Washington — The United Nations Security Council on Wednesday began to debate a plan to deploy West African peacekeeping troops to tackle the six-month Islamist insurgency in northern Mali.
At the Security Council, both the United States and France forcefully backed the call for greater international involvement, as did several African leaders. But while France, the former colonial power in Mali, has for months spearheaded the push for foreign military involvement, the United States has been reluctant to formally back such an operation.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told the Security Council that the situation in Mali was "not only a humanitarian crisis" but "a powder keg that the international community cannot afford to ignore". She appeared to hold back, however, from calling for an immediate intervention.
"The United States supports the appointment of a senior U.N. envoy empowered to lead a comprehensive international effort on Mali and the creation of a diplomatic core group," she said. "We have to train the security forces in Mali, help them dislodge the extremists, protect human rights, and defend borders."
Since late March, spurred by a power vacuum brought about by a coup in Bamako, Mali's massive northern section has fallen under the control of several loosely aligned groups of ethnic Tuareg nationalists, Islamists, drug traffickers and opportunists.
On Tuesday, Human Rights Watch released a new report warning that Islamist armed groups have become "increasingly repressive", including having recruited several hundred children to fight.
Earlier this week, following long negotiations, the interim Malian government formally agreed to an intervention force from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). This ended the longstanding sense that the idea of foreign troops coming into Mali, while seeming increasingly inevitable, has nonetheless remained politically unpalatable, if not impossible, in Bamako.
Part of this has to do with a longstanding pride among Malians for having kicked out French troops prior to independence in 1960, since which time no foreign troops have been stationed in the country. In addition, there is widespread distrust within Mali even of ECOWAS, due to suspicions towards some of its constituents, particularly Cote d'Ivoire.
For the past month, ECOWAS has reportedly had some 3,300 troops on standby, ready to move into Mali following an agreement. In addition, France has offered logistical support for any intervention.
While this week's deal was the most critical step towards a foreign peacekeeping mission, the deal still stipulates attaining United Nations backing. On Wednesday, however, initial reports suggested that the Security Council was divided on the issue.
Narrow lens of terrorism
While U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday told the U.N. General Assembly that Mali and its neighbours "need your attention", he also warned, "Any proposed military solution ... should be considered extremely carefully. This could have significant humanitarian consequences, including further displacement and restrictions on humanitarian access."
Aid agencies, currently trying to help some 1.6 million people affected by insecurity in northern Mali, have repeated this warning, noting that in addition to the chaotic political situation in the area the entire Sahel region is struggling under a serious food crisis.
"Further fighting risks increasing humanitarian needs and forcing even more people to leave their homes, and could make it even more difficult for communities to access the aid they need," Mamadou Biteye, West Africa regional director for Oxfam, an aid agency, said Wednesday.
"There is a major risk that military operations in northern Mali would make an already fragile humanitarian situation much worse. At a minimum, if such an operation is launched, all necessary steps must be taken to prevent civilian casualties and ensure respect for international humanitarian and human rights law."
Oxfam is also warning against focusing on the Mali situation solely "through the narrow lens of counterterrorism", noting that "sustainable peace and prosperity in the Sahel means tackling the conditions of chronic poverty, hunger and exclusion."
Yet on Wednesday, Clinton made clear that the United States would continue to contextualise the situation in Mali in terms of counterterrorism. She also reiterated a demand that elections take place in Mali by April, saying this is "imperative".
Both of these calls are wrongheaded, Gregory Mann, a historian at Colombia University, said Wednesday.
"Any rational move toward intervention is going to require a shifting away from the excessive focus on the issue of hostages and terrorism," Mann says. "The United States is going to have to understand that the problem is more than a terrorism problem, though all of the donor countries have had an excessive focus on this issue over the past decade."
He adds, "Elections in this context strike me as a terrible idea. How do you hold an election when two-thirds of the country's territory is under rebel occupation?"
Suggesting that the ECOWAS mission is now a near certainty, Mann points out that the situation has changed significantly over recent months. For instance, he no longer considers Mali's territorial integrity to be in danger, a turnaround from the heady proclamations of secession that rebels made in May.
Still, Mann says that it is becoming increasingly clear that the current phase of fluidity will ultimately have long-lasting ramifications for Mali.
"I think what's likely to be lost is the political form that the Republic of Mali represented, insofar as it was two things: it was a form of democracy, as imperfect as that was, and it was a secular republic," he says. "It's very hard to imagine at the present moment that ... any political leader in the wake of an eventual constitutional convention could sustain the argument in favour of secularism. Likely, we'll see some form of Islamic republic."
For now, notes a new report from the International Crisis Group, a watchdog, without decisive international action by the end of September, "All scenarios are still possible, including another military coup and social unrest in the capital, which risks undermining the transitional institutions and creating chaos that could allow religious extremism and terrorist violence to spread in Mali and beyond."
The report continues: "The country urgently needs to mobilise the best Malian expertise irrespective of political allegiance rather than engaging in power plays that will lead the country to the verge of collapse."
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" PEACE ,LOVE ,HONOUR ,RESPECT ,TO ALL MALIANS" ' ECOWAS is not ready for such a com0plex determined mind set of feirecely independent people" TO GO THIER WITH HOSTILE INTENTIONS WOULD BE MORE OF A CALAMITY THAN ANY OTHER FIASCO PROPOSED BY IMPERIALIST NATIONS. WHAT WE HAVE IN FACT IS RED NOSED FEVERED EX COLONIALIST POWER WHO STILL WANTS TO RULE BY PROXY' " INTERFERING CONSTANTLY IN AFRICAN AFFAIRS, WHILE UNDERMINING THE AFRICAN UNION AND UNITY!!!. LET US NOT FORGET THAT THE COTEd'IVOIRE FIASCO WAS ALL FRANCES RECOUPING OF THIS NATION; THAT HAD SEVERED ITS TIES WITH FRANCE. NOW WE HAVE FRENCH MINISTERS SITTING IN COUNCIL IN IVORY COAST THE INDIGENOUS PEOPLE ARE AGAIN UNDER THE YOKE OF FRANCE. DO YOU THINK EVEN IF THE ISLAMIST ARE IN THE NORTH THAT THE PEOPLE WANT TO BE RETURNED UNDER THE YOKE OF FRENCH RULE?????. THE PEOPLE ARE UNDEREDUCATED THEY ARE POOR AND THIS IS THE LEGACY OF FRANCE!!!!!. WE MUST SIGHT THESE THINGS, WHAT WE STILL HAVE IS A FEW FRANCOFONE STATES, WHO ARE STILL DEPENDENT ON FRANCE WHO STILL PAY FEES FOR THE HONOUR OF BEING,' TRUTHFULY A COLONY, SECOND CLASS CITIZENS" THIS IS NOT ACCEPTABLE TO MOST MALIANS THEY ARE JUST AS INTELLIGENT AS ANYONE ELSE, THEY WILL PREFER "TO BE A POOR FREE MAN , THAN A POOR SLAVE" . THE KNOWLEDGE IS THAT WITH THIS TYPE OF CONFLICT, IT ULTIMATELY LEADS TO OCCUPATION AND THE SAME PRECOLONIAL POSTITIONS THAT WERE OBSERVED BEFORE INDEPENDENCE'. THE MOST PROFOUND THING TO ALSO VIEW IS THE FACT THAT THE SO CALLED ARAB SPRING WAS ACTAUALLY A FRANCOFONE REBELLION!!!!!!!!!MOST AFRICANS STILL FAIL TO GRASP THIS FACT" FRANCE, IN DFERENCE TO ANGLO FONE STATES EVEN TO ANY OTHER COLONIAL POWERS..; IN AFRICA; HAVE RETAINED A CERTAIN TYPE OF MENTAL, PROPERIETORIAL HOLD OVER THE PEOPLE!!. USING FRANCS AS THIER STAPLE FUND INCLUSIVE OF ALL FREE INDEPENDENT SATES ; WHILE STILL PAYING TRIBUTES TO FRANCE ANNUALY CONDITIONING A SECOND CLASS MENTALITY. THIS THEM CONCURS WITH THE INTERFERNCE OF FRANCE PLACING TROOPS ON THIER BORDERS, CREATING MISCHEIF, SETTING INTRIGUE AND ALL THE COLONIALIST IMPERIAL TRICKS THAT HAVE BEEN A PART AND PARCEL OF THE NATO FORCES FOR DECADES". "NO DISREPECT TO QUATARRA' BUT HE IS A FRENCH PUPPET" HE WENT TO SCHOOL WITH SARCOZY, THEY WERE FREINDS SO SARCOZY DESTROYED THE NATIONS PEACE TO PLACE QUATARRA IN POWER ,WHICH HE NOW OWES THE WEST AND IS LIABLE TO PAY" . WITH QUATARRAS OBLIGATION TO FARNCE AND THE WEST THEY WILL PERPRETRATE WAR SO THEY AGAIN WILL TRY TO RETAIN HEGMONY IN THE CONTIENT. IT IS THEY WHO DROPPED ALL THE WEAPNS INT EH REGION THEY HAVE A BORADER PLAN IF THEY DID NOT THEM THEY DO NOW. THEY DID NOT ARM ALL THESE PEOPLE JUST FOR SHOW THEY ARE LOOKING FOR MORE WARS TO KEEP THE AFRICAN CONTINENT IN CONFLICT. "THIS IS AN OLD TUNE' SAME SONG SAME DANCE" . THIS HAS BEEN THE WAY PAVED FOR ALL DICTATORS ;OR PERCEIVED FAIR (RIGGED) ELECTIONS. 'THIS IS AN OLD SCHOOL IDEOLOGY 'WESTERN DEMOCRACY 101' ,THIS IS A SHOW FOR THE WEST TO RETAIN POWER AND EFFECTUALY DISALLOW DISENFRANCHISE THE INDIGENOUS PEOPLE CONSOLIDATING POWER WITH THOSE WHO ARE PERCEIVED TO BE IN CHARGE". "AFRICA MUST STEER AWAY FROM THE INPUT OF FRANCE OR ANY OTHER GLOBAL POWER, WHO HAS ULTERIOR MOTIVES THAT DO NOT BENIFIT AFRICANS". THERE IS NO INTELLIGENT PERSON WHO CAN SAY THAT THE WEST OUR FORMER ENSLAVERS HYPOCRITS DISTABLISERS INHUMANE PRACTIONERS; HAVE SUDEDENLY DECIDED THAT THEY NO LONGER WISH TO EXPLOIT OR BENIFIT FROM THE INSTABILITY THAT WILL OCCUR?!!. IN ORDER FOR AFRICANS TO HAVE A MUCH MORE INCLUSIVE AFRICA WE MUST GET AWAY FROM COLONIALIST IDEOLOGIES AND THIER BORDERS OF THIER EMPWOERMENT THEIR ENSLAVEMENT OF OUR PEOPLE. WE MUST BE CAREFUL HOW WE GET READY TO WAGE WAR TO DEFEND THESE SAME DISHONOURAble lines theyd rew accross africa taking us into a baCKWARDS AND SELF DESTRUCTIVE PATH;" THEY ARE NOT WORTHY FORE US TO FACILITATE TO MURDER AND HAVE ETERNAL CONFLICT JUST FOR THE SAKE OF WESTERN AMBITIONS ARROGANTS CONCEIT HEGEMONY"" This is what these wars are all about, these are hegemonic peoples who are determined to rule over all other nations by force. They do not mind how much life is taken ;they conceive conspire to retains a certain langauge that propogates thier double standards and hypocrisy. INTERNATIONAL SECURITY PROBLEM??? THESE PEOPLE ARE FAR FROM INVADING ANY OTHER NATION IN AFRICA MUCH LESS WORLD TERROR!!!! OCME ON AFRICANS STOP BEING DUPED STOP TRYING TO SPEAK THIER LANGAUGE OF DOUBLE TALK CONSPIRACY TREASON TREACHERY. LOOK AT GADAAFFI HE RIED TO DO IT THE RIGHT WAY SO THAT AFRICA ALL AFRICA COULD BENIFIT I KNOW ITS HARD FOR YOU TO SIGHT THESE THINGS. HE WAS FOR AFRICA ' NOT SELFISH LIKE THE WEST; ANY LIBYAN THAT CAN STAND UP AND SAY HE WAS A THEIF IS A LIAR!!!. WERE IS ALL THE MONEY IN WESTERN BANKS THAT WERE OPEN TRANSPARENT IN THE NAME OF LIBYAN PEOPLE??? YOUR FREINDS STOLE IT!!!GADAFFI WAS MURDERED FOR HIS AFRICAN UNITY AND EMPOWERMENT IDEOLOGYINCLUDING THE EMPWOERMENT FO OWNING AND DETERMINING THE WAYS IN HOW THE OIL IS EXTRACTED THE GOLD THE GAS WHATEVER. HE KNEW AFRICA WAS A RICH CONTINENT WHY HE PRERACHED INDEPENDENCE AND SELF DETERMINATION TAKING YOUR DESTINY IN HAND. THE IMPERIALIST HAVE IDEAS TO THE CONTRARY THIS IS WHY HE WAS MURDERED AND ADMITEDLY OS BY A FRENCH SECRET AGENT. THERE IS NO TRUTH THAT SHALL NOT BE REVEALED IN OUR TIMES AFRICANS MUST LEARN THIS. THERE WILL BE NO STONES UNTURNMED AND THE TRUTH OF ALL THINSG WILL MANIFEEST ITSELF . SOME AFRICANS NEED TO OPEN THIER EYES MUCH MORE WIDER THEY ARE STILL WALKING IN DARKNESS THEY STILL BELIEVE IN THIS WHITE JESUS THAT IS GOING TPO REDEEM THEM. MANY STILL WONT ACCPE THAT THEY ARE THE MASTERS OF THIER FATE AND YOU CAN NOT HAVE TOW LOYALTIES; EITHER IT IS AFRICA AND THE AFRICANS OR THE WEST ANDYORU SOULS"""???// We know for a fact that the United Nations needs to be reformed, yet hear we go as Africans running to the security council , BEGGING them ,keeping them in power ,declaring to the world ,, yes!! we can not do without your great wealth of knowledge and great power; these problems we have as AFRICANS are much too big for our small brains. We see that PEACE an INCLUSIVENESS is not worthy to be approached we rather make this into a great international debacle with the military fanfare the drones striking, murdering lots of innocents people that the allmighty nato powers might perceive to be an ISLAMIST??. AFRICA needs to srand united taking thier issues one step at a time. "STEP BY STEP WE WILL OVERCOME ALL OUR ISSUES". WHAT WE HAVE IN AFRICA, IS ALL RESIDUE FROM EUROPEAN POWERS AND THIER IMP[ERILAIST COLONIAL HEGEMON. " AGAIN!, I WILL STATE TO AFRICAN LEADERS,' IT IS LUDICRUOS TO RUN TO THE SAME PERSONS WHO ENSLAVED YOU; TO ASK HIM TO AGAIN TO FREE YOU FROM YOUR IMAGINARY BONDS????.""" UNTILL AFRICANS LEARN TO REFRAIN FR5OM EMPOWERING THIER FORMER ENSLAVERS AND INSTEAD PUTTING THE POWER IN HTIER ONW HANDS;' TRUSTING IN THE "ALLMIGHTY GOD THE MOST DIVINE THE MOST EMPOWERING THE MOST COMPASIONATE THE MOST JUST, THE RIGHTEOUSS THE MOST WORTHY TO BE PRAISED" THEN YOU AS AFRICANS WILL RETAIN THE GLORY FOR THE PEOPLE WHICH WILL BE MAGNIFIED BY THOUSAND FOLD BY THE "LORD GOD ALLMIGHTY". IT IS THE TIME NOW , WHEN THE AFRICAN MUST HAVE RESPONSIBILITY TO PERFORM THE DUTIES OF KINGS THAT WAS ORIGINALLY ORDAINED TO YOU AS INHERRITERS AND CARETAKERS OF THIS WHICH IS PARADISE'. "YOU MUST SEE THAT YOU ARE IN A LAND OF MILK AND HONEY' THE PROMISED LAND' YOU MUST SIGHT THAT THERE IS NO OTHER PLACE ON THE PLANET AS BELSSED AS AFRICA IS??!!! YOU MUST SIGHT THJAT YOU ARE WEALTHY AND OVERLY BLESSED WITH ALL THAT YOU CAN ASK FOR!! YOU MUST KNOW IN THESE TIMES THAT THE NATO COPUNTRIES ARE YPOUR OPPRESSORS WHO ARE THIER TO DECEIVE YOU EXPLOIT YOU AND MISLEAD YOU. THEY HAVE BEEN IN OUR LIVES FOR FIVE CERNTURIES' AND NOTHING HAS GONE RIGHT THEY ENSLAVED US, THEY IMPRISONED US THEY TORTURED THEY RAPED MOLESTED THEY LIED CHEATED CONNIVED SWINDLED EVERYTHING IGNOBLE THEN THEY COLONISED US!!!! NOW THEY ARE BRAINWASHING US TRICKING US EVERY INCH OF THE WAY.HOW MUCH ARE YOU LEADERS WILLING TO SUBMIT THE PEOPLE OF AFRICA TO??? YOU ARE STILL PERFORMING THE DUITES OF JUDAS STILL LOOKING FOR THEN PEICES OF SILVER? WHEN THERE IS YARD OF GOLD BEFORE YOU!!! WE STILL HAVE AFRICANS WITH GREAT SIZED POSTERS OF THIS BLONDE HAIR BLUE EYED WHITE JESUS AS THIER SAVIOUR' AND REDEEMER??? COME ON AFRICA THESE THINGS SHOULD BE BNANNED TOTALLY FROM AFRICA; THIS IS PART OF THE BRAINWASHING THAT KEEPS YOPU DEPENDENT ON THEM CONFUSED ABOUT YOUR OWN MANHOOD AND POWER". THIS IS TELLING THE PEOPLE THAT THE WHITE menN IS GREATER THAN THEY ARE THE whites ARE THE ONLY ONES THAT CAN SOLVE THIER PROBLEMS. COME ON AFRICA?????!!!!!!!!WE NEED TO GIVE THE PEOPLE EMPWOERMENT, LOVE OF SELF NOT THE LOVE of ANOTHER SET OF PEOPLE; THAT IS BALSPEHMEY!!!!!! EVERYTIME WE GIVE POWER TO ANOTHER SET OF PEOPLE WE BLASPHEME AGAINST THE "HOLY HOLY ALLMIGHTY BENEVOLENTT GOD OF CREATION" WE MUST PRAY TO A POWER THAT IS NOT SEEN, ONE THAT IS NOT BIASED ,WHO TAKES SIDES, WHO LIVES OFF MURDERING, LIEES, THEFT AND CONSPIRACIES, WE MUST AWAKEN AND SIGHT TRUTH JUSTICE THE RIGHT PATH TO EMPOWERMENT ,FREE WIZE, INDEPENDENT, SELF DETERMINING""WE MUST HOLD THE POWERS OF OUR DESTINY IN OUR OWN HANDS!!!!". ""THERE ARE NO PEOPLE GREATER THAN WE ARE' EVERYONE ON THIS PLANET IS EQUAL, BORN UINDER THE SAME SUN, BREATHING THE SAME AIR, THEY ARE NO SUPER POWERS?? THERE ARE MORE WAR MONGERS!!! THERE ARE MORE EVIL an BIASED MEN ,WHO TAKES THE POWERS FROM THE EARTH AND USES THEM FOR NEFARIOUS PURPOSES""" THESE ARE THE INIQUITY WORKERS THESE ARE THEY WHO HAVE ABOMINABLE THOUGHST THEY ARE NOT OF THE WIZE THINKERS. IT IS TIME THAT AFRICANS FIND A LEAGUE OF WIZE INTUITIVE AND VISIONARY LEADERS; THOSE WHO CAN NOT BE BOUGHT THOSE WHO CAN LEAD AND WHO TRUST NOT IN THE COCEIT OF MATERIAL PEOPLE. RICHES WILL COME IN ABUNDANCE TO THOSE WHO PUTS THE PEOPLE FIRST WHO WANTS TO SEE ALL THE PEOPLE LVING ACCORDING TO THE WISHES OF "THE MOST HIGH". THOS WHO SAYS TO THE WORLD "YES !!I AM MY BROTHERS KEEPER. NO TO SELFISHNESS NO TO INIQUITY NO TO INJUSTICE NO TO BIAS NO TO SEGREGATION CONCEIT AND ARROGANTS!!!!! "WE REJECT ALL ARROGANTS DECEIT. NO TO MISUSE OF AND ABUSE OF POWER!, WE REJECT ALL THESE THINGS IN THE NAME OF "THE MOST HIGH THE ALL KNOWER THE SEER THE CREATOR THE DEFENDER OF THE POOR THE OPPRESSED THE BENEVOLENT" 'WE SAY NO !! TO ALL ABOMINATIONS ,IN HIS " THE MOST HOLLIEST OF ALL; 'ABOVE THE SUN BELOW THE UNIVERSE" IN THAT POWER ALONE DO WE TRUST"