EXECUTION OF TWO TUAREGS IN KIDAL SETS MALI ON EDGE

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 BAMAKO 000366 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/14/2018 TAGS: ASEC PINS PINR PHUM ML SUBJECT: EXECUTION OF TWO TUAREGS IN KIDAL SETS MALI ON EDGE REF: A. BAMAKO 00364 ¶B. 07 BAMAKO 01255 Classified By: Political Officer Aaron Sampson, Embassy Bamako, for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d) 1.(C) Summary: Two members of the Tuareg rebel Alliance for Democracy and Change (ADC) were executed on April 10-11 near the perimeter of the Malian military base in Kidal. The victims bodies' were found with their arms and legs bound and their throats cut. Each had also been shot seven times. Kidal Tuaregs, including the ADC and Ibrahim Bahanga's Northern Mali Tuareg Alliance for Change (ATNMC),have accused the Malian military of carrying out the executions. Remaining ADC forces have left Kidal, although there is no indication these forces have aligned themselves with Bahanga. Citizens are also reportedly fleeing the town. The Malian Minister of Security was scheduled to fly to Kidal on April 12 to attempt to calm the situation but did not leave Bamako. Meanwhile, Minister of Foreign Affairs Moctar Ouane has traveled to Algiers to smooth over relations with Algeria and re-start the peace process that failed last week in Tripoli. On April 12 the Minister of Territorial Administration, General Kafougouna Kone, appeared on Malian television to provide the Malian government's view of the Algiers Accords implementation process. A dozen Kidal Tuareg leaders currently in Bamako will meet with President Amadou Toumani Toure and perhaps General Kone this afternoon in what may be a last-ditch attempt to prevent Mali from, in the words of one member of the Tuareg delegation, "going past the point of no return." End Summary. -------------- Two Tuareg ADC Members Executed in Kidal -------------- 2.(C) Commandant Barka ag Cheikh and Mohammed ag Moussa were killed on April 10-11 outside the Malian military base in Kidal. Graphic photographs of their bodies, with bound hands and feet, have been posted to numerous Tuareg websites and were reprinted by several Bamako based newspapers on April ¶14. Theories of who carried out the killings abound. Tuaregs believe that ag Cheikh and ag Moussa were summarily executed by the Malian military. An April 13 statement issued by the ATNMC blamed a Malian army Captain named Toure and a Lieutenant Douda for ordering the "assassinations." Non-Tuaregs have speculated that the killings were the result of internal Tuareg feuds or staged by the ADC or ATNMC to bring tensions to a boil. 3.(C) Commandant ag Cheikh served in the Malian National Guard. He was assigned to one of the mixed military units, which exist largely in name only, created under the 2006 Algiers Accords signed by Mali and the ADC and wounded while participating in the ADC's May 26, 2006, attacks against Malian military outposts in Kidal and Menaka. Ag Cheikh was apparently buried on April 11-12 in Kidal without the military honors normally accorded to a fallen member of the Malian military - a point which has further inflamed tensions in Kidal. Mohammed ag Moussa was the brother of Hama Moussa, an ADC officer and well-known illicit trafficker. Various reports also describe Mohammed as an Imam or a Marabout. -------------- Kidal in Turmoil -------------- 4.(C) Following the killings, several hundred members of the ADC led by Moussa Bah left Kidal, presumably for the mountains of Tigharghar (not to be confused with the ATNMC's base in Tinzawaten) where the ADC camped following the March 2006 attacks. Many Kidal civilians are also reportedly fleeing the town, uncertain of the future and fearing attacks from the Malian military. The only ADC members reportedly still in Kidal are ADC spokesman Ahmada ag Bibi, National Assembly Deputy Alghabass ag Intallah and one or two others. On April 12 ag Bibi reportedly told the Governor of Kidal, Alhamdou ag Illyen, that by cutting the throats of ag Cheikh and ag Moussa, the Malian military had also cut the throat of peace. Ag Bibi also called for a credible investigation into the killings. Ag Bibi has been in Kidal for two months to keep the ADC from leaving the town (Ref A). On April 14 he told the Ambassador that he was returning to Bamako at the request of President Toure for consultations on the crisis. ATNMC spokesman Hama ag Sid'Ahmed (Bahanga's father-in-law) issued a call for a credible investigation and urged the involvement of the international community. BAMAKO 00000366 002 OF 003 5.(C) The Malian Minister of Security Sadio Gassama was supposed to fly to Kidal on April 12 to calm the situation and start the inquiry process. A source from within the Malian presidency reported that Gassama was unable to leave Bamako due to mechanical problems with his plane. Ag Bibi, however, told the Embassy on April 14 that Gassama had called to convey his condolences to the ADC and explain that he had decided not to travel to Kidal for fear that someone would fire on his plane. -------------- Foreign Minister to Algiers -------------- 6.(C) Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Moctar Ouane left during the weekend of April 12-13 for Algiers. Ouane's mission to Algiers is twofold. He will attempt to patch up relations with Algeria, which was angered first by President Toure's decision to implicate Libya as a second mediator for northern Mali and then by an article in a Malian newspaper reportedly close to the presidency that alleged Algeria was actively encouraging and supporting Bahanga and the ATNMC. He will then seek to re-start peace talks with the ATNMC that failed last week in Tripoli. Oumarou ag Ibrahim Haidara, the president of Mali's second house of parliament, the High Council of Collectivities (HCC),accompanied Ouane to Algiers. Oumarou is a Tuareg from Timbuktu who likely has little to no influence over Tuaregs from Kidal. The real power-broker for Kidal Tuaregs, Iyad ag Ghali, is believed to still be in Libya - perhaps in regard to on-going attempts to secure the freedom of two Austrian nationals held by AQIM in another region of northern Mali. 7.(U) On April 14 the Malian newspaper, L'Aube, responsible for angering the Algerians last week, published a new article wondering how, after such a prolonged war for independence and so many years of civil war, Algerian diplomats could be so thin-skinned. The article also noted that the Algerian newspaper El Watan - which often publishes interviews with key Tuareg rebels like Bahanga, Hassan Fagaga and others - and an unnamed Algerian radio station often described Mali as a "rogue state." -------------- Generals Kone and Coulibaly on TV -------------- 8.(C) On April 13 the Minister of Territorial Administration, General Kafougouna Kone, appeared on Malian television along with President Toure's personal military advisor, General Brahima Coulibaly, to give an accounting of the talks in Tripoli and a resume of Mali's progress toward implementing the Algiers Accords. Acherif Moulaye Haidara, a Ministry of Territorial Administration official charged with overseeing the Algiers Accords implementation process, and Mamadou Nadio, the National Director of the UN supported International Fund for Agricultural Development (FIDA) which is very active in Kidal, also appeared. General Kone, who was President Toure's commanding officer in 1991 when then Col. Toure orchestrated a popular uprising that overthrew former military dictator Moussa Traore, is one of the President's most trusted military advisors. General Kone and Haidara told the nation that Mali had already implemented 15 out of 18 aspects of the Algiers Accords. General Coulibaly provided a brief rundown of the failed talks in Tripoli and said Mali could not return to prior troop levels in the north without a lasting cease-fire and peace agreement. Nadio then related various development activities in Kidal undertaken by FIDA and the Malian government. -------------- Comment: From Bad to Worse -------------- 9.(C) The brutal murders of ag Cheikh and ag Moussa added a new and explosive element to what was, until the night of April 10-11, a smoldering tug-of-war between Bahanga's ATNMC and the Malian military. It is unlikely that we will ever know who is responsible for the executions. There is a recent precedent for Malian soldiers killing enlisted Tuaregs. In October 2007 Malian soldiers beat and murdered at Tuareg gendarme in Gao (Ref B). To our knowledge, no soldiers were formally charged in connection to this murder. While the identity of the killers clearly matters for the relatives of those murdered and also for Kidal Tuaregs, absent a credible inquiry - which appears extremely unlikely BAMAKO 00000366 003 OF 003 given that even the Minister of Security is afraid to travel to Kidal - northern Mali's stability may hinge on Tuareg perceptions of who orchestrated the killings. On April 11 there was some debate within the Tuareg community over whether ag Cheikh and ag Moussa were killed by Malian soldiers or fellow Tuaregs. By April 12 Tuareg opinion had clearly settled on the former. Postings to the main website for Kidal Tuaregs since the killings, www.kidal.info, reinforce this assessment. Normally a rather sleepy website where Tuaregs post information about development projects, the numbers of posts to Kidal.info exploded over the weekend, with several urging fellow Tuaregs to prepare themselves to take up arms against the Malian government as Tuaregs did in 1963 and 1991. 10.(C) President Toure's actions over the next few days will likely be crucial. The executions may have opened a second - or perhaps third if one counts the group that attacked Aguelhoc on March 26 - Tuareg rebel front by shifting the ADC back into the category of actively opposing the Malian government. This does not mean that the ADC will align itself with Bahanga and the ATNMC. Mali's 1990-1996 rebellion was characterized by an alphabet soup of Tuareg, Arab and Songhrai rebel groups. A delegation of about a dozen Kidal Tuaregs currently in Bamako expects to meet with President Toure, and perhaps also General Kafougouna Kone, during the afternoon of April 14. The delegation includes National Assembly Deputy Mohammed Intallah, Abdurahmane Ghalla, presidential advisor Acherif ag Mohamed and former Minister Mohamed ag Erlaf. One member of the group, Acherif ag Mohamed, told the Embassy on April 12 that the executions of ag Cheikh and ag Moussa likely pushed Mali's Tuareg crisis past the point of no return. The upcoming meeting with President Toure may confirm or dispel Acherif's diagnosis. MCCULLEY