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C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 BAMAKO 000011 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/07/2020 
TAGS: ML PGOV PREL PTER
SUBJECT: MALIAN PRESIDENT ADDRESSES DIPLOMATIC CORPS ON 
NORTHERN MALI 
 
Classified By: Classified By: CDA Peter Henry Barlerin, for reasons 1.4 
 (b) (d). 
 
SUMMARY 
 
¶1.  (C)     Malian President Amadou Toumani Toure (ATT) 
followed his annual formal New Year,s greeting to the 
diplomatic corps with a lengthy private discourse on the 
problems he is facing in the north of Mali.  While 
acknowledging Mali's own shortcomings and without mentioning 
particular nations, in indirect references he voiced 
considerable frustration with many, in particular Algeria, 
Mauritania, Niger, Europe, and to a certain extent, the 
United States. 
 
PROBLEMS OF THE NORTH 
 
¶2.  (C)     ATT,s brief formal televised speech touched on 
issues ranging from climate change to regional security 
challenges (lamenting in particular that he had been so far 
unsuccessful in bringing together Sahelian heads of state for 
their long-awaited conference).  At its conclusion, he 
dismissed the media to make a lengthy private address to the 
assembled diplomats on the problems of the north, speaking at 
times from prepared remarks and at others extemporaneously. 
 
¶3.  (C)     The threat from drug, cigarette, and other 
traffickers is a problem for all of the Saharo-Sahelian 
region, which includes Mauritania, Mali, Algeria, Libya, 
Niger, and Chad.   ATT characterized the May 23, 2006 attacks 
on military bases in Menaka and Kidal and the December 20, 
2008 attack on a Malian military base in Nampala as 
essentially traffickers attempting to clear smuggling lanes 
across the Sahara desert of security forces.   He lamented 
the fact that so much attention had been devoted to Tuareg 
rebel Ibrahim Bahanga, and the "cause" of the rebel movement, 
which he claimed did not represent the Northern Malian 
mainstream. 
 
¶4.  (C)     Mali, with some 700,000 square kilometers of 
harsh, inhospitable desert, finds itself as a crossroads. 
One of Mali's great mistakes, ATT said, was to agree to 
demilitarize the north following peace agreements with the 
Tuareg rebellion in the early 1990s and to reinforce this 
move to demilitarize following the Algiers Accords in 2006. 
As things now stand, the Malian army is confined to bases in 
the cities of Timbuktu, Gao, and Kidal.  The Government has 
failed to set up the special mixed units which were to have 
incorporated former Tuareg and Arab rebels. 
 
NARCOTICS TRAFFICKING 
 
¶5.  (C)     ATT said the government had committed another 
error by failing to announce the mid-October discovery  of a 
Boeing 727 that had been found abandoned and destroyed by 
fire at a remote landing strip in Northern Mali, presumably 
after carrying drugs.  He said that this failure left an open 
field for rumor mongers who claimed Malian government 
complicity.  ATT said that while there may have been 
complicity, it was at a low level, and that these claims are 
being investigated.  Had there been high level complicity, 
there were any number of airports which could have been used. 
 Mali has lodged complaints with Interpol and other 
international bodies.  To date, he said, the Malian 
Government knows nothing about the origins of this plane. 
 
¶6.  (C)     Regarding the recent indictment of three Malian 
citizens in New York, ATT pointed out, rather forcefully, 
that the Government of Mali had not been informed.   If 
asked, the Malian Government would have wanted to participate 
in the investigation.  Whatever the results are, however, 
Mali will cooperate.  He said the three suspects appeared to 
be simple people who did not seem capable of being involved 
in such a conspiracy as was reported in the press. 
Note:  On January 6, DEA Paris provided electronic copies of 
passports, driver licenses,  and other documents taken from 
the suspects at the time of arrest, as well as permission to 
 
BAMAKO 00000011  002 OF 002 
 
 
release a copy of the indictment to the Malian authorities. 
Charge delivered printouts to Ministry of Foreign Affairs 
Secretary General Al-Mamoun Keita.  Keita said it would be 
very helpful if DEA could send a delegation to Bamako to 
brief on the case, and said he would inform the Presidency 
immediately of the receipt of the documents.  End note. 
 
PROBLEMS WITH NEIGHBORS 
 
¶7.  (C)     Turning to relations with neighboring countries, 
ATT stated that Mauritania, Algeria, and Niger have all been 
given authorization to pursue terrorist or criminal elements 
crossing their borders into Mali "all the way to Bamako", if 
necessary.  He said he does not want Mali to become a 
battlefield for other nation's conflicts.  The problems of 
terrorism are not Malian problems, but Mali will help within 
its  means.  Mali has already paid a heavy price.  The June 
10, 2009 assassination of Malian Colonel Lamana Ould Bou, 
during which he was shot five times, three in the head, in 
front of his wife and children at his home in Timbuktu shows 
the kind of people with whom Mali is dealing.  The July 4, 
2009 ambush of Malian troops was a mistake owing to the 
inexperience of the troops, but nevertheless, there are 34 
families who lost their major breadwinners.  How many orphans 
does that make?  Mali has paid a very dear price. 
 
¶8.  (C)  ATT criticized the response of other countries to 
hostage takings.  He said that with the exception of French 
hostage Pierre Camatte, all of the hostages purported to be 
held in Northern Mali were kidnapped in other countries, some 
from very far afield.  And yet, once the hostages disappear 
these other countries simply assert that they have been taken 
to Northern Mali and wash their hands of all efforts to gain 
their liberty.  Why is the problem of ransom payments and 
release of prisoners only a Malian problem?  For my part, he 
said, I will never go to the Salafists with sacks of money -- 
whether it is our own money or someone else's -- because to 
do so would only perpetuate the problem.   He also criticized 
Western news media, who he said did the bidding of the 
Salafists by disseminating news about the hostage takers' 
demands. 
 
UNWILLINGNESS TO COOPERATE 
 
¶9.  (C)  ATT said that the joint command center which was to 
have been set up in Tamanrassett, Algeria has, as of yet, 
failed to be realized.  There has been little or no 
intelligence sharing among neighbors.  He reiterated that the 
Malian government has been trying to organize a summit of 
heads of state of the Sahelo-Saharan region for a long time 
but so far has been unsuccessful.  He vowed to keep trying, 
"because I have talked about it so much that everyone asks me 
when it will take place." 
 
¶10.  (C)  ATT said Mali is appreciative of "certain 
countries" that have helped provide training, trucks and 
other equipment, uniforms, fuel, and food, to support Malian 
army troops in the North.  Nevertheless, Malians are the ones 
not only who have to pay for but also to procure arms and 
ammunition.   The ultimate solution for security in northern 
Mali is development, not military action.  ATT said Mali has 
to help populations living in areas that are under-governed 
or not governed at all to find a way of earning a decent 
living within the limits of the law.   Mali needs an 
effective presence of the national guard, the gendarmerie, 
and the police to be able to allow development to take place. 
 
¶11.  (C)  Comment:  ATT,s remarks were a familiar litany of 
frustrations with stodgy regional cooperation and a resulting 
sense of grievance at a lonely struggle against a problem not 
of Mali,s making.  His plea for greater development as the 
ultimate solution for the north has been annually presented 
in recent years by the Foreign Minister with a broad denial 
of legitimate security concerns for the conduct of 
development activities, making his emphasis on enhanced 
security measures a noteworthy and welcome departure. 
BARLERIN