More chaos in militarized Mali

Mali junta forces hunt down counter-coup soldiers

BBC News, Wed. May 2, 2012
Gunfire has been heard in Mali’s capital Bamako for a third day as junta patrols hunt down soldiers who had tried to stage an counter-coup. Panicking residents fled the city centre – but there has been no fresh fighting, a junta spokesperson said. The shots were fired into the air to break up a student protest, according to Bakary Mariko. [* Read below the Canada-connection to this story.]Fighting broke out on Monday after reports that leaders of the anti-junta presidential guard would be arrested. Students, many of whom opposed the coup in March that toppled President Amadou Toumani Toure, took to the streets after rumours spread that their student leader had been killed by the junta.

Mali’s interim Prime Minister Cheick Modibo Diarra went on TV state to deny the rumours and the protesters quickly dispersed after warning shots by soldiers loyal to junta leader Capt Amadou Sanogo. “The rumour was spread just to get masses of students onto the streets and to take advantage of the confusion that would create,” Mr Diarra said. “I’m asking all students to stay at home the next few days until we can determine exactly what is going on.”

The junta says they are fully in control of the city – after two days of fighting in which 14 people died and some 40 people have been wounded on both sides of the conflict. The fighting has also delayed the return home of football teams from Egypt and Nigeria, who had been playing in Mali.

Bamako-based journalist Martin Vogl told the BBC the junta is patrolling the city, still trying to round up all members of the “Red Berets” presidential guard who on Monday attacked the state broadcaster, the airport and tried to head for the junta headquarters.

So far, 140 “Red Berets” have been arrested, Mr Mariko says, adding that “there are patrols going on and there may be some warning shots and testing of weapons but that is all”.

“Everyone involved, no matter to what extent, in this odious act against the Malian people will be tracked down and brought before the competent jurisdictions,” a junta statement on Tuesday read.

Martin Vogl says that while the presidential guard was the section of the army which was least supportive of the coup, there is no sense that they are now trying to bring back former President Toure, who has fled to neighbouring Senegal. The 22 March coup was led by soldiers who accused former President Toure of failing to combat an insurgency by rebels in the north of the country.

Rebels took advantage of the unrest to make rapid advances, seizing control of the three northern provinces of Timbuktu, Kidal and Gao – a mostly desert area the size of France. They are a combination of ethnic Tuareg separatists and Islamists, who want to impose Islamic law across the whole country.

Capt Sanogo’s military council officially stepped aside on 12 April but it still wields considerable influence – and holds three cabinet posts in Mali’s interim government. The coup leaders oppose ECOWAS plans for interim President Traore to stay in power for a year while organising elections, Martin Vogl reports.

From Reuters, May 2, 2012: At least 27 people were killed in the clashes, according to medical sources and Reuters witnesses, but fighting died down by Tuesday afternoon when junta soldiers overran the presidential guard barracks in the capital.

Troops battle for control of Mali’s capital

Current military leaders say they retain hold of key locations in Bamako after attempted counter-coup claimed 14 lives.

Al Jazeera, Tuesday, May 1, 2012
Heavy gunfire has erupted in Mali’s capital, Bamako, on the second day of fighting between forces backing the country’s new military rulers and soldiers loyal to former President Amadou Toumani Toure. Shooting cracked out from the direction of the state television building on Tuesday, witnesses said, and people were reported to be fleeing the area. Fighting overnight had claimed at least 14 lives, according to hospital sources who said casualties were on both sides.

Soldiers loyal to Captain Amadou Sanogo, who led the March 22 coup, insisted that important installations in the capital remained in their hands following a counter-coup attempt. “Elements from abroad, supported by some obscure forces within the country, carried out these attacks. Some of them have been arrested,” an officer said in a message aired on state television. He said the coup-makers were still in control of the state broadcaster building, the airport, and the military base in Kati near Bamako, after rival forces attacked these locations on Monday.

Residents fleeing

Speaking to Al Jazeera from Bamako, journalist Martin Vogl said that he was in the centre of town on Monday when gunfire broke out. “Around 5pm or 6pm, local time … we started to hear quite heavy gunfire, automatic weapon fire, coming from a couple of places in the centre of town,” he said. “People got very tense and tried to get out of the centre of town as soon as the fighting started.”

Witnesses said the shooting followed an attempt by military loyalists to arrest the former head of the presidential guard. The guard is part of the parachute regiment known as the Red Berets who were thought to have remained loyal to Toure during the coup and only reluctantly submitted to the authority of the junta leaders.

Sanogo said fighting broke out after he had sent some units to the presidential guard barracks to tell them that Malian forces should remain united. “During the exchange between my guys and the paratroopers, some of them decided to battle us once and for all,” he said. “But we had been prepared. We managed to kill some and captured others. Among the captives there are foreign troops that we’ll show on TV.”

Residents near the Red Beret’s camp said there had been heavy fighting there on Tuesday, and that pro-junta troops were overrunning the camp. “Captain Sanogo’s troops have made it into the main camp of the Red Berets in Djicoroni,” a resident near the camp said. “They are going from building to building looking for any of the troops left but I think everyone has left already,” he said.

The coup toppling Toure was internationally condemned, and under diplomatic pressure from Mali’s partners and the junta agreed to hand power over to Dioncounda Traore, the former parliament speaker. Traore was sworn in as interim president on April 12, but the situation in the country has remained volatile.

Tuareg separatist fighters have taken advantage of the unrest to quickly advance and capture the three main towns in the north of Mali at the end of March.

Sanogo has signed a deal with ECOWAS, the West African regional bloc, to return the country to constitutional rule. The deal gave the junta a supervisory role in the transition. But Sanogo said on Sunday that he rejects a plan to send ECOWAS troops to Mali to protect the president’s and prime minister’s office.

Mali junta claims control of Bamako after fighting

BBC News, Tuesday, May 1, 2012
Mali’s coup leaders have said they are in control of the situation in Bamako, after hours of fighting in the capital. In a message on TV, they said they held the state broadcasting building, the airport and army barracks after a counter-coup attempt by loyalists of ousted President Amadou Toumani Toure. However, some gunfire can still be heard in the city. Several people are believed to have been killed.

The junta handed power to an interim government after the March coup. But the junta – led by Capt Amadou Sanago – is still thought to wield considerable influence in the West African country and opposes plans to send a regional peacekeeping force to the country.

In the TV message broadcast early on Tuesday, the coup leaders said the situation was under control after the clashes with members of the presidential guard and “foreign elements”.

Members of the “Red Berets” presidential guards unit earlier reportedly entered the broadcaster’s building, which had been controlled by pro-junta forces since the coup. “These are elements of the presidential guard from the old regime and they’re trying to turn things around,” junta spokesman Bacary Mariko told the Reuters news agency.

Bamako-based journalist Martin Vogl said the airport and the junta’s military base just outside the capital were also attacked. He says it is not clear where the latest shooting is coming from.

The clashes reportedly came after junta loyalists tried to arrest the head of the presidential guard, whose forces decided to strike first.

One eyewitness told Reuters that the streets of Bamako were deserted. Electricity has been cut in several part of the city.

A spokesman for the regional body, ECOWAS, told the BBC he was not surprised by the fighting because the junta was “still meddling” in the affairs of government. “We urge [the military] to get back to barracks,” said Sonny Ugoh. He said there was “no alternative” to sending troops to Mali but stressed they were to help Mali fight rebels who have seized control of the three northern provinces of Timbuktu, Kidal and Gao – a mostly desert area the size of France.

The rebels are a combination of ethnic Tuareg separatists and Islamists, who want to impose Sharia law across the whole country.

The 22 March coup was led by soldiers who accused former President Toure of failing to combat the insurgency, which took advantage of the unrest to make rapid advances. Martin Vogl says the coup leaders oppose ECOWAS plans for interim President Dioncounda Traore to stay in power for a year while organising elections. Despite officially handing over power on 12 April, the junta later went on to arrest a number of loyalist to the ousted president, prompting Mr Toure to flee to neighbouring Senegal.

Mali coup: The story so far:

22 March: Junta seizes power, accusing President Amadou Toumani Toure of not doing enough to tackle rebels
28 March: Mali suspended by regional bloc, ECOWAS
1 April: Rebels seize whole of north, including historic city of Timbuktu
6 April: Tuareg rebels declare independence for the north – not recognised internationally
12 April: Speaker of parliament Dioncounda Traore sworn in as Mali’s interim leader
17 April: Junta arrests several allies of former President Toure
19 April: Mr Toure and his family flee to Senegal
30 April: Fighting breaks out in Bamako

Postscript, July 3, 2012: MNLA condemns destruction of Islamic shrines

Al-qaida-linked militants sacking Timbuktu

UNESCO criticizes Ansar Dine group’s destruction of centuries-old Sufi shrines, tombs in Bamako

By Adama Diarra, Reuters, published in The Gazette (Montreal), July 3, 2012

BAMAKO – Al-Qaida-linked Islamists in Timbuktu broke down the door to a 15th-century mosque Monday that locals believed had to stay shut until the end of the world, defying international calls to halt the destruction of holy sites in the UNESCO-listed city. In a third day of attacks on historic and religious landmarks that the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has called “wanton destruction,” the Islamists targeted the ancient Sidi Yahya mosque as they tried to erase traces of what they regard as un-Islamic idolatry.

“In legend, it is said that the main gate of Sidi Yahya mosque will not be opened until the last day (of the world),” Alpha Abdoulahi, the town imam, told Reuters by telephone. Yet eight Islamist fighters smashed down the door to the mosque early Monday, saying they wanted to “destroy the mystery” of the ancient entrance, he said. “They offered me 50,000 CFA ($100) for repairs but I refused to take the money, saying that what they did is irreparable.”

Islamists of the Ansar Dine group say the centuries-old shrines of the local Sufi version of Islam in Timbuktu are idolatrous. They have so far destroyed at least eight of 16 listed mausoleums in the city, together with a number of tombs.

Ansar Dine and well-armed allies, including al-Qaida splinter group MUJWA, have hijacked a separatist uprising by local Tuareg MNLA rebels and now control two-thirds of Mali’s desert north, territory that includes the regions of Gao, Kidal and Timbuktu. The size of the area under their control is bigger than France, heightening fears that Mali will become a jihadist haven.

The MNLA rebels criticized the Islamists’ destruction of holy sites, underlining a growing rift between the two groups that had formed an uneasy alliance to take over the north of the country. “The perpetrators of these heinous acts, their sponsors and those who support them must be made accountable,” MNLA spokesperson Hama Ag Mahmoud told Reuters in an interview in Nouakchott (capital city of neighbouring Mauritania).

Sufi shrines have been attacked by hardline Salafists in Egypt and Libya in the past year. The attacks also recall the 2001 dynamiting by the Taliban of two sixth-century statues of Buddha carved into a cliff in Bamiyan in central Afghanistan.

Mali’s government in the capital Bamako, about 1,000 kilometres south, has condemned the attacks, but is powerless to halt them after its army was routed by rebels in April. It is still struggling to bolster a return to civilian rule after a March 22 coup that emboldened the rebel uprising further north.

The attacks have been widely condemned inside Mali. “The 333 saints would be turning in their graves,” the country’s Les Echos newspaper wrote Monday, referring to 333 revered Sufi imams, sheiks and scholars buried in Timbuktu. “Today there are old women, old people in Timbuktu who say that maybe it is the end of the world,” entrepreneur and former Timbuktu resident Male Dioum told Reuters.

UNESCO director-general Irina Bokova and former colonial power France appealed Saturday for a halt to the attacks. The UN body seeks to protect places around the world it classifies as world heritage sites, arguing they are of special cultural significance and should be preserved for posterity.

Located on an old Saharan trading route that saw salt from the Arab north exchanged for gold and slaves from black Africa to the south, Timbuktu blossomed in the 16th century as an Islamic seat of learning, home to priests, scribes and jurists. In recent years, Mali had sought to create a desert tourism industry around Timbuktu. But even before April’s rebellion, many tourists were being discouraged by a spate of kidnappings of Westerners in the region claimed by al-Qaida-linked groups.