By ADAM NOSSITER
Published: August 08, 2012
DAKAR, Senegal - A rare diplomatic opening inside Islamist-held northern
Mali was tried on Tuesday by the foreign minister of neighboring
Burkina Faso - an attempt to avert a war that some Western officials say
is now nearly inevitable.
The foreign minister, Djibril Bassolé, met in the town of Kidal with a
leading warlord, Iyad ag Ghali, who directs the Islamist Ansar Dine
movement, which is allied with Al Qaeda's regional franchise. Diplomate
and others consider him a central figure in the jihadists' attempt to
impose a harsh version of Shariah law in Mali's vast north - an
initiative that has helped push nearly 400,000 people from the region.
Mali's northern area, much of it desert, has been virtually closed to
outsiders since its seizure from the faltering Malian Army, itself
weakened from a coup d'état in the capital by a coalition of Islamist
and nomadic forces in late March. The Islamists, some from other
countries, have since pushed the nomadic Tuareg out, and an iron cloak
of Shariah law that includes public beatings, whippings and even a
deadly stoning has descended on a region previously characterized by
moderate religious practices.
Mr. Bassolé's journey on Tuesday - aides said it was the first by a
diplomat - represented an unusual foray inside northern Mali, which
Western governments have looked at with increasing alarm as a potential
Afghanistan in the heart of West Africa. The extremism of the forces now
controlling the area has made any negotiated resolution to the crisis
seem unlikely.
But in a telephone interview after his return, Mr. Bassolé said that
Iyad ag Ghali had met him at the airport in Kidal, that they had toured
the town together and that the warlord "had shown himself open to a
negotiated solution."
"He wants to proceed to consultations immediately after the end of
Ramadan" in just under two weeks, the foreign minister said. "He said he
was ready to negotiate."
Still, Mr. Bassolé added: "As long as he is the ally of Al Qaeda, it is
not possible. One can't negotiate with Al Qaeda. He's got to abandon his
alliance with Al Qaeda."
So far, though, Ansar Dine, itself a radicalized offshoot of the
organization of nomadic Tuareg tribesmen who first seized the region,
has shown no sign of doing so.
A leading official with Ansar Dine in Timbuktu has boasted of its
closeness to the group Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, which is
responsible for numerous kidnappings and killings of Westerners in the
region. Leading regional Qaeda officials, including the feared Mokhtar
Belmokhtar, considered an "emir" of Al Qaeda, circulate openly in the
northern towns. Mr. Belmokhtar has been spotted swimming in the Niger
River at Gao, which Mr. Bassolé also visited on Tuesday.
And Ansar Dine itself has been tied to some of the harshest punishments
of the new Shariah regime in the north, as well as to the destruction of
historic monuments in Timbuktu. A local Malian official attributed the
recent deadly stoning of a young couple in the town of Aguelhok to Ansar
Dine and Al Qaeda.
Mr. Bassolé said he and Iyad ag Ghali discussed this in Kidal. "He told
us his movement is not mixed up in all that," Mr. Bassolé said. "He
distances himself from everything that might be considered punishments. I
asked him, 'There have been a certain number of acts that you have not
denounced.' He said, 'Our movement has nothing to do with it.' "
Mr. Bassolé, a veteran diplomat, said that when he asked about Ansar
Dine's alliance with Al Qaeda, Iyad ag Ghali told him that he would
"reflect and come back to us."
Mr. Bassolé described the warlord as "very open, quite understanding, quite intelligent."
Ecowas, the regional grouping of West African states, has designated Mr.
Bassolé's government as the mediator in efforts to solve Mali's crises
since the March coup d'état. Burkina Faso - through its perennial
leader, Blaise Compaoré - played a key role in picking the civilian
leaders who now head up a much-contested "interim government" in Mali's
capital, Bamako, in the absence of any date for elections.
Ecowas is also preparing a military intervention force, but it has yet
to gain United Nations approval for it. The United States and some other
powers are not enthusiastic, and they insist that Bamako must stabilize
itself before the northern problem can be tackled.
The northern town of Gao is controlled by a third Islamist group, the
Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa, or Mujao. Young people in
Gao have protested in recent days against the movement, preventing the
planned public amputation of a thief's hand, for instance.
"There is a phenomenon of rejection, not necessarily of the Mujao but of
a certain number of practices," said Mr. Bassolé, who said he did not
meet with any Mujao leaders in Gao and reported observing a "semblance
of normality" there. "The youth are showing signs of revolt and
discontent."
"We can't stay in this situation long," Mr. Bassolé said. "If there
isn't dialogue, then, there might be an armed solution. But war is not
easy in these parts. There is still a chance to bring the Malian groups
back to the table."
Un article du NY times.
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