Mali gets rid of radicals

2004-06-09 14:22

Bamako - The Malian army has chased out the last of a group of Islamic extremists who crossed into the country from northern neighbour Algeria last year, President Amadou Tomani Toure has told reporters.

Citing a report from the army, Toure said on Tuesday at a press conference to mark the second anniversary of his election: "For the last three or four days, no more armed Islamic terrorists from the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC) are in northern Mali."

The report said the army had "dismantled arms caches" built up by the radical group in Mali, Toure added.

The fight to break up Islamic extremist groups in Mali was being waged "in close collaboration with Mali's neighbours," he said, without giving details.

The Sahel desert country borders Algeria to the north, Niger to the east, Burkina Faso to the southeast, Ivory Coast to the south, Guinea to the southwest, and Senegal and Mauritania to the west.

A small group of GSPC fighters crossed into Mali from Algeria about a year ago, when they forced a group of European tourists kidnapped in southeastern Algeria to trek across the desert.

Hefty ransom

The tourists, most of whom were German, were eventually released in Mali, reportedly in exchange for a hefty ransom, allegedly paid by the German government.

The GSPC faction that kidnapped the tourists was led by GSPC number two Amari Saifi, better known as Abderrazak the Para.

In March, members of the group infiltrated Chad's northern Tibesti region from Niger, and clashed with the Chadian army.

The same month, Algeria, Chad, Mali and Niger stepped up co-operation in the fight against the GSPC, a source close to the Malian army said.

Some GSPC fighters, including Abderrazak, are said by security and diplomatic sources in the Chadian capital Ndjamena to have been captured by Chadian rebels in Tibesti. That information has been confirmed by the German federal prosecutor's office in Karlsruhe.

The Chadian rebels have said they are negotiating the possible transfer to Algeria of their captives with the Algiers government.

The GSPC is included on a US list of terror organisations said to be linked to the Al-Qaeda network of Saudi billionaire Osama bin Laden and is one of two movements waging an armed insurrection against Algeria's secular government.

Last year, the radical Islamic group kidnapped 32 Austrian, Dutch, German and Swiss tourists as they trekked in Algeria's southern Sahara desert, and held them for between three and six months. One, a German woman, died in captivity.

- AFP