For several months, leaders of Burkinabè civil society movements have been mobilising against the French presence in Burkina Faso. "The base was here but they did nothing for us. So their departure equals their absence their absence equals their departure" says Assèta Salogo, treasurer of the Federation of Pan-African Movements in Burkina Faso. "I remember that colonisation, forced labour, slavery and so on, it's a bitter past" adds Mahamadi Savadogo, President of the association of Burkinabe-Russian friendship. IMAGES AND SOUNDBITES