Mali urges world to stand by it
2013-02-05 14:28
Brussels - Mali urged the international community to stand
by its side to drive out Islamist extremists from its territory as the United
Nations, African Union and other global players met in Brussels on Tuesday.
"The threat concerns all civilised countries,"
Mali's Foreign Minister Tieman Coulibaly said as he arrived for talks to anchor
long-term peace and stability once the military offensive against Islamist
rebel forces is over.
"The entire world must gather around us to chase the
jihadists from our soil," he said as some 45 delegations from African and
European nations, along with donor and aid groups, stepped into the meeting of
the "Mali support and follow-up group."
"We need to prepare the future," said a senior EU
official ahead of the talks. "When a state falls apart it takes time to
put it together again, like Humpty Dumpty.
At the top of the immediate political agenda will be the
dispatch of human rights observers, amid fears of rights abuse and revenge
killings, as well as financing the deployment of some 8 000 African troops.
US Vice President Joe Biden this week joined President
Francois Hollande in calling for a UN mission to eventually take over the baton
in Mali from the African-led force once French forces move out.
"We are favourable to this," said Ivorian African
Integration Minister Ali Coulibaly, whose country chairs the west African
regional body Ecowas.
Diplomats say there is a clear need for a UN force to police
the country as the ramshackle Malian army remains incapable of reconquering the
remote corners of the vast arid nation, while the French do no want to stay for
the long haul.
After a three-week campaign by French-led forces drove the
extremists from strongholds including the cities of Timbuktu and Gao, French
fighter jets have pounded Islamist supply bases in Mali's mountainous
northeast, near the Algerian border.
Support and training
"It is about destroying their rear bases, their
depots," Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said Monday.
"They have taken refuge in the north and the northeast
but they can only stay there long-term if they have ways to replenish their
supplies."
The radical Islamists who controlled northern Mali for 10
months, taking advantage of a coup in Bamako in March, have fled into the Adrar
des Ifoghas massif in the Kidal region, a craggy mountain landscape honeycombed
with caves.
The Brussels talks will consider further support and
training for the African force for Mali (AFISMA), as the 27-nation EU firms up
a plan to send a 450-strong mission to train the poor nation's ramshackle army.
So far, 16 EU nations, plus Norway, have agreed to
contribute troops to the EU Training Mission in Mali (EUTM), due to launch in
Bamako on 12 February, with training to start in April. But it still lacks
sufficient numbers and medical back-up to kick off.
The talks too will look at assisting the return to civilian
rule over the entire territory of Mali by helping to organise elections that
President Dioncounda Traore has vowed to hold by 31 July.
"This is an ambitious timetable," said the senior
EU official.
To ensure such pledges are held, the EU will dangle an offer
to unlock €250m
(almost $340m) of aid, frozen after the March coup in what was once one of west
Africa's most stable democracies.
"The resumption of aid will be progressive," said
French Development Minister Pascal Canfin, who will attend the discussions.
"Funds for humanitarian aid and development will depend
on the progress of the road-map," he said, referring to a post-war plan
agreed by the Malian parliament last week to hold elections and kick off talks
with some rebel groups.
