Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
09BAMAKO194
2009-03-30 13:02:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Bamako
Cable title:  

FORM OVER FUNCTION: MALI'S FIGHT AGAINST

Tags:  PGOV PHUM KTIP ML 
pdf how-to read a cable
VZCZCXRO3867
RR RUEHPA
DE RUEHBP #0194/01 0891302
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
R 301302Z MAR 09
FM AMEMBASSY BAMAKO
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 0181
INFO RUEHZK/ECOWAS COLLECTIVE
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 BAMAKO 000194 

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/23/2019
TAGS: PGOV PHUM KTIP ML
SUBJECT: FORM OVER FUNCTION: MALI'S FIGHT AGAINST
TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS

REF: A. BAMAKO 00112

B. BAMAKO 00005

Classified By: Political Officer Aaron Sampson, Embassy Bamako,
for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d).
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 BAMAKO 000194

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/23/2019
TAGS: PGOV PHUM KTIP ML
SUBJECT: FORM OVER FUNCTION: MALI'S FIGHT AGAINST
TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS

REF: A. BAMAKO 00112

B. BAMAKO 00005

Classified By: Political Officer Aaron Sampson, Embassy Bamako,
for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d).

1.(SBU) Summary: On March 18 the Embassy attended a meeting
of Mali's National Directorate for the Advancement of
Children and the Family to review results of Mali's
cooperative agreement with neighboring Burkina Faso on the
prevention of child trafficking. The National Directorate is
charged with leading Malian efforts against child
trafficking. Other attendees included officials from various
Malian government Ministries, local NGO representatives,
UNICEF, and UNDP. Billed as a review of Malian government
statistics and achievements in advance of an upcoming March
23-24 bilateral summit with Burkina on child trafficking, the
meeting was immediately bogged down by disagreements over the
style and form of the Directorate's Power Point presentation
for the Burkina summit. The meeting ended without a review
of relevant data, forcing the Directorate to travel to
Burkina with a painstakingly edited but perhaps not so
well-informed presentation. While the March 18 meeting
yielded no additional statistics, it provided a sobering
insight into the Directorate's chronic lack of documentation
regarding Malian anti-TIP efforts. End Summary.

-------------- ---
A Meeting with Promise...Delivers Disappointment
-------------- ---

2.(SBU) On March 18 the Embassy attended Mali's annual
review of its cooperative agreement with Burkina Faso against
child trafficking. The National Directorate and its
Director, Dr. Alou Barry, report to the Ministry for the
Advancement of Women, Children, and the Family (MPFEF) and
serve as the Malian government's clearinghouse for TIP
related issues. The annual review gathered most of the main
actors involved anti-TIP activities in Mali, including UNICEF
and UNESCO, local NGOs, and representatives from the
Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Interior Security, and
Territorial Administration. The meeting was intended to
provide stake holders with a chance to help the Directorate
compile and review TIP statistics in advance of a March 23-24
bilateral summit with Burkina on child trafficking.

3.(SBU) Under Dr. Barry's direction, however, the meeting
immediately bogged down over questions about the style and
format of the Directorate's Power Point presentation. With
no substantive discussion of statistics in sight, the Embassy
left, more than an hour after the meeting began.
Participants who remained until the end later reported that
no data was discussed and that the Directorate intended to
depart for Burkina with a carefully edited but poorly vetted
Power Point presentation on child trafficking statistics for

2008.

--------------
Comment: Statistical (In)Significance
--------------

4.(SBU) Unable to compare its statistics with those
accumulated by local and international organizations, an
apparently unprepared National Directorate for the Promotion
of Children departed for the Burkina summit armed with a
suspect data sheet seemingly compiled only in response to a
February 2009 request from the Embassy for child trafficking
statistics. According to this spread sheet, 21 Malian
children - all male - were repatriated to Mali in 2008.
Another five Malian child trafficking victims were
intercepted by Malian authorities and returned to their
families during the year. Forty-one child trafficking
victims, including 7 with Burkina nationality, were
repatriated from Mali back to their respective countries.

5.(SBU) Unfortunately, much of the Directorate's data
contradicts information acquired separately from local and
international NGOs involved in caring for child trafficking
victims in Mali. The spread sheet also claims that the three
child traffickers arrested in western Mali in March 2008
remain under "house arrest" in Kita despite overwhelming
evidence - which we have on several occasions relayed
directly to Dr. Barry - that the traffickers left town after
Malian judicial authorities in Kita released them pending
trial (Ref. A). These apparent inconsistencies could have
been corrected, or at least discussed, had Dr. Barry allowed
those attending the March 18 meeting to focus on Mali's child
trafficking data as opposed to the format of his Power Point
presentation.

6.(C) The bizarre March 18 meeting, and the Directorate's
decision to depart for Burkina with unvetted child

BAMAKO 00000194 002.7 OF 002


trafficking statistics, encapsulated the challenges
confronting those attempting to simply document Malian
efforts to combat child trafficking. In December 2008 one of
the main NGOs working to prevent child trafficking and care
for trafficking victims in Mali sounded a note of concern
about the organization of the Directorate and per diem
demands from Malian government officials whose official
duties seemingly include working with local NGOs to prevent
trafficking (Ref. B). Many of this NGO's concerns focused on
Dr. Barry, who is frequently unreachable and unresponsive.
This description mirrored the Embassy's own findings. There
are many capable, sincere, and dedicated officials within the
Malian Ministries charged with preventing child trafficking
and carrying for trafficking victims. Unfortunately, Dr.
Barry does not appear to be one of them and the National
Directorate will likely remain directionless as long as he
remains at the helm.
MILOVANOVIC