Mali’s teetering civilian government announced a new “national unity government” on July 30 in an attempt to hold on to the powers of state assumed following a military coup. The new governmental arrangement is the result of an agreement between the Economic Community of West African States and the military junta that seized power on March 22.
The new government is working on two tracks, the first to finalize plans to reunify the country, which could result in outside intervention in the north of Mali, and the second to set up a process for new elections. Both issues have the potential to deepen the crisis that has roiled the country for almost six months.
Hope in new elections?
The initial coup in Mali, led by Captain Amadou Sanogo, took place on the eve of national elections. However, very quickly it became clear the coup had significant popular support. Just days after the coup, thousands took to the streets of Bamako to support the coup government. A wide range of organizations and parties, including the anti-imperialist African Solidarity for Democracy and Independence, gave at least qualified support.
The vast majority of Malians live in abject poverty, with an average life expectancy of only 49 years. The country ranks 160 out of 169 on the United Nations Development Index. It is estimated that just over half of the people in Mali have access to clean, safe water, and less than half are literate.
The pre-coup government had been steadily pursuing privatization policies for the past decade, and since 2008 had also begun to sell large tracts of agricultural land to private investors. With only 4 percent of Mali’s land capable of supporting crop irrigation, the sequestering of more land for cash crops rather than food production threatens to drive Mali’s population even deeper into impoverishment.
Dissatisfaction with the neo-liberal policies of the standing government was the basis upon which the military junta was able to successfully seize power. However, outside pressure from regional and international forces forced a hasty handover of power to a civilian government.
The new government had very little legitimacy from the start. Pro-coup sections of the masses stormed the office of interim President Dioncounda Traore protesting his appointment and beat him seriously enough that he had to leave the country for medical treatment. At the same time, anti-coup groups have criticized interim Prime Minister Cheick Modibo Diarra’s stewardship of the government.
In this climate, it is unclear if a new electoral process can result in anything more than political deadlock. For that matter, it is unclear if elections can ever actually take place. Additionally, any new government that adopts a neo-liberal orientation could find itself beset with mass unrest, which, while more than justified, could result in further turmoil.
Intervention looms in the north
The immediate cause of the March 22 coup was dissatisfaction within the army with the struggle against both Salafist militants and Tuareg forces in the north of the country. Large swaths of the north are the traditional homeland of the Tuareg people, nomads who range across the Sahel region of Africa. Facing discrimination in almost all of those countries, with the notable exception of Gaddafi’s Libya, Tuareg people have been fighting in Mali since the 1990s for more autonomy and independence.
Following the coup, and given the weakness of the Malian central government, the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA), the main Tuareg organization, seized control of the north, asserting their right to self-determination. To further solidify their position, they formed an alliance with Ansar Dine, a Salafist organization inspired by al-Qaeda, also based in the Sahel. Ansar Dine draws its forces from the African continent as well as from Salafists worldwide.
Ansar Dine quickly sidelined the MNLA with superior military force and established themselves as the sole rulers of northern Mali. Subsequently, Ansar Dine destroyed many important African historical monuments, and based their laws on a strict interpretation of Islamic law, which disregards local Muslim traditions, and in some ways mirrors the legal code of Taliban-era Afghanistan.
This has created significant pressure on Mali’s interim government to allow outside intervention. ECOWAS is putting pressure on the United Nations, with the support of France, to allow a military force of West African nations to put boots on the ground. ECOWAS may cloak their moves in a desire for “peace,” but are truly motivated by a desire to discourage coups and separatist movements in their own countries, as well as fears that broad instability in the region will hurt the economic growth from which West African elites benefit.
The United States and other Western powers share these concerns, as well as a strong desire to deter their Salafist foes from gaining safe havens anywhere in the world, from which to better organize their fight against the West. The United States for the past several years had been arming and training Mali’s military to take on these Islamic forces in the north, and has now stated that it is considering potential airstrikes or Special Forces activity against Ansar Dine.
Former Malian colonial overlord France is backing ECOWAS intervention, and may offer assistance of its own, similar to air support it provided to a regime-change effort in Ivory Coast last year.
There is significant opposition in Mali to foreign intervention, which makes the civilian government’s ability to last through such an event unclear. President Traore has called for negotiations with Ansar Dine to avoid conflict, and according to some, the MNLA is open to some form of accord with the Malian government. It is unclear, however, what Ansar Dine’s attitude towards a negotiated settlement is.
For self-determination and against intervention!
While many things in Mali are uncertain at this stage, one thing is clear: Western-backed intervention, even if carried out by ECOWAS, only serves the neo-liberal capitalist agenda.
For those in the West who support the just struggles of the masses of oppressed African people, it is crucial to oppose any imperialist or imperialist-backed intervention aimed at restoring Mali to its pre-coup neo-liberal status quo.
