A key player in the crisis in Mali proposed to the soldiers who took power a transition from 18 to 24 months, in full blur on the conditions for a return of civilians at the head of this country at war against the jihadists.
The colonels who deposed President Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta on August 18 have promised to hand over the keys to civilians at the end of a transitional period of still undetermined duration.
The launch of this transition is delayed after a failed start on Saturday and the expression of strong recriminations by the movement which led for months the protest, in the street, until the overthrow of Mr. Keïta by a group of officers .
The M5-RFP (for Mouvement du 5-Juin / Rassemblement des forces patriotiques) claims to be with the military the main protagonist of the transition, in proportion to the role it has played.
This coalition of religious leaders and members of the opposition and civil society who channeled after April the exasperation of Malians at the serious security, economic and political crisis experienced by their country took badly not to be invited by name by the junta at the first enlarged consultation on the transition, scheduled for Saturday.
The M5-RFP accused the military of seeking to “confiscate” the change. The day before, the tutelary figure of the movement, Imam Mahmoud Dicko, had warned the soldiers that they did not have “carte blanche” and would be wrong to lock themselves in their Kati camp, about fifteen kilometers from Bamako, by keeping the forces at bay.
The junta, already under pressure from neighboring countries, announced at the last minute the postponement of the consultation. In the evening, about fifteen of its members received about ten representatives of the M5, at the Kati camp.
Imam Dicko’s spokesperson, Issa Kaou Djim, wanted to believe after the meeting that the military had “understood” the message. “I would say the misunderstanding has been cleared up,” he said.
– “Misunderstanding cleared” –
The M5 also gave the military the document it had drawn up on the transition.
The text has not been published. But the M5 is proposing “a transition of 18 to 24 months” with civilians at the head of a presidency, a government and a transitional assembly, one of its leaders, Choguel Maïga, told AFP.
He also proposes “a committee for monitoring and surveillance of the transition which will be mainly composed of members of the junta and the M5”, he said, without the articulation between this committee and the transitional government appearing. clearly.
The junta did not communicate on the meeting. She will take the time to review the document and the two parties should meet again “very soon”, said Maïga.
The M5’s contribution will weigh its weight as the Malian military and officials, the international community and experts are divided over how long this transition should take and over whom, a civilian or a soldier, should lead it.
Some invoke the time and authority essential to meet the immense challenges facing the country and not to repeat the mistakes of a troubled past. The others argue a contrario the risk of a further weakening of the State, of an even greater instability from which the ihadists would benefit, as well as the bad regional example set by a junta held in power for a long time.
The junta initially proposed three years under the leadership of a soldier, before lowering the bar to two and saying it was open to its leader. The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), which is pushing for a rapid return to civil order and imposed an embargo on the poor and landlocked country, is calling for a transition of up to one year under civil liability.
French Minister of the Armies Florence Parly, whose country is an essential partner of Mali and its Sahelian neighbors with the deployment of more than 5,000 men to combat the jihadist spread, said on Sunday that the transition should be a “matter of months” .
– .
