VANCOUVER SUN
BY PAUL SCHEMM, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
RABAT, Morocco – Any intervention by West African states against extremist groups hiding out in northern Mali would be seen as an act of aggression by the Tuareg separatist movement hoping to establish a homeland there, the group’s spokesman said Thursday.
Moussa Ag Attaher of the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad told reporters in the Moroccan capital of Rabat that his group was ready to sit down with the government of Mali and neighbouring countries to formulate a common strategy to expel the al-Qaida linked groups that have taken refuge in northern Mali.
“We say that all actions that take place on the territory of Azawad without the approval of the MNLA, is an action against us and we will fight it,” he said. “We propose that concurrent with political efforts, the NMLA, ECOWAS (West African states), Mali and other countries involved in this initiative sit down and come up with a strategy to collaborate.”
The NMLA, composed largely of Tuareg tribesmen, wrested northern Mali away from the Bamako government in April and declared the independent homeland of Azawad. It has since been pushed out of the major cities by extremist Islamic groups, including al-Qaida, who appear to be setting up an Islamic state in the north.
A U.N. resolution adopted last week opened the way for intervention, which would probably involve West African states supported by France.
Attaher expressed doubt that a few thousand African troops could succeed where the Malian army had failed and offered the expertise of his group, which he said still controls the vast arid countryside of northern Mali and boasts several thousand fighters.
The NMLA has also modified its demand for an independent state, which has been rejected by the international community.
Instead, according to new platform presented by Attaher, the group was ready to negotiate with the government of Mali for some kind of federal system under the condition that a referendum for the region’s self-determination would be held at a later date.
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