Niger rebels want ’sincere’ talks with government

AFP - 14/03/09
dimanche 15 mars 2009

LAGOS (AFP) — Tuareg rebels want "sincere" talks with Niger, they announced Saturday, a day after freeing five Niger soldiers and a gendarme following mediation by Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi.

"A definitive end to the current conflict lies inevitably in real dialogue, sincere negotiations revolving around the political demands put by the MNJ," the Movement of Niger People for Justice (MNJ) said on its website.

It said the release of the six kidnapped officials was proof of its "good faith and openness to dialogue."

The MNJ is demanding, among other things, the integration of its troops in the country’s military and in the key mining sector. The country is one of the world’s top uranium producers.

The MNJ is a splinter faction from Niger’s main Tuareg groups, which signed a 1995 agreement with the government to end a first rebellion.

The Tuaregs are nomadic tribes who roamed the Sahara for centuries before nations of the region gained independence from European colonial powers. The MNJ wants a share in Niger’s uranium wealth.