FOREIGN AFFAIRS MINISTER RENEWS PLEDGE TO

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 BAMAKO 000245 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/20/2019 TAGS: PGOV PINS PINR PREL ASEC PTER ML SUBJECT: FOREIGN AFFAIRS MINISTER RENEWS PLEDGE TO IMPLEMENT ALGIERS ACCORDS REF: A. BAMAKO 00107 ¶B. 08 BAMAKO 00366 ¶C. 08 BAMAKO 00558 Classified By: Political Officer Aaron Sampson, Embassy Bamako, for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d) 1.(C) Summary: In prepared remarks delivered to the diplomatic corps on April 14, Minister of Foreign Affairs Moctar Ouane reaffirmed Mali's support for the Algiers Accords and asked the international community to "redouble" its efforts to support development in the north. The Malian government periodically holds this sort of event to renew its vow, before the press and international community, to implement the Algiers Accords. Minister Ouane said the UN was in the process of downgrading its security threat rating for Kidal in order to restart development projects, and hinted that other donor organizations should follow suit. Although Minister Ouane was addressing foreign diplomats, his message and timing seemed more geared toward dissuading restive Tuaregs in the north fom attempting to protest Algiers Accords delays by disrupting April 26 local elections in Kidal. Minister of Territorial Administration Kafougouna Kone - who signed the 2006 Algiers Accords on Mali's behalf and is also in charge of administering local elections - sat beside Minister Ouane during the presentation but made no separate remarks. While there is no indication of potential electoral unrest in Kidal or elsewhere on April 26, more speeches from Bamako about the eventual implementation of the Algiers Accords is unlikely to impress Tuareg rebel leaders. End Summary. -------------- The Minister's Message -------------- 2.(U) Minister Ouane described the various Tuareg rebel disarmament ceremonies held in Tessalit and Kidal on February 13, 15, and 17 as a "big victory" for the Malian people (Ref. A). Ouane thanked President Amadou Toumani Toure as well as the governments of Algeria and Libya for making this victory possible, and said disarmament had created the conditions necessary for implementation of the Algiers Accords and recommendations from the March 2007 Kidal Forum. Minister Ouane said the Malian government was convinced that these conditions would translate into an improved rating for the region of Kidal per the United Nations' security risk assessment scale. He added that the UN system's resident representative in Bamako was now in the process of re-evaluating Kidal's security situation in order to resume development assistance to the north. 3.(U) Ouane told the dip corps that President Toure had personally ordered the "rapid" creation of special mixed units following the Tuareg rebel Alliance for Democracy and Change's (ADC) return to Kidal on the one hand, and the implementation of programs designed to promote social cohesion, governance, peace, security and investment all financed either by the Malian government or international donors. He also alluded to the roughly CFA 1 billion (USD 2 million) set aside by Mali and Algeria for the "economic re-insertion" of demilitarized youth and said the Malian government institution responsible for this program - the Northern Development Agency (ADN) - has already drafted standard operating procedures governing the disbursement of re-insertion payments. 4.(U) Based on the Algiers Accords, Mali has identified ten development projects as priorities for northern Mali, provided international technical and financial partners approve - and, presumably, assist with the funding. Ouane did not list these projects, saying only that they included road and airports in Gao and Kidal. Mali is also hoping the international community will help Mali achieve its Ten Year Development Program for northern Mali, running from 2007 to 2016, apparently based on findings emanating from the March 2007 Kidal Forum. 5.(U) Minister Ouane closed by asking the diplomatic corps to join with Mali to "redouble" efforts to implement Mali's policy of decentralization in the north, and described the creation of a more formal "consultation mechanism" between the Malian government and international donors as an "ardent necessity" to reinforce social cohesion, reduce poverty, provide greater access to health care, education and potable water, and implement infrastructure improvements across Mali's three northern regions. "Certainly," said Ouane, "this is the first responsibility of the Malian government, which knows that it can also count on the support and BAMAKO 00000245 002 OF 002 assistance of your respective countries and organizations as well as your personal engagement...We await with interest the opportunity to formalize all of this with you during our future discussions." -------------- Comment: Actions Speak Louder... -------------- 6.(C) Foreign Minister Ouane's latest public statement on the Algiers Accords comes two years after the highly praised but ultimately inconclusive March 2007 Kidal Forum. Since then, Minister Ouane and Territorial Administration Minister Kone have periodically emerged to restate Malian commitments to the Accords while at the same time reminding international donors of the need for increased commitments, and Tuareg rebels of the need to stay calm. Notably absent from Minister Ouane's most recent statement was any reference to Mali's supposed fulfillment of 15 of the Algiers Accords' 18 points. This rather odd claim was first publicly articulated by Minister Kone in April 2008 (Ref. B) and later reiterated by Minister Ouane (Ref. C). It was never clear just how Mali calculated 18 points in the Algiers Accords document, nor which fifteen of these Mali supposedly implemented. 7.(C) Since this assertion was widely mocked by Tuaregs and others, it is encouraging that Minister Ouane elected not to bring it up again in 2009. However, he replaced this language with equally vague references to ten unnamed "priority" projects in the north, to include: renovating the airports in Gao and Kidal and paving northern roads. Neither Mali nor the international community has funds available for these big-ticket items. Minister Ouane's scoop regarding UN plans to downgrade its security threat rating for northern Mali in order to restart aid assistance seemed rather odd given that the UN's Special Envoy to Niger is still somewhere in northern Mali, held hostage by AQIM. While the threat posed by Tuareg rebels is clearly diminished for the time being, the recent spate of AQIM kidnappings has rendered northern Mali more dangerous, at least for western diplomats and aid workers, than at any time in the past. 8.(C) The Foreign Minister's statement, however, was likely not geared toward those compelled to listen to it at the presidency in Bamako. Delivered just two weeks before Mali's April 26 local elections, Minister Ouane and Minister Kone's appearance seemed more geared toward kicking the Algiers Accords football slightly farther down the road, beyond election day, to tamp down any desire by restive Tuaregs in Kidal to embarrass the central government by disrupting proceedings on election day. Since several rebel figures are also running for office, the likelihood for election related violence in Kidal appears slim. Like the Malian government, however, the Tuareg rebellion has also become decentralized, making it more and more difficult to predict which group of Tuareg youths may decide to take matters into their own hands. 9.(C) Constituting mixed military units in Kidal would be a much more effective, and lasting, way to prevent renewed acts of rebellion in the north. Although Minister Ouane sought to present Malian commitment to these units in a positive light - stating that President Toure had personally directed his government to actively undertake the "rapid" creation of mixed units - he attached the mixed units to broader, long-term programs targeting "social cohesion", governmental capacity building, peace, and security more worthy of Mali's Ten Year plan for northern development. LEONARD