ECOWAS moves to arrest slide in Mali, G’Bissau

Posted by admin Africa & World Politics, Headlines Tuesday, May 22nd, 2012

ICC may probe war crimes, genocide

THE Mediation and Security Council (MSC) of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has mapped out new measures to address the current political developments in Mali in order to ensure the implementation of the programme for the restoration of constitutional rule in the country, which is being threatened by the military junta.

Among the measures agreed upon at a one-day extra-ordinary session of the MSC, which ended in Abuja on Sunday, is the dispatch of a joint ECOWAS, AU and UN delegation to Mali to deliver a strong message to the junta against meddling in the country’s political process.

Meanwhile, the office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) may probe the alleged killing, abduction, rape and conscription of children and other heinous crimes in Mali since clashes erupted in January.

A coup in the landlocked West African nation by a group of middle ranking soldiers, which toppled democratically-elected President Amadou Toumani Toure in March this year, has further deepened the crisis. Since then, ECOWAS leaders have been pressurizing the military leaders to exit the political scene and return to the barracks.

The decision to send the delegation was one of the outcomes of the Council’s meeting, attended by ministers of foreign affairs and their counterparts for defence. It was wholly dedicated to the political situations in Guinea Bissau and Mali.

The new line of action is coming amid reports that the junta, National Committee for the Re-establishment of Democracy and the Restoration of the State, the committee the military government set up to run the country, is now also threatening to derail the interim political arrangement expected to lead to the election of a President after a 12-month transition.

The frame-work agreement signed last April 6 by the junta with the facilitation of the ECOWAS mediator led to the hand-over of power to the former Speaker of Parliament as Interim President, the appointment of a Prime Minister and a 12-month transition programme that will culminate in the election of a President for the country.

The ECOWAS Commission said yesterday in a statement that the ministers have also now warned the leader of the junta, Capt. Amadou Sanogo, to refrain from making public pronouncements, including statements to the media which imply he is still in control, warning that failure to comply with these decisions would result in the reinstatement of targeted sanctions against members of the junta and their associates.

The sanctions were originally imposed by the Authority of Heads of State and Government at its Extra-ordinary Summit of March 29, 2012 in response to the coup but were lifted after the April 6, 2012 agreement under which the junta consented to the transition arrangement and agreed to return to the barracks.

Comprehensive sanctions to be imposed include political, economic and financial, including the suspension of Mali’s membership of ECOWAS, the recall of ECOWAS ambassadors from the country, travel ban on members of the CNRDRE and their associates, and the closure of the country’s borders and air space with ECOWAS member-states, except for humanitarian purposes.

On the economic side, the sanctions involve the freezing of the assets of the leaders of the CNRDRE and their associates and denying the country access to the seaports of ECOWAS member- states.

Among the financial sanctions to be imposed is the freezing of the country’s accounts with the Central Bank of West Africa (BCEAO) while private banks will be prevented from procuring funds from the bank for the benefit of the government. All financial assistance to Mali through the West African Bank for Development (BOAD) and the ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development (EBID) would also be frozen.

With regard to Guinea Bissau, the MSC endorsed the on-going transitional process and demanded the immediate reconvening of the National Assembly to extend its mandate and elect a new Speaker. The Council also demanded the setting up of the remaining organs of the transition, including a broad-based Government of National Unity (GNU), which will define urgent task to be undertaken with timelines.

-Guardian

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