Repatriation and reintegration of Malian refugees

(b) Repatriation and reintegration of Malian refugees

83. The repatriation of Malian refugees is near completion.

Three of the town dealers are Malian and one Guinean.

32. The repatriation of Malian refugees was completed in May 1998.

Member of the Association Malienne des Droits de l apos Homme (Malian Association for Human Rights).

UNHCR has also initiated the repatriations of Niger refugees from Algeria and of Malian refugees from Niger.

Consequently, instead of becoming a source of funds for poverty reduction, the Malian cotton sector actually generated poverty.

During the period under consideration, foreigners, in particular Malian and Nigerian nationals, were victims of acts of aggression, looting and vandalism .

Since more than half of the Malian population still lived on less than one dollar a day, there was little opportunity to save.

According to the report, excision a practice the Government is addressing with special emphasis affects 94 per cent of Malian girls and women.

Following the voluntary repatriation of some 80,000 Malian refugees in 1995 and 1996, the number of refugees in neighbouring countries has decreased from 150,000 to 70,000.

87. For the past two years peace and security have gradually been restored in northern Mali and the rate of return of Malian refugees has significantly increased.

The report acknowledges that Malian society is a patriarchal society, with the roles and responsibilities of men and women clearly delineated depending on the ethnic or religious group concerned.

36. The repatriation operation has been particularly successful in Mauritania from where, as at June 1995, almost all 44,000 Malian refugees, with the exception of some 2,851 persons, had returned.

34. The ongoing implementation of the pacte national and the sustained efforts by the Malian authorities for national reconciliation culminated in the adoption of an amnesty law, promulgated in March 1997.

The Panel visited Abidjan and Yamoussoukro in the south, Bouaké, Korhogo and Ferkessédougou in the north and Wangolodougou in the far north of Côte d'Ivoire, close to the Malian and Burkina Faso frontier.

35. In that context, UNHCR has been vigorously pursuing initiatives launched in 1994 to further encourage and promote voluntary repatriation of the remaining Malian refugees in Algeria, Burkina Faso, the Niger and other countries of asylum.

In the case of 150,000 Malian refugees, of whom nearly 100,000 have returned, assistance in countries of asylum will cease at the end of 1997, while reintegration activities will continue in Mali until the end of 1998.

The UNESCO Bamako Office and the Malian non governmental organization Route du Sud organized a one day celebration around the theme of women and HIV AIDS entitled The South helps the South in the struggle against HIV AIDS .

According to the Guinean authorities, they were carrying false Malian identity papers and were FN soldiers linked to the Ibrahim Coulibaly faction who had been setting up a rear base in a remote cave near the Ivorian border.

This major development, together with the equally important signing of tripartite agreements between the Malian Government, the asylum countries and UNHCR, have significantly contributed to the atmosphere of peace and security prevailing in the country, particularly in the north.

This is a profound error. France has no interest in protecting a Malian regime that it knows to be corrupt and incompetent indeed, France recently refused to support a request from President François Bozizé s regime in the neighboring Central African Republic for aid in dealing with rebels.

During its three visits to Guinea, the Group tried to obtain copies of the Malian identity documents and the serial numbers of the arms seized by the Guinean military in April 2005, but was not provided with these despite a firm promise by the Ministry of Security.

In Mali, Mahamar Maiga, the Director General of the State Compagnie malienne pour le développement des textiles was arrested with six co accused by the police in early 2005 on allegations of profiteering by claiming Ivorian and Bukinabè cotton as Malian and making money on the price difference.

In light of the fact that until September 2002, some 70 per cent of Mali's imports and exports passed through the port of Abidjan, the Malian Government took measures at the beginning of the Ivorian crisis to prevent any prolongation of that situation from having a negative impact on the nation's supply system.

And the United States indifferent to the integrity of the Malian state and the welfare of its citizens in normal circumstances was aware of the possibility that Mali s vast territory could fall under fundamentalist terrorist control. So it decided to take part in the transport, communications, logistical, and intelligence components of the French led operation.

The report indicates that in accordance with the Malian Constitution, any treaty to which Mali is a party has precedence over national legislation from the moment that the treaty in question is published and that Mali thus conforms to the definition of discrimination against women contained in article 1 of the Convention (p. 13).

5. Notes that, as part of its efforts to halt the flow of small arms into Mali and the Saharo Sahelian subregion, the Malian Government oversaw the destruction, at the quot Flame of Peace quot ceremony held at Timbuktu on 27 March 1996, of thousands of small arms handed over by ex combatants of the armed movements of northern Mali

While the Islamists have been temporarily defeated, they are well armed and receive supplies from Libya via Algeria, which has suppressed Islamists at home but seems to turn a blind eye to their transit through its territory. Moreover, the capabilities of the Malian army and those of other West African countries that are supposed to join the operation are too weak to turn the tide.