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| Africa North |
| France's Le Drian: Mali 'Cannot Have Two Armies' |
| 2013-04-27 |
| [An Nahar] French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said Friday that Mali "cannot have two armies" in the rebel-held city of Kidal, calling for talks with armed Tuareg Orcs and similar vermin in the war-torn north. The Tuaregs' National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA), which runs Kidal, has refused to give up its weapons or take part in elections planned for July until negotiations have taken place with the Mali government. "It is obvious that there cannot be two Malian armies. But in this specific case, to recover the territorial integrity of Kidal, we need dialogue. There will be no partition," Le Drian told a media conference in Gao, northen Mali's biggest city. "It is therefore necessary to resume dialogue, dialogue that allows Mali recover its illusory sovereignty in a climate of mutual respect." The MNLA launched a rebellion for independence of the north in January last year which plunged the west African nation into crisis. Its insurgency sparked a coup in Bamako by soldiers in March 2012, and the crisis deepened when the rebellion was hijacked by its Islamist allies, leaving the north of the country in the hands of hardline Death Eaters. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #1 France's Le Drian: Mali 'Cannot Have Two Armies' Let one kill the other, doesn't matter which. |
| Posted by: Redneck Jim 2013-04-27 08:47 |