The dismissal of police officers in 1987 seen by Le Soleil: from revolt to hope of reintegration

April 13 and 14, 1987 remain dates engraved in the memories of the Senegalese. A major trauma for hundreds of police officers’ families.

That year, President Abdou Diouf promulgated law 87-14, suddenly dismissing 6,265 law enforcement officers following an unprecedented mood swing. Although the majority were subsequently reinstated, around 1,200 agents remained permanently on the sidelines, plunged into extreme precariousness. In the weekend edition of February 8 and 9, 1992, the daily newspaper Le Soleil returns to this event. The article by journalist Alassane Diawara crossed out the front page on the reopening of this sensitive issue. His report highlighted a double outcome for these agents left behind: integration into the brand new municipal police of Dakar and the case-by-case study of their reintegration into the national police.

The promises of Madieng Khary Dieng Alassane Diawara reported the words of the Minister of the Interior at the time, Madieng Khary Dieng, made during the inauguration of the renovated Point E police station: “We are not in the habit of making fallacious promises. (…) President Abdou Diouf considers that it was a parenthesis that he decided to close. » The minister then promised that the file of these thousand peacekeepers would be carefully examined in order to reinstate all those who could be reinstated. This event was also an opportunity for the minister to salute the commitment of the mayor of Dakar, the late Mamadou Diop. Since 1989, the latter has been leading a vast program to rehabilitate security infrastructures.

The mayor also recalled that in three years, seven police stations had been renovated for an amount of 310 million FCfa, and that the gendarmerie brigades of Thiong, Hann and Ouakam were next on the list. “1,200 files to study”: a reminder of the facts In a second explanatory article entitled “1,200 files to study”, Alassane Diawara precisely retraced the genesis of this state crisis. It all started in 1983, when a man suspected of stealing a car battery was found dead in police custody. Accused of torture by the victim’s family, two police officers were sentenced in 1987 to two months in prison and a fine of 60,000 FCFA. As a sign of protest, police officers and the Mobile Intervention Group (Gmi) march towards the Ministry of the Interior.

The protest turned into revolt, particularly in Thiès, where the court was ransacked and magistrates assaulted. Faced with this drift incompatible with the status of the uniform, Abdou Diouf suspended the entire police force by decree, before the National Assembly voted for their global dismissal. If this sweeping move pushed many expellees towards exodus or reconversion of fortune, the combined efforts of families, religious leaders and a parliamentary commission ultimately changed the position of the head of state, opening the way, in 1992, to the examination of their rehabilitation.

By Samba DIAMANKA