Mali absent: West African bloc seeks unity government in Bamako

[Bilal Mahmud المكافح المخلص]

OUAGADOUGOU - West African presidents met Saturday with civil leaders from Mali in a bid to secure a national

Where’s interim president Traore? In Paris

Burkina Faso's President opens talks in Ouagadougou with five other regional heads of state but with Mali's transitional leaders notable by their absence.

unity government to tackle a crisis in the north where Islamists have enforced Sharia law.

Burkina Faso's President Blaise Compaore, a mediator for the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), opened the talks in Ouagadougou with five other regional heads of state but with Mali's transitional leaders notable by their absence.

The main objectives were to consider how to give Mali a consensus government and "take urgent steps to confront the terrorist peril in the north of the country," Compaore said.

Mali's interim president Dioncounda Traore has been receiving medical care in Paris since being attacked in his office in May and will not be attending.

A senior lawmaker said Thursday that Traore's decision to stay away had less to do with his condition than with perceptions in his home country, where he has not returned since the incident.

No reason was given for the absence of Prime Minister Cheikh Modibo Diarra, though his relations with ECOWAS have been strained as the regional grouping looks for a more "inclusive" government in Mali.

Renegade soldiers who toppled the elected president on March 22 later agreed under intense regional and international pressure to hand power back to a civilian administration but have retained considerable influence.

The Popular Movement of 22 March, which supports the coup, also announced it would not participate in Saturday's meeting.

Current ECOWAS chairman Alassane Ouattara, president of Ivory Coast, said "we cannot tolerate the partition of a brother country."

He urged Traore to return to Bamako quickly and called for a broad-based government to be set up with a precise action plan for returning a reunited Mali to democracy.

Politicians, religious and trade union leaders were present at the talks but representatives from the north walked out just before the opening for an unknown reason.

The coup left Mali effectively split in two, with Islamist groups linked to Al-Qaeda controlling the north, a territory larger than France or Texas.

For ECOWAS the urgent priority is to reinforce and stabilise Mali's transitional authorities in order to handle the crisis in the north.

The option of a military intervention by a regional force to restore the country's territorial integrity is also on the table, although such a move would require the United Nations' blessing.

The UN Security Council on Thursday passed a resolution calling for sanctions against Al-Qaeda-linked fighters blamed for the desecration of the tombs of Muslim saints in the north.

The council expressed "deep concern" at the increased terrorist threat in the region due to the presence of the Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) fighters. The group has been blamed for kidnappings and attacks in several west and North African countries.

But the council held back from giving a UN mandate to any west African force to help the interim government take back territory from the Islamist rebels.

ECOWAS says it has a force of 3,300 soldiers ready to deploy to Mali and try to recapture the desert region.

Guinean President Alpha Conde said on Tuesday that the bloc wants the request for military intervention to come from a broader unity government in Mali, an issue that leaders hoped to settle on Saturday.

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