Decidedly, the Malian state is struggling to find its footing and rise to the level of its responsibilities toward the populations placed under its protection and the international community.
The initiative of the Prime Minister, Moussa Mara, to travel to Kidal, despite the opinions expressed regarding the opportuneness of this visit, showed a total lack of political sense. It must be said that the President of the Malian Republic in person had previously declared that he would not negotiate, whereas the MNLA (National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad), the HCUA (High Council for the Unity of Azawad), and the MAA (Arab Movement of Azawad) had been waiting for months for the new government to finally decide to resume the course of these negotiations as provided for by the Ouagadougou agreements of June 2013. This is the only possible path to sustainably decide the future of the relations between Mali and Azawad.
As soon as he was elected, following elections made possible by a responsible benevolence from the politico-military groups of Azawad, the President of Mali had made particularly excessive remarks in an interview with the newspaper “Le Monde”, which already showed the tone he wished to give to his mandate regarding the Azawad question. Indeed, he had declared that it is the International Community that “forces” Mali “to negotiate with an armed group”. Given the context of these past two years, this attitude of Mali’s leaders is beginning to despair its partners and risks further hardening the positions of the other parties directly involved or concerned by this conflict.
This official posture generates hatred from the populations of the South toward those of the North, whom they often do not even know. Most of the time, this ignorance of the realities on the ground by certain decision-makers in charge of managing the country reveals a level of awareness close to zero on the part of the Malian authorities. The gap that prevails between the underlying design of all official initiatives to definitively finish with these “troublemakers of Kidal” and the reality on the ground is simply staggering. As if the affairs staining the political class in the South could be forgotten and erased by diverting attention to a new crisis in the North. The objective is also to make people forget the absurd economic decisions and the various score-settling currently underway within the Bamako political class. What can we say then regarding international realities and the march of the world!
This path taken long ago by the Malian state remains just as catastrophic for the children of the South and the North. The pain of their families and the tragedies resulting from these irresponsible behaviors visibly do not bother the leaders who are supposed to protect them. The choice consisting of throwing the populations of the North to the dogs in the name of the sacred idea of the intangibility of borders, among other things—with all pretexts being used and manipulated with Machiavellian zeal—stems from an irresponsible attitude that is in no way assumed and that has already generated thousands of deaths for decades.
The Malian soldiers killed during the recent clashes in the North are the latest victims of this appalling misunderstanding. And moreover, this does not seem to have troubled Prime Minister Moussa Mara in the least, who declared on May 20, 2014, in Kidal at 6 p.m., before his extraction: “Bamako is in Kidal today, the army has carte blanche to raze everything if necessary, this is the opportunity to finish it,” according to Fabien Offner, the special envoy of “Libération”. “This is the opportunity to finish it!” These words, so charged with meaning and telling a lot about the true designs of this multi-pronged enterprise and the capacity of those who are supposed to have strong nerves to manage the affairs entrusted to them, should be engraved on each of the tombs of the soldiers who died on this “occasion”…
Proof is thus made that the Malian system, beyond successive governments, is incapable of proposing a realistic and serious solution to the conflict pitting their country against Azawad. Since the military option has clearly shown its limits, it is high time to face facts and deal with the reality on the ground.
Realism also means finally understanding that clientelism and the buying of consciences, while they may allow an election to be won, cannot overcome the determination of peoples to enjoy their most elementary rights, notably that of ensuring their own survival!
This penchant for ease constitutes one of the main elements that delay awareness and inhibit the capacity to see problems and seek viable solutions for them.
The international community, which allowed the Malian army and administration to return to Azawad, thus sees its efforts thwarted by a Malian policy visibly too far from realities, busy as it is putting the country’s meager resources into buying an airplane, while other priorities await, notably recovering peace and creating the conditions for the return of hundreds of thousands of refugees who are suffering for the nth time in camps, despite the generosity of neighboring countries.
Impunity
The military and political hierarchy of Mali will, sooner or later, have to answer for the massacre of thousands of Tuareg and Moor civilians. Reconciliation between these communities and the state will come at this price. It is illusory to want to build or rebuild as long as this issue is not taken seriously and properly addressed by the Malian state. The international community also bears part of the responsibility for this impunity, which contributes to driving these communities away from the Malian state.
The will of peoples is inalienable, and that of the Tuareg people, displayed since the colonial era, is to enjoy their right to self-determination.
The Tuaregs have already paid a heavy price to live in peace with their neighbors and in harmony with the rules governing the functioning of the international community.
Elections
The elections that took place in 2013 did not reflect the will of the populations of Azawad, a significant portion of whom are still refugees in neighboring countries (Algeria, Mauritania, Niger, Burkina Faso) and therefore did not take part in these elections. This situation raises the question of the legitimacy of certain people to decide the future of these populations—an anomaly that could have been mitigated by a genuine willingness of the authorities resulting from these elections to seriously and thus sustainably resolve this issue, thereby shortening the sufferings of these populations.
Security in the Sahel
The question of security and stability in the Sahelo-Saharan strip today goes beyond the framework of Mali and Azawad. No future policy can take place without the genuine participation of the communities living throughout these regions!
The MNLA (National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad)
The weakness of its means and the difficulty in countering the propaganda of the Malian authorities still prevent the MNLA from making certain parts of the Azawadi population understand its national project—a situation quite widespread in this type of conflict across all of Africa.
We have heard pen mercenaries decree that the MNLA did not represent the entirety of the Tuareg community of Azawad, while forgetting to specify that this Movement does not identify as Tuareg, because it wishes to carry the aspirations of all and defend the interests of all the communities that traditionally populate Azawad (notably Tuaregs, Songhai, Peuls, and Arabs). All national liberation organizations face this type of propaganda from their adversaries, who thus think they are delegitimizing their causes. The same arguments had been used against the FLN (National Liberation Front) in Algeria, the ANC (African National Congress) in South Africa, the PAIGC (African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde) in Guinea-Bissau… to name only Africa.
The difference in contexts does not prevent this convergence on the substance. It is always a portion of the sons of a people who decide on their own to carry the aspirations of this people and to make the necessary sacrifices. The adherence of the people, like that of the hesitant, is revealed in broad daylight when the leaders of such an organization prove their sincerity, determination, and credibility in defending aspirations that are often widely shared.
The demonization of the MNLA is counterproductive, because sooner or later, it will be necessary to conclude negotiations with it and finally take seriously the demands of which it is the heir and which it carries today!
Seeking at all costs to create and maintain the confusion between the MNLA and terrorism or to confine this organization into an ethnicist logic is a negative signal expressing in all its magnitude the lack of will of the current Malian authorities to assume their responsibilities and take the situation of their country seriously. The authorities must put an end to the policy of the ostrich and look reality straight in the face. The populations of Azawad have already paid a heavy price in the fight against permanent insecurity in the sub-region.
Autonomy
The autonomy of Azawad is imposing itself today not because it is a demand of the MNLA, but by the imperative necessity for Mali to accept a reality that is obvious to everyone, except visibly to a certain Malian elite! Indeed, as long as the integrity of the country is respected, the debate on the politico-administrative organization of the state should suffer no taboos.
It is easy to see today that the Malian state in its current configuration is obviously not capable of administering and securing the entire territory with its current institutions.
The populations of the North suffer the consequences of insecurity more than any other Malian! They are therefore the first to wish for the definitive return of peace.
The halt of development projects, tourism, and other activities that allowed the emergence of an embryonic economic fabric penalizes first and foremost the communities of Azawad!
Abdoulahi ATTAYOUB
aabdoulahi@hotmail.com
Temoust
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