VZCZCXRO1561
RR RUEHPA
DE RUEHBP #0694/01 3001627
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
R 271627Z OCT 09
FM AMEMBASSY BAMAKO
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 0835
INFO RUEHZK/ECOWAS COLLECTIVE
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 BAMAKO 000694 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/22/2019 
TAGS: PGOV PHUM ML
SUBJECT: MANEUVERING CONTINUES AROUND FAMILY CODE 
 
REF: A. BAMAKO 551 
     ¶B. BAMAKO 580 
 
Classified By: PolCouns Peter Newman for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d). 
 
1.(C) Summary: On October 5, the National Assembly opened its 
fall budgetary session with controversy surrounding the 
Family Code still brewing.  The National Assembly President 
expressed confidence that a Family Code acceptable to all 
parties would be developed and enacted, while condemning 
"certain persons" who had crossed the line of decency during 
the heated exchanges of late August.  Meanwhile, the High 
Council of Islam (HCI) released to the press proposed 
amendments to the Code which, if accepted, would gut the new 
Family Code of many of its modernizing provisions.  This is 
an opening position for what is likely to be a lengthy, 
drawn-out debate.  End Summary. 
 
---------------------- 
"TOTALLY IN AGREEMENT" 
---------------------- 
 
¶2. (SBU) On October 5, the National Assembly held the 
ceremonial first meeting of its fall session.  The ten-week 
session, usually devoted to adopting the government's budget 
for the next year, opens this year with the distinct 
possibility of being overshadowed by the continuing 
controversy surrounding the Family Code.  The National 
Assembly passed the new Family Code overwhelmingly on August 
3, just prior to the legislative recess.  As reported ref B, 
in response to widespread religious and rural opposition, 
President Amadou Toumani Toure (ATT) on August 26 sent the 
code back to the National Assembly for revision.  This 
decision was viewed as a victory for those Islamic groups 
opposed to the Code and a blow to the prestige of the 
National Assembly. 
 
¶3. (SBU) On the subject of the Family Code, National Assembly 
President Diouncounda Traore declared the National Assembly 
"totally in agreement" with President Amadou Toumani Toure's 
(ATT's) "courageous" decision to return the Code to the 
National Assembly for a second reading.  Traore insisted that 
sending the Code back to the National Assembly was consistent 
with Malian law and its traditions, and that it in no way 
reflected any institutional crisis in Mali.  Traore invited 
all Malians to "serenely participate" in the upcoming debate, 
and predicted confidently, "I have no doubt we will arrive at 
a Code that respects human rights and with which all agree." 
 
----------- 
"CALUMNIES" 
----------- 
 
¶4. (SBU) While respectful of opponents of the Family Code, 
Traore condemned "calumnies delivered by certain persons" 
during the more heated exchanges of late August.  Embassy 
contacts note Traore was alluding specifically to an August 
23 cassette tape by the preacher Bandiougou Doumbia, also 
Secretary for Religious Affairs of the Union of Young Muslims 
in Mali (UJMMA).  The cassette targeted ATT, the Prime 
Minister, the Minister of Justice, the President of the 
National Assembly, and two female deputies, Coulibaly 
Kadiatou Samake and Safiatou Traore.  It suggested a coup 
d'etat would be in the best interest of Mali, that the Prime 
Minister was not a Muslim, that the Minister of Justice had 
shamed his family, that the two female National Assembly 
deputies were prostitutes, and that National Assembly 
President Traore had visited a brothel with 14 year-old 
girls. 
 
¶5. (SBU) Condemnation of the tape was nearly universal. 
Leaders of the High Council of Islam critized Doumbia and 
distanced themselves from his statements.  Influential 
Islamic leaders such as Madane Cherif Ousmane Haidara 
characterized the personal attacks as inexcusable and 
misplaced.  The National Youth Council likewise condemned 
Doumbia for his intemperance.  On September 7, ATT met with a 
delegation of religious leaders, oddly including Doumbia, 
shortly before sending the Family Code back to the National 
Assembly for a second reading.  Although Doumbia offered 
apologies to ATT, some commentators felt ATT's inclusion of 
him in the delegation only legitimized the preacher's 
incendiary behavior. 
 
----------------------- 
THE PROPOSED AMENDMENTS 
----------------------- 
 
¶6. (SBU) Following ATT's decision to return the Family Code 
to the National Assembly for a second reading, the High 
Council of Islam set up a commission to review HCI's twelve 
objections to the Family Code (see reftels) and draft a list 
 
BAMAKO 00000694  002 OF 002 
 
 
of proposed amendments for the National Assembly to consider. 
 On October 4, the commission presented its proposals at a 
meeting of over a thousand Islamic leaders gathered at the 
International Conference Center of Bamako. 
 
¶7. (SBU) The proposed amendments, if accepted, would gut the 
Family Code of many of its modernizing provisions.  The HCI 
commission recommended cutting provisions which would provide 
a modicum of protection to children born out of wedlock. 
Concerning a provision which would allow husband and wives to 
maintain separate domiciles, the HCI sought to add the 
restriction "with the husband's consent."  Concerning the 
provision stating that husbands and wives owe each other 
mutual respect, the HCI sought to add, "the wife owes 
obedience to her husband."  Other proposed amendments 
restrict a widow's right to inherit property from her 
husband's estate. 
 
¶8. (C) Less controversial from a U.S. perspective, another 
HCI proposal sought to offer legal recognition to religious 
marriage ceremonies.  Embassy contacts note the government 
opposes this modification, on grounds that it is inconsistent 
with the principle of separation of church and state as 
inherited from the French legal tradition. 
 
-------------------------- 
NEVER FORGET THE PROVINCES 
-------------------------- 
 
¶9. (C) Irrespective of the controversies over specific 
aspects of the law, the Family Code episode demonstrates a 
lack of political savvy on the government's part and a 
failure of MPs to consult with key elements of their 
constituencies.  To the extent that the government engaged in 
consultations during the more than ten year development of 
the Code, it apparently did not sufficiently engage political 
and religious leaders in rural areas and regions far removed 
from the capital.  Oumou Sall, for example, the mayor of 
Goundam, in Timbuktu province, told the Embassy that nobody 
-- neither the governmental officials drafting the bill nor 
the National Assembly deputy representing Goundam -- 
consulted her or anyone in her municipality about the likely 
local reaction to the bill.  Similarly, Moussa Ag Ali, an 
Imam and Kidal's representative on the HCI, told the Embassy 
on October 3 that pressure to change the Family Code did not 
originate with the Bamako-based leadership of the HCI, but 
rather its provincial membership.  Both Sall and Ag Ali 
indicated that the lack of consultation with the population 
outside the capital would not have been so frustrating except 
that the Family Code was perceived to be one of the few 
pieces of legislation that intimately affects daily life of 
people across the nation.  Conversations with Malians of all 
faiths, not just Muslims, indicate anecdotally that 
traditional as well as Islamic norms are perceived as having 
been disregarded by the revised Family Code. 
 
MILOVANOVIC