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Blaise Compaor Blaise Compaor (born February 3, 1951) has been the president of Burkina Faso since 1987. He is the founder of the ruling political party, the Congress for Democracy and Progress. Compaor was born in Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso. He reached the rank of Captain in the Burkinab army, and served as Minister of Justice during Thomas Sankara's presidency. Compaor met Sankara in 1976 in a military training center in Morrocco, and since then Compaor and Sankara were supposed to be close friends. Compaor played a major role in the coups d'tat against Saye Zerbo and Jean-Baptiste Ouedraogo. He became president of his country on October 15, 1987 in a bloody coup that killed Sankara, his predecessor as president. Compaor described the killing of Sankara as an "accident". Upon taking the presidency, he reverted many of the policies of Sankara, claiming that his policy was a "rectification" of the Burkinab revolution. Soon after became President he also eliminated two major revolutionary leaders, Henri Zongo and Jean-Baptiste Boukary Lingani, accused of plotting against the regime. The accession of Compaor to the Presidency of the Faso gave the country a political stability it had previously lacked. Compaor gave Burkina Faso democratic institutions and increase freedom of the press. However, President Compaor and his Presidential Guard have been implicated in the death of reporter Norbert Zongo and continued intimidation of the media in Burkina Faso, according to the international organization Reporters Without Borders. Compaor was also sued for assassination by Mariam Sankara, Thomas Sankara's widow. He has proposed a "National Reconciliation" that is not widely supported by his opposition. External links Compaor
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