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April 5th, 2012 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda
Following the UN initiative, the Tuareg separatist group Azawad National
Liberation Movement (MNLA) said in a statement that “after the complete
liberation of the Azawad territory (northern Mali) and given the strong
request by the international community” it had decided “unilaterally
to declare the end of military operations from midnight Thursday.”
However their announcement came amid growing reports that it is the Islamists
who now have the upper hand in the north.
In the wake of the coup that ousted President Amani Toumani Toure on March 22,
the Tuareg rebels and Islamist groups took control of the key northern towns
of Kidal, Gao and Timbuktu, effectively cutting the country in two.
The Tuareg separatist MNLA and Islamist Ansar Dine, which is linked to the
regional al-Qaeda faction, have seized a chunk of Mali’s territory larger
than France since January.
In a recent three-day swoop they snatched the northern capitals of Gao, Kidal
and Timbuktu from an army in disarray since low-ranking soldiers, angry at
the government’s handling of the rebellion, seized power.
Mali’s junta on Wednesday denounced rights violations by the rebel groups.
“Women and girls have been kidnapped and raped by the new occupants who
are laying down their own law,” said junta spokesman Amadou Konare –
pointing the finger at the MNLA, Ansar Dine and al-Qaeda in the Islamic
Maghreb (AQIM).
A resident of Gao backed up the accusation.
“It’s the truth. Here at night they seize the women, they carry them off
and rape them,” he told AFP, adding that he had was aware of at least
10 such cases.
An employee of a humanitarian organisation said “there are no more cars,
equipment, material. There is no hospital, no dispensary, no health centre.”
In the ancient city of Timbuktu, Islamists clamped down on looting and imposed
sharia law, ordering women to wear headscarves and threatening to cut off
the hands of thieves.
Residents said the Islamists had ransacked bars and other places selling
alcohol.
The head of Ansar Dine, notorious rebel Iyad Ag Ghaly, has set up base at the
town’s military camp and has been flanked by three of al-Qaeda in the
Islamic Maghreb’s top leaders.
Ag Ghaly’s men have fought alongside the secular MNLA which wants independence
for the desert nomads who originate in the area, however the two groups have
very different aims and appear to have fallen out.
Residents and security sources report the Islamists have chased the Tuareg out
of Timbuktu, burning their flag and replacing it with their black jihad
flag.
“Ansar Dine has allowed MNLA elements to stay behind the airport”
just outside the town, a security source said. A hotelier said there were
less than 20 Tuareg rebels stationed there.
But on their website, the group said it was “holding its position in the
face of all these mafia networks and distances itself from Ansar Dine and
others who rise up on the path to the liberation of Azawad”.
In an interview with AFP, French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe warned the
Islamist advance could have wide repercussions.
“Some of the rebels may be content to control the northern territories.
Others, with AQIM, may plan to take over all of Mali, in order to create an
Islamist republic,” he said.
Feeling the bite of mounting sanctions and pressure from all sides, coup
leader Captain Amadou Sanogo unsuccessfully proposed a national meeting to
determine “what will be best for the country”.
Separately, hundreds of Malian youths from the country’s north assembled in
Bamako and demanded weapons to fight the Islamist and Tuareg rebels.
The crisis precipitated by Sanogo’s coup also sparked mounting concern that a
massive regional humanitarian emergency fuelled by conflict and drought was
developing.
More than 200,000 people have been forced from their homes since the Tuareg
rebels launched their offensive on March 17.
Source: agencies
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