Grande Baie — President Amadou Toumani Toure of Mali is the guest of honour at the 6th biennial conference of the Association for the Development of Education in Africa (ADEA), which opened in Grande Baie, Mauritius today. The four day gathering will focus on the "Quest for Quality: Learning from the African Experience" - the theme of the biennial.
Toure was praised by his hosts for his vision in promoting education in Africa and was invited to offer his thoughts on the future of education on the continent, citing the case of Mali as an example. After the opening ceremony of the ADEA biennial, President Toure held a news briefing. Before granting a short interview to allAfrica's Ofeibea Quist-Arcton, he spoke about the state of education in Mali and his aspirations for his country. Toure was also outspoken about the New Partnership for Africa's Development, Nepad. And he responded to questions on the situation in troubled Côte d'Ivoire, Mali's southern neighbour. The Malian leader held a two-hour meeting with his Ivorian counterpart, President Laurent Gbagbo, in Bamako, last Friday.
What did you say to President Laurent Gbagbo and what did he tell you when you met last week?
First of all, I won't tell you what the president told me, out of courtesy (laughter). But I'll tell you what I told President Gbagbo. You know that Mali and Côte d'Ivoire - my sister you know this very well, because you've been coming to my country and the region very often, you're not new to the region - but Côte d'Ivoire is like a second Mali.
Bouake (Côte d'Ivoire's second city) is practically like Mali's second city after our capital city, Bamako, because of the huge number of Malians who live there. Secondly, there are more than 2 million Malians living in Côte d'Ivoire, half of whom are not really Malians anymore. They are Ivorians.
What's more, you know that Mali borders the part of Côte d'Ivoire that's occupied by the New Forces.
Thirdly, Abidjan Port is one of the best equipped in West Africa and handles 70 percent of Malian imports and exports. But since the start of the Ivorian crisis (in September last year), Mali has been losing about CFA80bn-100bn ($150m-184m) from our revenues along this customs' corridor.
Côte d'Ivoire is our number one client and you know that we are a livestock-producing country, we are a pastoral country. It's really hard to count the number of livestock we send to Côte d'Ivoire. At one time, we used to receive at least 100 to 150 or 200 to 250 lorries coming to Mali from Côte d'Ivoire every day.
You can imagine the difficulties we are living through these days, not to speak of the loss of collateral and of revenue. So we impressed upon President Gbagbo just how important is the security of Malians who live in Côte d'Ivoire. And we will do our utmost to guarantee the security of Ivorians living in Mali; because up till now some of our regions are still hosting refugees.
The second point is that we have managed to preserve what I'd call a corridor - and by that I mean the Bamako-Abidjan route, which is about 1200km long. We have been able to keep it open thanks to the cooperation of various Ivorian parties. By that I mean that even now we are still able to take advantage of this route all the way to Abidjan Port and we told President Gbagbo that we would like to ensure that the route stays open.
And the final point we made to President Gbagbo was that Mali is committed - at all levels, politically and diplomatically - to upholding peace and reconciliation in Côte d'Ivoire.
In the sub-region, Côte d'Ivoire has a pivotal and important role, financially and economically, especially within UEMOA (Union Economique et Monetaire Ouest Africaine). For almost two years now, Côte d'Ivoire's participation has greatly diminished and UEMOA is having enormous problems.
For us Côte d'Ivoire is just such a strategic neighbour, as we told President Gbagbo, and we won't spare any effort to help Côte d'Ivoire restore peace. That's what I told President Gbagbo. But my sister, unfortunately what he told me I cannot tell you! (laughter).
The key players in Côte d'Ivoire have been traveling around West Africa, around the Ecowas countries and further afield in a frenzy of shuttle diplomacy. But they're not really talking to each other are they? Do you think that perhaps the way the Ivorian crisis is being handled - the mediation efforts - is too fragmented?
What goes on in Côte d'Ivoire is so important to us that we follow developments more or less day by day. I have to admit that the situation is getting more and more difficult and you have to be honest to say that this is becoming a complex conflict. We have to have the courage to say it.
But I have to admit that the decisions taken last week, honestly, they gave me hope. President Gbagbo told the press that from next week, that there should be some movement on interesting aspects of the Marcoussis (peace) accord. And there is supposed to be a cabinet meeting on Thursday, tomorrow, so that filled us with hope. We are hopeful about and keenly awaiting the implementation and preparation of draft legislation for what was agreed (at the peace talks) in Marcoussis (in January).
And also, with reference to the travels of President Gbagbo to Gabon - where he was able to meet the French foreign minister and on his visits to Burkina Faso and to Mali, really we believe that there is a now a new dynamic to revitalize the peace accords.
And don't forget that just two weeks before, Ecowas really got deeply involved. There were a series of meetings between Accra and Ecowas headquarters (in Abuja, Nigeria). And initiatives were taken, even at an Ecowas mini-summit in Accra, to see how to get a dialogue going again and how to bring the New Forces (former rebels) back into the government.
So I think when you take all this into consideration... well the truth is that I don't have a solution to this crisis. If I had, I would have told President Gbagbo. However, it's really important that we must continue to hope, because there is no other way out of this.
Last weekend, a group of soldiers in Côte d'Ivoire appeared on national television and announced it was time to go back to war and to finish off the "rebels" once and for all. There is a lot of talking going on, but it appears to be getting more and more belligerent in tone. I believe the soldiers said that they no longer had confidence in the Ivorian army chief, General Mathias Doue and other senior officers. President Toure, as a retired soldier yourself and a former military leader, what's your advice to them - and to all Ivorians?
I don't have any lessons to give to them. To be quite frank, we have said over and over again to the Ivorians and to President Gbagbo that peace in Côte d'Ivoire means peace in Mali. So we don't really have any lessons to give to anybody in particular. But we do have hope.
Anything that we can do - diplomatically or politically - we'll do so that reconciliation and peace return to Côte d'Ivoire.
But it's almost a year since talks and dialogue began, yet there's still no peace in Côte d'Ivoire. In fact there's more talk than ever about going back to war, isn't there?
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You know, I don't think we should be so pessimistic. On an economic and human level, we are all trying - at a regional level, on a national level in Mali and on a personal level - to ensure that there's a return to peace in Côte d'Ivoire.
You know I don't want to say anything that could be misinterpreted. All I can say, and I say this with all sincerity and I've repeated it to President Gbagbo, is that what we want is peace in Côte d'Ivoire and that Mali will muster all the means we have to see peace and reconciliation restored in Côte d'Ivoire; and not just in Côte d'Ivoire, but also in Mali, because we are losing out terribly because of the war in Côte d'Ivoire.
Moving to other matters briefly, how would you assess progress in the New Partnership for Africa's Development (Nepad)?
Yes, you spoke about Nepad. Honestly at the beginning, I thought that this was the answer to our problems. (Laughter). I dreamt so much about Nepad. I expected so much from Nepad. But I have to tell you that I'm beginning to cool off (the idea). We talk and talk, we have meetings, we go over and over the same topics, now I'm impatiently waiting for the first concrete results.
I'm not giving up. But I have to admit that I'm no longer as hopeful as I was before, because I think we have talked and talked and done a lot of mulling over. Now it's time for concrete action - take the case of education, the quality of education for instance that we're discussing today (here in Mauritius). Education is one of the priorities and objectives of Nepad. Now it's time for action.
And that's what I have to say on the matter, with all due respect to the founding fathers of Nepad.
