A UN human rights expert on Wednesday urged Mali’s junta to release former government officials that they have detained since a coup d’etat on Aug. 18.
UN Independent Expert on Human Rights in Mali Alioune Tine made that call as he arrived in the country as a mediator for the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to discuss a transition government named earlier this week and that is to be installed today.
Former Malian minister of defense and retired Air Force colonel-major Bah Ndaw is to be inducted as the transitional president, while the head of the junta, Army Colonel Assimi Goita, is to be the transitional vice president.
Photo: AP
The junta, which calls itself the National Committee for the Salvation of the People, deposed then-Malian president Ibrahim Boubacar Keita last month, detaining him, the prime minister and other government officials.
Keita became ill and was released to receive treatment in the United Arab Emirates.
There has been widespread concern that the upheaval in Mali would set back efforts to contain the country’s growing Islamic insurgency.
After a similar coup in 2012, Islamic militants grabbed control of major towns in northern Mali.
Only a 2013 military intervention led by France pushed militants out of those towns, and the international community has spent seven years battling the militants.
Thirteen of the 18 detained officials are still being held at the Kati Military Camp in the capital Bamako, Tine said.
“There is no legal basis for detention of the former prime minister, the former president of the National Assembly and other former Malian officials taken into custody in the coup d’etat,” Tine said, calling on the junta to comply with international human rights obligations, and release the officials immediately and unconditionally.
Tine’s call for their release follows that of UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, the African Union and ECOWAS, whose mediator — former Nigerian president Goodluck Jonathan — arrived in Bamako on Wednesday.
ECOWAS made Keita’s release a key demand as it negotiated a return to a civilian government.
“I am extremely concerned by the fact that those arrested by the coup leaders have been arbitrarily deprived of their liberty for more than a month,” Tine said.
Their detention continues as Goita, who helped lead the coup, yesterday promised a “new” Mali.
The 15-nation ECOWAS had come to an agreement with the junta for the future of Mali, but it was unclear on Wednesday what the bloc’s reaction would be to Goita’s appointment as vice president, although they made clear that the vice president would not be able to step in for the transitional president.
The bloc has made clear that sanctions against Mali are only to be lifted if a civilian president and prime minister are named, although a prime minister is not likely to be named until after today.
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