Mali - the next quagmire? (1 Viewer)

[Denny Oubidoux]

hopefully not....

France wants this to end with a stable government in Bamako and the eradication of terrorist groups in the north. But the French now concede that they underestimated the strength of their opponents, and the government, which initially said that it would only provide air support, has now announced that it would send ground troops and triple the size of its deployment to twenty-five hundred personnel. Soon, the government may have to deal with a populace that’s unhappy with the idea of sending its soldiers to risk their lives fighting in an unfamiliar area that’s larger even than Afghanistan.

Even before its citizens were taken hostage, the U.S. had been considering ways to aid the Malian government and the French, including sending “transport or refueling planes,” according to the Washington Post. In the wake of the attack in Algeria, for which Al Qaeda of the Islamic Maghreb has taken responsibility, there will be pressure to do more. The outgoing U.S. Defense Secretary, Leon Panetta, has already raised the possibility that the American response to the incident might include military action.

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2013/01/mali-the-next-quagmire.html

Horrible reading the news from here - a relatively calm stable place falling into this kind of chaos. I imagined the islamist lads being fairly ramshackle in their organisation but maybe not. At the moment I'm all in favour of this military intervention by france, whatever their own motives.

 

[тхеодоре кацзынски]

Yeah,they should have went in months ago.
I don't think they'll get too bogged down in it though,I can't see there being a lot of support in Mali for the Islamists.

 

[Scientician 0.8]

How will this impact on Tinariwen's touring schedule?

 

[Psycho Punk]

Theo will like this.

Malian townsfolk lynch Islamist rebel leader - reports

Citizens of the northern Malian town of Gao have reportedly lynched a notorious Islamist leader in retaliation for the killing of a local journalist on suspicion he was cooperating with international radio. “Islamic police commissioner Aliou Toure was killed by the youth in revenge,” a Gao resident told Reuters. Toure was a local resident recruited by rebels as police commissioner after MUJWA Islamists took control of Gao in June 2012 and imposed strict Sharia law across the region.
http://rt.com/news/line/2013-01-20/#id43624

 

[Psycho Punk]

This time it really is a war to save civilisation

FINTAN O'TOOLE

In the developed world we rather causally use the term “culture wars” to mean the clash of styles or modes of expression. In Mali we’re seeing something that really is, at one level, a culture war. However complex and ambiguous the European intervention against Islamist rebels in the huge west African state, an important part of what’s going on is a fight to protect one of the world’s great cultural resources.

Western powers have a long and disgraceful history of assaults on indigenous cultures. The idea of “a war to save civilisation” has always reeked of cynicism and hypocrisy. But this time they happen to be on the right side in a war in which the cultural stakes are very high.

There’s nothing unique about the psychotic hatred for art that exists among the Salafist rebels in Mali. The word “iconoclasm”, now oddly positive in its connotations, literally means “the breaking of images”
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/weekend/2013/0119/1224329031039.html

 

[Psycho Punk]

Looks like the French are winning. But vast regions of Northern Mali consists of desert and mountains with caves...

Mali conflict: French and Malian troops move on Timbuktu
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-21218003

French may face little resistence in Timbuktu, the BBC's Thomas Fessy says

French-led forces in Mali are advancing on the key northern city of Timbuktu, as they press on with their offensive against Islamist rebels. On Saturday Malian and French forces seized Gao, another key northern city. The advance comes as African Union leaders are meeting to discuss sending more troops to Mali. Islamists seized the north of the country last year, but have been losing ground since French forces launched an operation earlier this month.

Late on Saturday French Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said Malian and French troops would arrive "near Timbuktu soon". Overnight they secured Gao - northern Mali's most populous city- after special forces captured the airport and a strategic bridge to the south.

Most militants appear to have fled into desert hide-outs and the hunt for them may prove more difficult once all major towns are secure, says the BBC's Thomas Fessy in the capital, Bamako.

Troops from Niger and Chad are to assist Malian forces in further securing the town. Also overnight, French forces bombed Islamist position in Kidal,

Malian officials say.

 

[pavlos]

Not great news:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jan/28/mali-timbuktu-library-ancient-manuscripts

 

[тхеодоре кацзынски]

Fucking savages,they've been destroying ancient tombs for the last few months down there and now this...Philistines.

 

[Psycho Punk]

Good news.

Majority of Mali’s ancient manuscripts safe
http://rt.com/news/line/2013-01-30/#id44250

Retreating Islamists in the north of Mali were believed to have burnt ancient manuscripts, some dating as far back as the 13th century. It now appears they only destroyed a fraction of them. The director of Timbuktu’s Manuscripts Project at Cape Town University, Shamil Jeppie, said that 90% of them were safe, having been spirited away to the regional capital Bamuko when the Islamists first arrived and secretly distributed among the local population. The manuscripts, which range from history to geography and astronomy, medicine and Islamic law; date back in some cases to the 13th Century and have been compared in historical importance to the Dead Sea Scrolls.

 

[Psycho Punk]

Looks as if it was too good to be true.

The other side of French airstrikes on Mali: ‘They ruined everything I had'
http://rt.com/news/mali-konna-france-hollande-438/

(21.5Mb)embed video

French President Francois Hollande is triumphant about his operation in Mali, but stories are emerging which show a different side of the war. Journalist Gonzalo Wancho tells RT that for every two rebels killed in airstrikes, a dozen civilians died.

“We’re learning what happened in battle day by day. In the town of Konna, we heard stories from the fog of war. [Rebels] fled to the north when French troops showed up. It’s reported that the cost of that victory was high. While French planes killed only two rebels, the number of civilian casualties were an estimated 14,” journalist Gonzalo Wancha told RT.

It comes just days after French President Francois Hollande declared “victory” in northern Malian cities. But the victory also had its price:
“I wasn’t home when the bombing began. I started praying when I learned my house was under attack. They ruined everything I had – my family and my livelihood. [My children were 11, 10, and 6]. They all died,” Idrís Meiga, a farmer from Konna, told RT.

Meiga’s story is not unique. In fact, it is becoming all too common to hear of similar tragedies in northern Mali. ...

 

[Psycho Punk]

Give ya the hump wouldn't it?

Francois Hollande's camel: Mali 'to replace eaten animal'

An official says Mali is to send the French president a replacement camel after the first, given to him as a gift, was eaten, Reuters reports.
Francois Hollande had left the creature with a family in Timbuktu for safekeeping, after it was presented to him by local residents in February. But it was promptly slaughtered and used in a tagine.
France sent troops to Mali in January to regain the north from a loose coalition of militant Islamist groups.
During the young camel's handover ceremony, Mr Hollande had joked about using "it as much a I can as a means of transport" around the Parisian traffic jams.

Continue reading the main story
“Start Quote

It was a present that did not deserve this fate”​

​

Unnamed Malian officialFrench officials had originally planned to transport the animal to a zoo in France, but because of the complex logistics it was decided instead to entrust the beast to a local family.​

The French defence minister informed the president of the camel's death during a recent cabinet meeting, Valeurs Actuelles magazine reported.
"As soon as we heard of this, we quickly replaced it with a bigger and better-looking camel," Reuters quoted an unnamed Malian official as saying. "The new camel will be sent to Paris. We are ashamed of what happened to the camel. It was a present that did not deserve this fate."
France currently has 4,000 troops in Mali, backed by thousands of Malian, Chadian and other African forces. France's defence ministry said this week it had started the withdrawal of its forces from Mali.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-22089457