Niger rules out rebel talks
2008-06-10 12:06
Dakar - Niger's government on Monday ruled out peace negotiations with Tuareg-led insurgents unless they first laid down their arms, and it promised military protection for growing foreign investments in uranium mining and oil.
"There is no rebellion in Niger. They are bandits and drug-traffickers," Communication Minister Mohamed Ben Omar told a news conference in Senegal, spelling out his government's tough approach to the year-old insurgency in northern Niger.
His statement followed a warning last week by Toubou tribesmen allied to the Tuareg-led rebel Niger Justice Movement (MNJ) that China's state oil company CNPC should not go ahead with a planned $5bn oil investment in southeast Niger.
Leaders of the MNJ, which had recently suffered internal splits, had also in the past threatened attacks against the strategic uranium mining sector. This was long dominated by former colonial power France but was being opened up to companies from China, Canada, United States and Japan.
200 rebels killed
Niger was among the world's top producers of the radioactive mineral used to fuel nuclear reactors.
Omar said the Niger army had received new arms and equipment and had deployed in the uranium-producing north to counter the MNJ insurgency. At least 200 rebels and 70 government troops had been killed in a year of inconclusive on-off fighting.
"The Niger government has put everything in place to secure those zones where we have mining or oil operations," he said. This included the southeast Diffa region, where CNPC signed an accord last week to develop the Agadem oil block.
Omar said President Mamadou Tandja's government felt it could not heed calls from international organisations and human rights groups for it to open peace negotiations with the Tuareg-led MNJ and its allies.
"Power in Niger cannot be acquired by the Kalashnikov and the rocket-propelled grenade," he said, saying the insurgents must first lay down their weapons.
'There is complete complicity'
He added: "There are no negotiations." The MNJ had said it was fighting for greater autonomy for the northern Agadez region and for a bigger share of the region's wealth for its local people. But Omar rejected this.
"There is no political problem in Niger," he said. To the west in neighbouring Mali, nomadic Tuareg rebels had also been attacking government garrisons and convoys and Omar said the two insurgencies were linked.
"They have carried out attacks together ... there is complete complicity," the Niger government spokesperson said.
Omar said that while a previous rebellion by Niger's Tuaregs in the 1990s had legitimate grievances over poverty and discrimination, these had been addressed in subsequent peace deals at the time made by the authorities.
"No justification today permits Niger citizens to take up arms against other Niger citizens," he said.