TOWN HALL MEETING: 2009 FORUM GIVES MALIANS

C O N F I D E N T I A L BAMAKO 000031 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/13/2019 TAGS: KDEM PGOV PHUM ML SUBJECT: TOWN HALL MEETING: 2009 FORUM GIVES MALIANS ONE-ON-ONE TIME WITH GOVERNMENT Classified By: PolCouns Peter Newman, Embassy Bamako, for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d). ¶1. (U) On December 10, 2009, the 14th Democracy Forum was held at Bamako International Convention Center. Started in 1992 by then-President Alpha Oumar Konare, the Forum is the Malian equivalent of an American town hall meeting - an opportunity for citizens to present questions and complaints directly to their elected leaders. An "honor jury" of prominent international jurists and human rights organizations participates and formulates recommendations to the government; the event is attended by the Prime Minister and his entire cabinet. To maximize transparency, the event is shown live on local television. In his address to the Forum, Prime Minister Modibo Sidibe said the purpose of the event was to promote "the culture of human rights and the consolidation of the rule of law." ¶2. (U) This year's event brought a total of 68 questions to the attention of the cabinet, which concerned the work of 16 ministries. Six questions were addressed to the Minister of Territorial Administration, reflecting continued public preoccupation with land disputes, corruption in real estate transactions, and difficulties in obtaining clean land titles (see septel). The Minister of Justice received five questions, the second largest number of citizen inquiries. ¶3. (U) Questions ranged from personal to societal. At one extreme, Yacouba Traore complained to the Minister of Higher Education that he did not receive his engineering diploma because a clerical error put the wrong name on the document. Minister Siby Ginette Bellegarde promised the mistake would be rectified. A widow pleaded with the Minister of Justice to find her husband's killers, notwithstanding the 20 years since his murder. The Minister of Justice demurred, explaining that an investigation had taken place, but no leads had ever been developed. Touching issues of more global reach, Sambou Fane, representing the association "Those without Voice," asked the government to indemnify Bamako residents whose lands had been seized without compensation by the mayor of Bamako. Amnesty International voiced concern over corruption, violence against women, poverty, and the environment. ¶4. (C) The 2009 Forum brought forward fewer questions than in previous years. In a meeting with PolOff on December 21, Issaga Fofana, of the Malian Association for Human Rights, said the Democracy Forum often led nowhere because there is no mechanism in place to force government action. Former "honor jury" chairwoman and current Mediator of the Republic, M,Bam Diatigui Diarra, agreed with this assessment, and directly attributed the relatively low turnout to the lack of follow-through. In a meeting with PolOff on December 23, she lamented that, "When we first started (the Democracy Forum), the rooms were packed. Now, no one comes." ¶5. (C) On the other hand, Diarra pointed out that her current office, the Mediator of the Republic, is itself the fruit of a recommendation stemming from the honor jury of the second Democracy Forum, which dated from the mid 1990s. The government could also point to other accomplishments. The Minister of Justice, Maharafa Traore, indicated during his address to the Forum that the government had taken a number of steps to address concerns raised at last year,s Forum. Specifically, the Minister of Justice pointed to steps taken to ease overcrowding in Bamako's prisons, conferences to study the daunting issue of land reform, and government initiatives to stimulate youth employment opportunities. BARLERIN