Route to Restoring Mali\'s Democracy Set Back, Says Politician

A prominent politician in Mali says the continuing military crisis is a distraction to the purpose of restoring constitutional rule within the West African nation.

Niankoro Yeah Samake, leader of the Party for Patriotic and Civic Action (PACP) called for unity among sections of the army after he expressed disappointment with division among the many rank and file of the military.

“We mustn't lose focus of where Mali is today and where we have to take Mali to…We are at a time where we have to unify the Malian army to tackle the challenges [and] to give protection to the territorial integrity of the rustic,” said Samake.

“We call at the leader of the junta to be the leader of the military as we work flat out with the international community, the political parties the civil society in Mali to revive democracy for the advantage of the folks of Mali.”

Samake's comments came after soldiers who support the junta took control of the major base for troops loyal to ousted President Toumani Toure after a second day of heavy fighting following Monday's attempted counter coup d'état.

Coup leaders said in a televised statement Tuesday that they continue to be in charge of key sites within the capital, Bamako. They described the fighting as an attack by ill-intentioned people set on destabilizing Mali's transition to constitutional order.

Meanwhile, regional heads of states and government are scheduled to wait an Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) summit Thursday. Officials say the leaders will review the present situation in Mali. The summit might be held within the Senegalese capital, Dakar.

Coup leaders in Mali have rejected an ECOWAS proposal to revive constitutional order. They accused the regional bloc of not keeping its portion of the agreement it signed with the junta.

Samake said Malians must be allowed to guide the hassle to solve the country's challenges.

“Mali needs its partners, but we have to be certain that this can be a Malian solution. We won't make this solution outside of Mali [because] which will be an imposition. We do not want that and it's not going to be a long-lasting solution,” said Samake.

“The people of Mali wish to come together and define the terms of ways the rustic will be run in the course of the transition.”

Samake said his party, along with 14 other political parties, have outlined what he said often is the absolute best solutions to resolving the crisis in Mali.

“What we said is that there's a want to organize a tradition [and] to install place a countrywide transitional committee with 30 people- seven military, 18 political leaders and five [from the] civic society. And these 30 people will elect among them the president of the transitional power, excluding any military officials,” said Samake.

From WhatNewsToday.net

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