
