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Mali: Talks between government and Tuareg separatists underway
Mali’s government and Tuareg separatist movement held talks in Algiers on Wednesday in an effort to end decades of uprisings by northern based separatists, though the government said at the start it would refuse to discuss any demands for full autonomy.
Mali’s vast desert north – called Azawad by the separatists – has risen up 4 times in the last 50 years, with different groups fighting for independence or differing levels of self-rule.
The Tuaregs perennially accuse successive governments in the capital Bamako of excluding them from power.
Regional powers, who have been pushing the talks, fear al-Qaeda-linked fighters could again take advantage of the political uncertainty in the remote territory to set up strongholds and destabilize the region and beyond. “We are not willing to discuss independence, we are not willing to discuss autonomy,” Mali’s Foreign Minister Abdoulaye Diop told reporters on the sidelines of the talks. “But within that framework we are available and ready to engage with our brothers and sisters of the north to make sure we could reach an some agreement or find the best form of administrative organization.”
The Keita administration was open to talks on devolving more power to give the northern region more say in local government, he added, describing the separatists’ statements so far as “constructive”.
“We are here to construct a roadmap and launch a profound dialogue,” separatist negotiator Mahamadou Djeri Maiga told reporters. “We have accepted the integrity of Mali. We are also for a secure state. We must build a new Mali.”
Algeria’s government said it had helped broker a prisoner swap to build confidence at the start of the talks – 45 civilians and troops from the government in exchange for 42 members and sympathisers of the Tuareg separatist movement.
Mali’s President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita was elected last year partly for his reputation for taking a firm stand against previous uprisings, and is under pressure from the more densely populated south not to give in to the separatist movement’s demands.
Talks advanced in June after a preliminary accord. But analysts said the separatists had to make concrete, coherent proposals and overcome splits in their ranks.
According to an observer, an agreement was possible in Algiers, but a deal signed outside Mali would not necessarily carry weight with the fragmented separatist movement on the ground.
“An agreement is only one step in a much longer process, and a deal itself will not guarantee or even potentially lead to a resolution to the various conflicts in northern Mali,” he said.
Regional and international troops were dispatched to Mali last year to force back al-Qaeda linked Islamist militants who occupied swathes of northern Mali.
Source: Reuters