UN accuses the Malian Army of "war crimes”
The International Commission on Mali, established in the region since the 2015 Peace Agreement and composed of Sweden's Lena Sundh, Cameroon's Simon Munzu and Mauritius' Vinod Boolell, accuses the Malian army of "war crimes" as well as several armed extremist groups of "crimes against humanity". The conclusions come after an investigation carried out between 2012 and 2016. The report, sent to UN Secretary General António Guterres, was sent to the 15 members of the Security Council in mid-December.
In the document, which is about 350 pages long, the researchers conclude that the Commission "has reasonable grounds to believe that the Malian security and defence forces committed war crimes, including violence against the lives of civilians and persons hors de combat and not suspected of being affiliated or cooperating with armed extremist groups". So far, the only source of access to the report has been the AFP agency.
Its findings may provide a new legal basis for prosecuting similar cases in the future. However, the Malian army is not the only defendant, but the first in a long list that includes armed groups such as the Touareg rebels of the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA) and other pro-government armed groups such as GATIA and the CMFPR-1. Also the Dan Nan Ambassagou militia, set up as the defender of the Dogons-a non-Muslim Malian population-accused of the murder of 39 civilians, including children. Although they call themselves a "self-defence militia" against the Jihadists.
The attacks include "killings, mutilations and other cruel treatment, rape and other forms of sexual violence, hostage-taking and attacks against personnel of humanitarian organisations and MINUSMA". Carlos Echevarría Jesús, professor of international relations at the UNED and researcher at the IEEE, stated in a publication issued in 2017 that the latter is defined as "the most dangerous of all the UN's peace missions", as in June of that year it had 115 members killed in only four years of existence.
Last February, the organisation Human Rights Watch warned that "several armed groups in Mali have intensified their attacks on civilians, massacring people in their villages and executing men taken from public transport vehicles because of their ethnic origin". The indiscriminate attacks did not end there, "many villagers were burned alive, while others were blown up by explosive devices.
The accusation serves as the culmination of the institutional chaos in which the country is immersed. The pressing insecurity caused by the Islamist threat, together with the growing intercommunity violence, plus the economic and health crisis, were the origin of the coup d'état in August. The forced resignation of former president Boubacar Keita led to the establishment of a transitional government led by Bah Ndaw, the former defence minister.
Appointed to the post on 21 September by the military junta that emerged from the coup, Ndaw is accompanied by Assimi Goita, the leader of the coup, as vice president. Days later Moctar Ouane was appointed prime minister and on 5 December told various international media that the Malian government was open to dialogue with the terrorist groups.
Yesterday, the Constitutional Court of Mali also ruled against several articles of the document regulating the functions of the transitional parliament and has demanded that they be brought into line with the Constitution. The institution contradicts the transition period of 18 months from Ndaw's inauguration, included in the agreed roadmap. The strategic committee of the M5-RFP, which acts as the opposition, harshly criticised the "militarisation of the institutions" and the "neglect of political parties and movements", once the unity government had been overthrown.
Since its independence from France in 1959, four coups d'état have taken place in Mali. The current context is still marked by the 2012 uprising. The fall of Gaddafi in Libya allowed the Touareg separatists in northern Mali to gather weapons and carry out a revolution to create the Republic of Azawad, which was only stopped by French troops. The deep instability expelled the then President Amadou Toumani Touré, a coup d'état by means of and, since 2012, Islamist radicalism, institutional corruption and the catalytic effect of the COVID-19 have been the perfect breeding ground for a scenario that tends to repeat itself.
