In Burkina Faso, Leader Keeps Cool Under Fire

By ADAM NOSSITER

OUAGADOUGOU, Burkina Faso — The riots have ended for now. The main market is bustling again and fleets of motorcycles have returned to the dusty streets. And in his fortresslike palace miles away, the president appears serene in portraits the newspapers publish. Opposition supporters protested in recent weeks in Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso, against the rising cost of living

Protesters Demand President’s Ouster in Burkina Faso (May 1, 2011)

Burkina Faso Police  also Join in Popular Unrest (April 29, 2011)

Blaise Compaore, president of Burkina Faso.

The calm is tenuous. Students, soldiers, shopkeepers, police officers and even members of the presidential guard have all taken part in protests over the last two months, sometimes violently. A suspicious death in police custody prompted a march by students; stores were looted by military men disgruntled over low pay; and angry merchants, in retaliation, attacked government buildings — all a shock in this landlocked country with few resources and mostly bypassed by an outside world focused on places with oil and crops.

But while there have been opposition demands for the departure of President Blaise Compaoré after 24 years in office, the imperturbable leader is not leaving.

Mr. Compaoré, a former army captain who came to power in a bloody coup in 1987 that led to the killing of President Thomas Sankara, a military comrade of Mr. Compaoré’s, has recently faced down his most serious challenge yet. The governing party’s headquarters is a looted-out shell, signboards of the government ministries downtown are shattered and some stores have been stripped bare of goods by rampaging soldiers.

Mr. Compaoré is not budging, though, just as he would not after similar but less serious outbreaks in 1999, 2003, 2006, 2007 and 2008, when government buildings were also defaced.

How he has lasted is a lesson in survival strategies for long-term autocrats: negotiate, conciliate, spare the gun (there have been only about six deaths in 10 weeks of troubles), let others do the talking, and remain above the fray.

Mr. Compaoré, invisible in public and rarely seen on state television, met with army officers on April 29 after mutinous soldiers went on rampages in March and April. The local papers showed him raising a glass with the officers after promising more money. In earlier gestures to the protesters, he had dismissed his government and named a diplomat and former journalist as prime minister.