AI 2010 Report. Biased Chapter on Mali in Full Accord with US – French Neocolonial, Racist Orders

In eighteen earlier articles, I republished all preliminary parts and several chapters – country profiles of the 2010 Annual Report released a few days ago by the leading humanitarian NGO Amnesty International. Titles of and links to the articles are made herewith available.

Amnesty International 2010 Report. Foreword. Pursuing justice: For all Rights, for all People (http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/view/159774)

The Amnesty International Report 2010 - Report at a Glance, and World by Region (http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/view/159780)

Amnesty International 2010 Report. Key Issues: Human Rights Defenders, Justice and Development (http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/view/159784)

Amnesty International 2010 Report: Global Justice Gap Condemns Millions to Abuse (http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/view/159789)

Terrorist State of Fake Ethiopia Must Cease to Exist. Amnesty International

Devastating Report (http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/view/159808)

Amnesty International 2010 Report. Recapitulative Chapter on Africa (http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/view/159963)

Amnesty International 2010 Report. Recapitulative Chapter on Middle East and North Africa (http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/view/159969)

Amnesty International 2010 Report. Biased Chapter on Eritrea Denounced

(http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/view/159996)

Amnesty International 2010 Report. Omissions in the Chapter on Sudan: Nubians, Bejas (Blemmyes) (http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/view/160037)

Amnesty International 2010 Report. Peace, Justice Impose the Split of the Colonial Fabrication Kenya (http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/view/160038)

Amnesty International 2010 Report. Uganda: a Genocidal State Threat for Regional Peace and Security (http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/view/160172)

Amnesty International 2010 Report. Rwanda: A Genocide Ideology Promoting State (http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/view/160174)

Cancerous Tumors Somaliland, Puntland, Civil War´s Root Causes. Amnesty Int´l 2010 Report on Somalia

(http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/view/160179),

Amnesty International 2010 Report. Biased Chapter on Libya, Oppression of Berber Identity, Language

(http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/view/160191)

Amnesty International 2010 Report. Biased Chapter on Tunisia Avoids Any Reference to Berbers

(http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/view/160419)

Amnesty International 2010 Report. Biased Chapter on Algeria Avoids Any Mention of Kabylia, Tuareg

(http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/view/160420)

Pan-Arabist Tyranny of Morocco Guilty for Berber, Western Saharan Genocides. Amnesty Int´l Report

(http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/view/160424)

Amnesty International 2010 Report. Chapter on Mauritania

(http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/view/160625)

In forthcoming articles, I will republish further chapters from the Report, highlighting omissions, oversights and cases of unbalanced presentation. In the present article, I republish the chapter on Mali.

It is truly a pity that the Amnesty International 2010 Report does not sufficiently cover the most troublesome Saharan country, offering a meager 300 words long text, and avoiding to mention the key issue, namely the oppression of the most ancient and illustrious Nation of Tuareg who have become for more than 150 years the principal target of the evil, colonial presence of France in Western Africa.

I therefore publish, after Amnesty International´s undeservedly miniscule chapter on Mali, a profile of the Tuareg Nation from the portal of the Minority Rights Organization.

Republic of Mali – Profile by Amnesty International

Head of state: Amadou Toumani Touré

Head of government: Modibo Sidibé

Death penalty: abolitionist in practice

Population: 13 million

Life expectancy: 48.1 years

Under-5 mortality (m/f): 193/188 per 1,000

Adult literacy: 26.2 per cent

A draft law equalizing rights for men and women sparked controversy and protests. At least 10 people were sentenced to death; no executions were carried out.

Background

The government and Tuareg armed groups from Niger and Mali concluded another peace agreement in October. The Malian authorities pledged to develop the region of Kidal and the Tuareg armed groups agreed to co-operate with the government in its fight against al-Qa´ida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM). In January, a Tuareg armed group released three Malian soldiers held since 2008. The army released members of a Tuareg armed group in June.

In January, four European tourists were abducted by AQIM in northern Mali. Two were released in April and one in July. UK national Edwin Dyer was reportedly executed in June after the UK authorities refused to release Abu Qatada (see United Kingdom entry). Robert Fowler, Canadian UN envoy, and his aide Louis Guay, captured by AQIM in Niger in December 2008, were released in April in Mali. AQIM also said it was holding Pierre Camatte, a French national abducted in northern Mali in November.

Other European hostages abducted in Mauritania were reportedly held in Mali (see Mauritania entry).

Women´s rights

The Bill for Persons and Family Code, which grants equal rights to women, sparked widespread debate. It makes 18 the minimum age for marriage, and stipulates that both parties must consent to marriage and divorce, and both father and mother have parental authority. It also gives men and women equal inheritance rights.

After Parliament adopted the Code in August, tens of thousands of people – led by religious groups – demonstrated across the country against its adoption. Women´s organizations had mixed reactions, most calling for more discussions. President Toure sent the Bill back to Parliament, where it awaited a second reading.

Death penalty

At least 10 people were sentenced to death.

In March, Bamako Assize Court sentenced Makan Diarra to death on 12 March for the murder of a six year-old child. His lawyer pleaded that his client was mentally ill.

Tuareg – Profile by Minority Rights

http://www.minorityrights.org/5315/mali/tuareg.html

The Tuareg are semi-nomadic herders and traders living in Northern Mali and across its borders in Niger, Burkina Faso, Algeria and Libya. They are descended from Berbers of North Africa and speak a Berber language: Tamasheq. They practice Sunni Islam, often in syncretic form, incorporating traditional beliefs.

Historical Context

Tuareg are believed to have migrated from today's Libya in the 7th century CE, under pressure from Arab invaders. As semi-nomadic herders, traders and agriculturalists, they had some resistance to recurring drought. Due to their prevailing nomadism, the Tuareg never developed centralized leadership, instead operating in kels, a kind of loose political confederation.

During the 18th and 19th centuries, Tuareg captured black Africans as slaves. The Tuareg resisted the French military after its arrival in 1880, but succumbed to French rule in 1898. The French taxed their trade, confiscated camels for use by the military, and attempted to end the Tuareg's nomadic lifestyle. The political repression and economic hardship brought on by drought led to a Tuareg revolt in 1917, but the French quelled it. French administrators subsequently confiscated important grazing lands while using Tuaregs as forced conscripts and labour - and fragmented Tuareg societies through the drawing of arbitrary boundaries between Soudan (Mali) and its neighbours. Yet French interest in the Saharan zone was fleeting, leading to false expectations among the Tuareg for an autonomous state, Azawad. This expectation carried into independent Mali.

In the 1960s Malian Tuareg attempted to ally themselves with Algeria but were brutally repressed by the regime of President Modibo Keita. Yet more devastating to the Tuareg was the drought that began in 1968, worsened in 1972 and 1973, and lasted through 1974. From 1972-1974, around 40 per cent of the country's goat, sheep and cattle herds were lost, with the greatest impact on the Tuareg. Many were forced to abandon their nomadic lifestyles and move to cities, refugee camps, or into neighbouring countries. The government of Moussa Traoré squandered much of the international foreign aid sent to relieve the crisis. Throughout the 1980s, including another period of severe drought and famine from 1983-1985, the Trouré regime continued to neglect the Tuareg and treat their communities with hostility. Some Tuareg fled the difficult conditions for Libya, where some young Tuareg trained with the Libyan army or at Libyan guerrilla training camps. Some of these Tuareg returned at the end of the decade, and some of them were armed. In 1990, Tuareg separatists struck at government facilities in the city of Gao, and heavy-handed reprisal attacks by the Malian military fanned the flames of the rebellion. The reprisals also sharpened the ethnic dimension of the conflict, as many of the poorly trained soldiers sent to fight the Tuareg were of the Songhai and related Zarmaci tribes. A January 1991 cease-fire with Tuareg rebel factions, brokered by Algeria, soon fell apart.

The government of Alpha Oumar Konaré, elected in 1992, made coming to terms with Tuareg rebels in the north one of its main priorities. Konaré made numerous concessions to the Tuareg, including 1992 reparations and enhanced regional self-governance. Nevertheless, the rebellion continued with sporadic clashes. Tuareg continued to feel alienated from the rest of the country, as many black Malians considered them Arabs or Libyans, and resentment lingered over historical memory of Tuareg enslavement of blacks. In 1994, Libya, which was also sponsoring rebellions in Sierra Leone and Liberia, backed a faction of Tuareg rebels who again attacked Gao. The Malian army responded, as did a Songhai para-military organization - the Ganda Koy, and Mali appeared to be at the brink of a civil war. The Konaré government, however, responded to Tuareg complaints by improving training of undisciplined and dangerous military units operating in the north and improving the communication between the military and civil society organizations. The government spoke not only with the Tuareg, but also with Songhai and other tribesmen in conflict with the Tuareg, in an effort to convince them to disband their para-militaries. A new peace agreement was reached in 1995, and a disarmament, demobilization and reintegration programme begun in 1996. The Malian military reduced its presence north of Timbuktu and former rebels were integrated into the military. With Belgian backing, the government engaged in an arms-for-development scheme in the north from 2000 to 2003.

Current Issues

Following the Tuareg revolt of 1990-96, a decade of uneasy peace has recently seen two major outbreaks of insurgency or less well-defined violence. In early 2006, a former rebel, Ibrahima Ag Bahanga, subsequently integrated into the Malian army, deserted his post and accused the government of neglecting the northern region around Kidal. This led to an Algerian-brokered agreement in July 2006, providing for boosted development initiatives for the region, funded by the European Union, and reintegration of rebels into the Malian military. More recently, in August 2007, there was a further outbreak of violence led by men loyal to Ibrahima Ag Bahanga. They kidnapped at least two dozen army personnel near the north-eastern desert settlement of Tendjeret.

Although this appears to have been a one-off series of events linked to the cross-border smuggling trade in the region, the United States has viewed northern Mali as an area vulnerable to terrorism in recent years and has conducted training exercises with Malian forces and stationed Special Forces in the north. The Americans point to a charismatic Salafist leader named Amari Saifi and his Groupe salafiste pour la prédication et le combat, GSPC, which has its roots in Algeria. Saifi and the GSPC have alleged ties to Al Qaeda and were behind the 2003 abduction of 32 European tourists in the Mali-Algeria border area. They claim that Saifi and other militants are working to integrate themselves into Tuareg society. The government's attempts to alleviate the economic and political exclusion of the Tuareg may encourage the group to resist such outside efforts to harness their grievances.

Further readings:

http://www.temoust.org/le-congres-mondial-amazigh

http://atnm.blogspot.com/

http://m-n-j.blogspot.com/

http://fpn.blog.free.fr/index.php?category/Actualités

http://fpn.blog.free.fr/index.php?post/D%C3%A9claration

http://tuaregcultureandnews.blogspot.com/

http://tuaregcultureandnews.blogspot.com/2007_12_18_archive.html

http://tuaregcultureandnews.blogspot.com/2010/03/call-for-national-dialogue-issues-of.html

Note

Picture: Mali, Algeria, Niger and most of the African so-called countries are merely political fabrications that represent only the contextualization of Africa´s enduring colonization and absolute dependence on Europe and North America. Only through the present political order, Africa could be exploited, robbed, and deprived of its identity, values, integrity, culture and greatness. The existence of pseudo-states and pseudo-nations, and the systematic extermination and / or oppression of the extant, true nations is key to Africa´s destruction. Particularly Niger and Mali should be cancelled, and replaced by the Tuareg – Berber Federal Republic that would prepare for a major merge with Mauritania, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, as well as with Hausa and Fulani speaking nations in view of a North African Hamitic Confederation.

From: http://eagle1.american.edu/~jp3501a/images4/Berbers.png