MALI’S Tuareg separatist guerillas signed a peace deal with the government on Saturday, drawing three years of civil war to a close.
The Co-ordination of Azawad Movements (CMA), the largest coalition of separatist groups in the country, signed the agreement in the capital Bamako.
Azawad is the name given by Tuareg rebels to northern Mali, where they have fought to establish an independent state.
Sidi Ibrahim Ould Sidatte, who signed the agreement on behalf the CMA, called it “an act of hope” and part of a process toward peace in the north of the country even though it did not address the security issues still destabilising the area.
“The agreement recognised that the issue of Azawad is a political problem, that a solution had not been found and should be studied further during the period of transition,” he said.
The treaty was welcomed by United Nations secretary-general Ban Ki Moon, who declared that the UN stood ready to support the parties in the implementation of the agreement.
But he also said that “ultimate responsibility for peace lies with Mali and the Malians.”
However, US-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) poured scorn on the peace agreement, claiming that it failed to address the rights of victims and their families.
In the northern town of Ansongo, many people said they just wanted to see peace regardless of what deal was signed.
“The problem I run into are the bandits. They take everything I have and then they let us go,” said resident Sidahmar Ag Zeini. “When we go through the forest there are people hiding there who fire on us and take everything we own.”
The conflict began in January 2012 when the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad launched an uprising against the government.
Two months later, president Amadou Toumani Toure was overthrown by military officers who accused him of mismanaging the war and failing to properly supply the armed forces.
France and other Nato and regional nations intervened in the conflict, claiming that the rebels were Islamic extremists linked to al-Qaida.
French Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian will fly to Bamako today “to see for himself that the accord is correctly put in place.”
FRENCH VERSION
