Niger rebel says Saharan Tuaregs to set down guns

Niger’s Tuareg rebel leader Aghaly ag Alambo said his fighters would lay down their guns from Monday and, together with neighbouring Mali’s Tuareg rebellion, submit to mediation by Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.

Light-skinned Tuareg nomads in the Saharan north of Niger and Mali took up arms against their respective southern-based central governments last year.

"We decide to lay down our weapons from Monday," Alambo said at a meeting with Gaddafi on Sunday in the southern Libyan town of Ubari, where he said he also spoke on behalf of Ibrahim ag Bahanga, leader of the Tuareg rebellion in neighbouring Mali.

His comments were broadcast by Niger state television on Monday, translated into French from the Tuareg Tamasheq tongue.

Niger’s government has refused to talk to the rebels, whom it dismisses as bandits and smugglers, until they disarm.

Alambo, of the Niger Justice Movement (MNJ), has previously demanded up to 30 percent of uranium revenue be allocated to Niger’s mainly Tuareg north, where French state-controlled nuclear group Areva mines the radioactive metal.

In comments from Sunday’s meeting broadcast in Libya, Gaddafi urged an end to the revolts in Mali and Niger, saying more war would hurt the impoverished states and plunge a region unsettled by security and smuggling problems into turmoil.

Africa’s fourth largest country, Libya wields influence in parts of the Sahara and the Sahel region on its southern fringe thanks to its oil wealth and tribal links between its own population and those of neighbouring states.

"Why destroy the people who are with us ? This is not imperialism or a foreign invasion. I tell my brothers, that if there was a benefit and a need to carry arms, I will be the first to arm you, train and fight along with you," Gaddafi said.

Gaddafi said Niger, Mali, Mauritania, Chad, Libya and Algeria, where Tuaregs live, were Muslim states and represent "the Islamic weight of Africa, so why destroy it ?" His comments were broadcast on state television and Libya’s Jana news agency.

TWIN REBELLIONS

Tuareg rebellions in Niger and Mali erupted within a few months of each other last year, each seeking more autonomy and attacking government and army garrisons and convoys in what appears to be a repeat of similar Tuareg uprisings in the 1990s.

Security experts have long thought the groups may cooperate informally, but Alambo’s assertion to be speaking on behalf of Mali’s Bahanga was the first public acknowledgement of links.

"From today, Bahanga and I are at your disposal ... We consider Libya alone can resolve the rebellions in Mali and Niger," Alambo said, adding Bahanga was unable to attend.

The last Libyan-brokered ceasefire between Mali’s government and rebels, in April, was quickly followed by some of the bloodiest fighting yet. A subsequent ceasefire brokered in July by Libya’s regional rival Algeria has had more success.

Mali’s rebels released 26 army soldiers on Sunday, Mali’s government said, crediting Algerian mediation. Malian President Amadou Toumani Toure has offered to talk to the rebels, on condition they free all their hostages.

Mali’s army, backed and trained by the United States as part of Washington’s "war on terrorism", also accuses the rebels of trying to control cross-border arms and drug smuggling routes.

Abdoulaye Massalatchi - 19-08-08

Source : Reuters