The junta that seized power in Mali wants a military-led transitional body to rule for three years and has agreed to release the ousted president, a source in a visiting West African delegation and the rebel soldiers said Sunday.
Last week’s coup Mali’s second in eight years followed months of protests calling for Ibrahim Boubacar Keita to resign as public discontent with the government grew over the collapsing economy and a brutal Islamist insurgency,
“The junta has affirmed that it wants a three-year transition to review the foundations of the Malian state. This transition will be directed by a body led by a soldier, who will also be head of state,” a source in the ECOWAS delegation told AFP after talks with the junta.
“The government will also be predominantly composed of soldiers” under the proposal, the source said on condition of anonymity. A junta official confirmed to AFP that “the three-year transition would have a military president and a government mostly composed of soldiers”. The source and the official added that the soldiers have agreed to free Keita, detained along with other political leaders since the coup on Tuesday, and he would be able to return to his home in the capital Bamako. “And if he wants to travel abroad for (medical) treatment, that is not a problem,” said the source from ECOWAS, which stands for the Economic Community of West African States.
The ECOWAS talks are set to resume in Bamako on Monday after two days of negotiations with the junta. “We have reached a number of agreements but we have not reached agreement on all the issues,” Nigerian ex-president Goodluck Jonathan, head of the delegation, told reporters as Sunday’s discussions drew to a close. Both the regional delegation and the military officers “want the country to move on” after the coup, he said. “We are just discussing the way forward.”
Jonathan met Keita on Saturday and said that he seemed “very fine”
the Junta has insisted on a Military rule in the country for three years.
“The junta has affirmed that it wants a three-year transition to review the foundations of the Malian state. This transition will be directed by a body led by a soldier, who will also be head of state.
“The government will also be predominantly composed of soldiers” under the junta’s proposal, AFP quoted a source in a visiting West African delegation to have said on Sunday.
AFP reports that the source stated the junta has agreed to “free President Keita”, who has been detained alongside other senior officials since the coup on Tuesday, and he “will be able to return to his home” in Bamako.
“And if he wants to travel abroad for treatment, that is not a problem.”
The source added that Prime Minister Boubou Cisse, who is also in detention at a military base outside the capital where the coup began, would be moved to a secure residence in the city.
A junta official confirmed to AFP the decisions on the fate of Keita and Cisse, as well as that “the three-year transition would have a military president and a government mostly composed of soldiers.”
(C) Control TV 2020.
