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.

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The Minister's Message
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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

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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."

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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