“We Want Peace Talks With Tuareg Rebels,” Says Mali Junta

The leaders of the military coup in Mali have invited the Tuareg rebels to dialogue over a peace map, while the Western African nation is heading to the unknown, amid international community calls for restoring the frozen constitution and controversy over the fate of President Amadou Toumani Toure and his ministers.In this interview with Assia Chalabi of Echorouk, Traouri Youcef, the deputy of the leader of the junta in Mali, Capt. Amadou Sanogo, says the main cause that triggered the military coup against President Amadou Toumani Toure, before a couple of days from election, “is the deteriorating situation in the north of the country where a rebellion of Azwad Tuaregs is raging, amid indifference of the government, in addition to the bad living conditions of Malians, in general, and the army soldiers, in particular.” He further noted that “there have not been any guarantees of fair and free elections.”Youcef Traouri said “the coup was improvised: during the meeting with the cabinet, we discussed the situation in the north, in addition to the social claims of the army elements; we made sure to require more provisions and backups to the military forces in the north in order to end the rebellion there, but we concluded that the government did not want to hear us, and as a matter of fact we decided to stage a majority-backed up coup.” The junta official denies any international embargo on Mali after the coup, saying “if we were, internationally, isolated, we would not manage to resist until now!” He further added that “we are about to launch a media campaign to explain the goals of the coup, which is basically: establishing a national government.”As for the fate of President Toure and his ministers, the official said “I cannot provide any information on that issue.”Meanwhile, the junta seem to have another vision on how to deal with the rebellion of Tuareg in the north of the country. “We believe that war would worsen the situation; we don’t want more chaos in Mali, we want rather more democracy and unity of the territory. That’s why we’ve decided to launch peace talks with the National Movement for the Liberation of Azwad.”