Touareg separatists say they are willing to negotiate a political solution to the months-long Mali conflict.
By Jemal Oumar for Magharebia in Nouakchott
![[AFP/Romaric Ollo Hein] Islamists occupying northern Mali could soon face international military action.](http://magharebia.com/cocoon/awi/images/2012/09/30/120930Feature1Photo1.jpg)
[AFP/Romaric Ollo Hein] Islamists occupying northern Mali could soon face international military action.
Malian Prime Minister Cheikh Modibo Diarra rejected calls for talks Saturday (September 29th) with armed Islamists in control of the country’s north, AFP reported.
“The time is past for these negotiations,” Diarra reportedly told Le Monde. The Malian official said the situation was worsening “day by day with amputations, floggings, rape, [and] destruction of sites” by radical Islamists.
The prime minister also turned down talks with secular Touareg separatists from the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA). The MNLA had issued a call for dialogue with Malian authorities on September 22nd, saying it was prepared to negotiate political end to the conflict “for the interests of the Azawadi and Malian peoples”.
The call for talks came as preparations continue to gather pace for an international military intervention in northern Mali.
The MNLA spearheaded the rebellion against the Malian government before it was expelled from the biggest cities in Azawad by al-Qaeda and its allies, including Ansar al-Din and the Movement for Tawhid and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO).
Meanwhile, the MNLA statement added that the group categorically rejected the Malian government’s talks with what it described as “smuggling and terrorist groups”, in reference to the armed Islamic groups.
The MNLA communique added that these terrorist movements “have a dubious, undeclared agenda”.
Azawadi journalist Abu Bakr al-Ansari said the MNLA offer for negations came after its role in the crisis began to decline.
“The MNLA feels bitter about the Malian government’s step in holding talks with terrorists in Timbuktu, Gao and Kidal through the Supreme Islamic Council; something which means that the rug will be pulled out from under this movement which has a vision based on peace and security,” al-Ansari said.
Al-Ansari said that the Malian government’s step can be explained by its rejection of any independence demands made by the MNLA.
The call for negotiations with the Malian government was not new, MNLA minister and Touareg activist Nina Walet Ntalo told Magharebia.
“However, it was renewed today in order to remind the world that the movement can be an alternative for any other entity in Azawad and that it sees itself as the legitimate representative of the Azawadi people who suffer from displacement today,” she said.
“The world must respond to the aspirations of the men, women and children of the Azawadi people before waging any war, as this people are the only force capable of determining their fate”, Ntalo said.
However, Anta Ghrist, a journalist specialised in covering the Sahel, told Magharebia that the MNLA’s call for negotiations with Mali “can’t add anything new because the African and Western powers are preparing to wage a war against the Islamists in the north”.
“Therefore, talk about negotiations with MNLA, which no longer has a strong presence on the ground after it was expelled by Islamic movements doesn’t mean anything,” Ghrist added.
“The Azawadi people, represented by civil society organisations and local traditional leaders, are the ones who should be betted on and listened to.”
.
