MALI: HUMAN RIGHTS:
Mali dangerously close to civil war

5/4/2012 3:25:28 AM
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AZAWAD - Various groups of Tuareg rebels in Mali have come together since January, in an attempt to administer a new northern state called Azawad. - While this was announced on Apr. 6, the rebel grouping’s control of the region remains questionable, and the roots behind the conflict, complex. After the colonial French departed in 1960, the region was carved up and the Tuareg nomadic communities were placed into several different countries. According to Professor Jeremy Keenan, the French felt close to the Tuareg and not the southern ethnicities in Mali. The French patronised them, it made certain Tuareg clans feel superior, he says. When Mali gained independence, Tuareg communities in the north suddenly found themselves under the rule of the southern tribes, whom some Tuareg clans believed to be inferior. Unhappy with the new setup, a handful of Tuareg led a small rebellion starting in 1963, however without much success. In 1990 another group of Tuaregs started an uprising which resulted in the signing of the National Pact peace agreement in 1992. Despite these agreements, rebels said that the Malian government did not fulfil their promises and anger simmered away. This was until 2006 when a new rebellion broke out after insurgents attacked Malian army installations, only to stop again after ceasefire talks brokered by Algeria. Some of the Tuareg leaders that left Mali to find refugee in Libya returned when anti-Muammar Gaddafi protests began in Libya’s capital. The group returned to Mali in October 2011, and was followed by hundreds of Tuareg mercenaries, who were once hired by both Gaddafi and the Libyan National Transitional Council, and were armed with stolen Libyan weapons. This was the beginning of the latest conflict. (END/RADIO BULLETIN EDITOR/2012)

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