The Transitional authorities in Mali announced, Saturday, May 13, the opening of a judicial investigation against the Fact-Finding Mission of the United Nations Human Rights Office which, in a new report, accused the Malian army and foreign soldiers for killing more than 500 people.
After formally rejecting this report, “the government decides to immediately open a judicial inquiry against the Fact-Finding Mission and its accomplices for espionage, attack on the external security of the State, crimes punishable by the penal code, as well as military conspiracy, a crime punishable by the code of military justice, without prejudging the qualification of the judicial authorities”, declared, in a press release, Colonel Abdoulaye Maiga, spokesperson for the government.
Maïga recalled that “this attitude of the Fact-Finding Mission resembles a case of espionage by the French junta which had illegally placed a drone above the Gossi base on April 20, 2022, to film corpses human beings, minutely predisposed, with the aim of accusing the FAMa”.
For the Malian government, “by using satellites to obtain images, without authorization and without the knowledge of the Malian authorities, the Fact-Finding Mission carried out a clandestine maneuver against the national security of Mali”.
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, said on Friday 12 May that “a report by a fact-finding mission from the United Nations Human Rights Office concluded that there are strong indications that more than 500 people were killed – the vast majority summarily executed – by Malian troops and foreign military personnel during a five-day military operation in the village of Moura, in the Mopti region, in the center of Mali, in March 2022”.
The 40-page report indicates that the Fact-Finding Mission documented cases of summary and extrajudicial executions, rape and other sexual violence, as well as acts of torture and ill-treatment perpetrated during the military operation. It has also collected elements which indicate that the rules of the conduct of hostilities have not been respected.
Volker Türk pointed out that “summary executions, rape and torture during armed conflict constitute war crimes and could, depending on the circumstances, constitute crimes against humanity”.
For its investigations carried out over several months, the Mission would have had recourse to interviews with victims and witnesses. The investigation also gathered forensic and satellite indications. According to Volker Türk, Bamako refused to respond positively to requests for access to the village of Moura.
By OMA Newsletter N° 1171 of 05/15/2023
Article published under the direction of Dr. Najib Kettani
The OMA, NGO with an Intercontinental vocation
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