BAMAKO, Mali (AP) – Mali’s Tuareg rebels, who have seized control of the country’s distant
north in the chaotic aftermath of a military coup in the capital, declared independence Friday of their Azawad
nation.
declare independence
“We, the people of the Azawad,” they said in a
statement published on the rebel website, “proclaim the irrevocable independence of the state of the Azawad starting from
this day, Friday, April 6, 2012.”
The military chiefs of 13 of Mali’s neighbors met Thursday in Ivory Coast to hash
out plans for a military intervention to push back the rebels in the north, as well as to restore constitutional rule after
disgruntled soldiers last month stormed the presidential palace and sent the democratically elected leader into hiding. The
confusion in the capital created an opening for the rebels in the north, who have been attempting to claim independence for
more than 50 years.
France, which earlier said it is willing to offer logistical support for a military invasion,
announced Friday that it does not recognize the new Tuareg state.
“A unilateral declaration of independence that is
not recognized by African states means nothing for us,” said French Defense Minister Gerard Longuet. The Europ
ean Union concurred.
“We will certainly not accept this declaration. It’s out of the question,” said Richard
Zinc, the head of the European Union delegation in Bamako.
The traditionally nomadic Tuareg people have been fighting
for independence for the northern half of Mali since at least 1958, when Tuareg elders wrote a letter addressed to the French
president asking their colonial rulers to carve out a separate homeland called “Azawad” in their language. Instead the north,
where the lighter-skinned Tuareg people live, was made part of the same country as the south, where the dark-skinned ethnic
groups controlled the capital and the nation’s finances.
The Tuaregs accuse the southerners of marginalizing the
north and of concentrating development, including lucrative aid projects, in the south. They fought numerous rebellions
attempting to wrestle the north free, but it wasn’t until a March 21 coup in Bamako toppled the nation’s elected government
that the fighters were able to make significant gains. In a three-day period last week they seized the three largest cities
in the north as soldiers dumped their uniforms and retreated.
Their independence declaration cited 50 years of misrule
by the country’s southern-based administration and was issued by the National Movement for the Liberation of the Azawad, or
NMLA, whose army is led by a Tuareg senior commander who fought in the late Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi‘s military.
The
group is secular and its stated aim is creating Azawad. However, they were helped by an Islamist faction, Ansar Dine, which
abides by the extreme Salafi reading of the Quran. They are now attempting to apply Sharia law to Mali’s moderate north,
including in the fabled tourist destination of Timbuktu, where women have been told to wear veils and not be seen in public
with males who are not relatives.
In all three of the major cities in the north, residents say they do not know which
of the two factions has the upper hand. In the city of Gao, from where the NMLA declaration of independence was written, a
resident said that it appeared that the Islamist faction was in control, not the NMLA.
“I heard the declaration but
I’m telling you the situation on the ground. We barely see the NMLA. The people we see are the Salafis,” said the young man,
who requested anonymity for fear of reprisal. “I can’t tell which group they are exactly, but we know they are the Islamists
because of their beards. They are the people in control of Gao. I’m right near the Algerian consulate right now which they
have taken control of and they are here. They are armed and other are in the back of their pickup trucks,” he said.
On
Thursday, residents confirmed that the Ansar Dine faction stormed the Algerian consulate, and took the consul and six other
employees hostage.
Foreign governments are concerned that the Islamist wing of the rebel movement is providing cover
for al-Qaida’s North African branch, known as al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, or AQIM. The terrorist organization has
kidnapped scores of Western tourists and aid workers and is known to have at least three bases in northern Mali.
Until
the recent rebel takeover, AQIM’s fighters were never seen in the towns, living on remote desert bases. They employed locals
as runners, to bring them supplies as well as to transport the proof of life of the half-dozen hostages they are still
holding, including Italian, French and Spanish nationals.
Ousmane Halle, the mayor of Timbuktu, said that the Ansar
Dine faction has taken over the military base in the center of the ancient city. Their fighters include men with beards who
do not speak Tamashek, the Tuareg language, meaning that they are not Tuareg, even though they claim to be fighting on behalf
of the Tuareg people.
“They do not speak any African language as far as I can tell. In fact, I don’t believe any of
them are African,” said Halle, who explained that their dress and appearance leads him to believe that they are likely
foreign fighters recruited by the al-Qaida franchise.
The power struggle at the heart of the Tuareg rebellion adds
another layer of uncertainty to the current crisis. Many worry that the extremists may co-opt the independence movement in
order to create a terror state.
The black ethnic groups that live in the north are concerned that the creation of the
Tuareg state will mean they will be chased out of their own homes. Already the roughly 300 Christians living in Timbuktu have
fled, said the mayor.
The representative of Timbuktu in the nation’s parliament in Bamako, who is from the
dark-skinned Sonrai ethnicity, said there will be civil war if the Tuaregs attempt to impose their will on blacks in the
north.
“I consider that the communique regarding the independence of the Azawad by the MNLA is null and void,” El
Hadji Baba Haidara said on Friday. “An armed movement cannot speak in the name of the people of the Azawad.”