In Mali, there is still no official reaction from either the army or the transitional political authorities after the comments of a senior member of the Malian army who justified the army’s abuses. The human rights organization Amnesty International, which has documented certain abuses by the Fama, believes that Bamako must react.
2 mins
At Maliin two videos circulating on social networks since Monday evening, this lieutenant colonel is filmed while addressing the inhabitants of a village suspected of being linked to the groups jihadists. Denouncing the violence of the jihadists, the senior Malian officer calls on the jihadists to lay down their arms and explains that the army’s objective is to secure the country.
But in the video shot near Nioro du Sahel, according to several local sources in the village of Koriga, commune of Gavinané, Lieutenant-Colonel Koumaré also mentions, in front of the inhabitants, the mutilations and executions carried out by Malian soldiers and the burned villages of those who “ did not understand “.
“ This reinforces what we already knew. Surveys and testimonies from populations had shown this. But here, we have a senior Malian officer, not a simple soldier, who recognizes the allegations made against the Malian armed forces. And which threatens not only the combatants but also the civilian populations with abuse and destruction! », Points out Ousmane Diallo, researcher at Amnesty International on human rights in the Sahel.
Comments in contradiction with the official discourse of the army and the transitional authorities
Faced with the violence of jihadists, themselves responsible for hundreds of deaths and who force entire parts of the territory to submit to their rules, the violence of Malian Armed Forces are they not justified? This is the argument invoked in his speech by the senior Malian officer, but which Ousmane Diallo disputes.
“ Violence in times of war is always regulated by international humanitarian law. There are conditions where the army can use violence as long as it respects the protection of civilians. An army that is supposed to be much more legitimate must not justify the use of violence on the basis of abuses committed by terrorist groups. Namely potentially war crimes here because he talked about people having their throats slit and villages being burned. Ultimately, it is the civilian populations of these rural areas who bear the burden of this violence on both sides. », Recalls the human rights specialist.
The words of Lieutenant-Colonel Koumaré are in any case in contradiction with the official discourse of the army and the Malian transitional authorities. The latter have always denied any abuse and repeatedly defended in their press releases the “ professionalism ” of the “ valiant Malian armed forces who respect human rights “.