UN:"'the Time for Negotiations have arrived!"

The second attack was delivered last Wednesday by the UN’s deputy peace keeping secretary Hervé Ladsous  who criticised  the Malian government over its inaction with regards to the negotiations with the armed groups of the north.  Now this is more contentious ground, and this criticism seems typical of the lazy attitude that prevails regarding this situation. There is a real problem here: with whom are they supposed to negotiate? It is clear that these armed groups now include strong elements of the very Jihadists that were previously the enemy! Surely this needs to be addressed first?
 

In my travels around Europe this time I have not let one opportunity slip to question whatever high ranking French official I have come across on the situation in the north of Mali. My friend Jeremiah invited me to a do at the Institute Française in London where I managed to collar the French ambassador, who looked a little taken aback as he sipped his champagne but nevertheless offered the useless and much repeated idea “ what we want now is reconciliation”. Excuse me, but how exactly?

 My next victim was the  educational attaché at the French embassy in London at a conference on the downturn in studies of modern languages in European universities (I was invited only because my pal Bella had organized it at the British Academy, and there was a jolly reception afterwards) He was even more startled at the question and refused boringly to comment since it was not his department.  

 I had better luck with the Algerian consul in Stockholm who was chitchatting with me over a coffee while they were preparing my visa. He politely offered the idea that is the universal attitude to the situation: The Tuaregs have been neglected by the government in the south. They need to be heard. Therefore negotiations need to be undertaken. Yes indeed. Everyone understands that, even the Malian government. 

Abdoulaye Diop, the Malian minister of foreign affairs explained once more the Malian governments position to the UN: the Malian government is ready to engage in negotiations but the groups of the north must be disarmed according to the Ouagadougou agreement  and they must take a distance from the Jihadists.

This does not seem to me an unreasonable request, but it is destined to fall on deaf ears. The people who matter appear to have an agenda of their own and the rest are too lazy to engage in the problem and try and undertand it. 

 Needless to say, the MNLA welcomed the pronouncement by the UN.