Another interesting article on Mali.
Mali Coup a New Step towards Global Resources Grab A coup erupted in Mali, a landlocked West African country, on March 22. The presidential palace, a number of the countrys state institutions, and the premises of the national broadcaster were seized by a mutinous group led by Capt. Amadou Haya Sanogo, and at the moment, authority in Mali announcedly rests with an improvised National Committee for the Restoration of Democracy and State (CNRDR), the government is disbanded, and the constitution put on hold. The putchists are also known to have placed several Mali ministers and the majority of candidates who registered to run in the upcoming April 29 elections under arrest. Commentators worldwide immediately linked the developments to the Tuareg rebellion in the north of the country. A statement released on the day of the coup by Russias foreign ministry said the juntas objective was to reign in the situation in the region where the government forces were clashing with separatists (1), and Russian deputy minister of foreign affairs M. Bogdanov described the Mali coup as a deplorable consequence of the Libyan crisis (2). True, Tuareg separatists who recently returned from Libya have been attacking cities in the northern part of Mali since January, 2012. The group of 1,000-1,500 rebels under the command of former Libyan colonel Ag Mohamed Najem the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA) gained control over chunks of the Mali territory in the north and declared them independent. Residents of the areas over which the insurgency was spilling flew en masse to Algeria, Burkina Faso, Mauritania, Niger, and the southern Mali (3), while the countrys army was evidently unable to put up serious resistance and permanently rolled back under separatist strikes. Watchers tend to see the debacle and the fact that control over up to a half of the Mali territory slipped away from the hands of the government as the root causes behind the coup. ... The media uniformly stress that Mali is among the worlds poorest countries, which is basically true considering that it ranks 127th in the global GDP listing and 168th (of 179) (6) in terms of the index of human development (7). The ratings, however, should not overshadow the strategic importance and the economic potential of the territory of Mali. It borders seven other countries Algeria, Mauritania, Côte dIvoire, Guinea, Burkina Faso, and Senegal and sits on considerable natural reserves of gold, uranium, bauxites, iron, manganese, tin, and copper. According to fresh reports, the northern part of Mali is found to be rich in oil and, importantly, contains a usable underground water ecosystem. It is worth bearing in mind that over the past few years, the UN International Law Commission was preoccupied with the theme of shared natural resources, with the focus on trans-boundary aquifers instead of traditional staples like energy or precious metals, and even drafted an international convention on the subject (8). The point is that in the case of Mali external players who had no reasons to throw their support behind the separatists as long as those laid claims to desert lands holding no economic promise may be attracted by the recently discovered key natural resources. The political approach was manifest in Sudan, which eventually had to say goodbye to its part containing oil reserves. If the analogy is viable, in the foreseeable future we will hear about the independence of North Mali (or even about some kind of North Sudan, considering that Mali used to be a piece of a country known as Western Sudan till 1960). ... The Mali coup was promptly condemned by the leaders of the countries from the worlds top league, and at present the membership of Mali in various international bodies is suspended along with the programs of aid to the country (12). A bizarre overtone does appear to be common to the invectives neither of the statements issued in connection with the Mali coup calls for Amadou Toumani Tourés immediate return to power. Instead, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon urged those responsible to refrain from any actions that could increase violence and further destabilize the country (13), French foreign minister Alain Juppe said that It is essential to restore the countrys constitutional order, political stability and security conditions while avoiding all violence (14), and EU development commissioner Andris Piebalgs announced that he decided to suspend temporarily European Commissions development operations in the country until the situation clarifies (15). The only mentionings of Amadou Toumani Touré concern the importance of guaranteeing his personal safety, with absolutely nothing beyond. The call for restoring the constitutional order in Mali is open to interpretation: the options that can be read into it include an overhaul of the countrys constitution, new elections (potentially without the involvement of the registered candidates who are currently under arrest), etc. In contrast, France and the international community unequivocally demanded to install a specific person Alassane Ouattara instead of Laurent Gbagbo in Côte dIvoire in late 2011 and wasted no time on abstract talk about the constitutional order in the country. The message is clear in both cases, and this time it is that the obviously undivided international community will not press for the restoration of the legitimate authority of Amadou Toumani Touré in Mali. http://stratrisks.com/geostrat/5037?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+StratRisks+%28StratRisks%29 So many resources, so little resistance. It's not hard to see the US, China, the USSR, and Euroland fighting for control of this area via proxies. J - Ninety percent of politicians give the other ten percent a bad reputation. - Henry Kissinger Politicians are people who, when they see light at the end of the tunnel, go out and bu ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Order the Adobe Coldfusion Anthology now! http://www.amazon.com/Adobe-Coldfusion-Anthology/dp/1430272155/?tag=houseoffusion Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:349296 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/unsubscribe.cfm
