A STOLEN MILITARY VEHICLE? DEPENDS WHO YOU TALK TO

C O N F I D E N T I A L BAMAKO 000679 SENSITIVE SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/20/2019 TAGS: PINS PGOV MARR MCAP ML SUBJECT: A STOLEN MILITARY VEHICLE? DEPENDS WHO YOU TALK TO Classified By: PolCouns Peter Newman for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d) ¶1. (C) Several POL contacts recently reported that on September 29 militia elements close to a Malian Army Colonel stole a vehicle from the Malian Army's base in Kidal city. The contacts said about five to seven armed perpetrators entered the base in broad daylight and with no resistance from Army units. The alleged mastermind has been implicated in the carjacking and murder of a Norwegian citizen in Mali in 2000. DAO contacts in the Ministry of Defense denied a vehicle had been stolen from the base, reasoning that the Army Colonel could have requisitioned the vehicle through the normal chain of command, rather than sending a civilian proxy to steal it. ¶2. (C) There seems to be confusion as to whether a vehicle is missing or not, and if it is missing, whether it was requisitioned under some normally accepted procedure or whether it was stolen in broad daylight under the noses of, or with the complicity of, Kidal-based soldiers. Needless to say, it is difficult to account for something that is not missing, but the rumors exist that it was stolen. ¶3. (C) With the French having recently donated a number of vehicles to the Malian Army and the United States having turned over 37 vehicles with radios and other equipment on October 20, we will continue to press the military to establish and maintain good command and control procedures to safeguard the use of its equipment. The French defense attache recently noted that their strategy will be to "trust but verify" and to react quickly and forcefully if vehicles are used for other than their stated purpose, let alone go missing. For our part, the Office of Security Cooperation has sent to the Minister of Defense a detailed letter specifying that the vehicles and other equipment we are donating to the Echelons Tactiques Interarmes are meant to stay with those units and outlining our expectation that they be well maintained and made available for the units' participation in Joint Combined Exchange Training exercises with the U.S. Military. MILOVANOVIC