Mali’s new president, Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, took the oath of office Wednesday, promising to unite the country after a rebellion, a coup and an Islamic insurgency plunged what was one of West Africa’s most stable democracies into near ruin.

Mali’s new president promises to bring peace, fight graft

MALI’S new president, Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, pledged to stamp out corruption and bring peace to the turbulent north as he was sworn in Wednesday, 18 months after a coup and rebel uprising plunged the gold exporter into chaos.

    Keita, a former prime minister, began his five-year term in the presence of outgoing transitional leader Dioncounda Traore and more than 1,000 Malian politicians, diplomats and military personnel as he took the presidential oath at a ceremony in the capital, Bamako.

    “I will not forget for a moment that you put me where I am to take care of all aspects of the life of our nation,” he said after taking an oath to preserve the constitution, democracy and the law.

    “I swear before God and the Malian people to loyally protect the republican regime, to fulfill my functions in the best interest of the people, to preserve democratic gains, to protect national unity, the independence of the homeland and Mali’s territorial integrity.”

    Keita thanked the international community for its support in retaking the north from the hands of extremists and vowed to prioritize national unity.

    “National reconciliation is our most pressing priority,” said Keita, wearing a yellow presidential sash across a business suit. “From tomorrow, we will take appropriate steps to bring a lasting peace to break this cycle of rebellions in the north.”

    Mali’s constitutional court confirmed Keita’s landslide victory three weeks ago in the Aug. 11 presidential run-off against former minister Soumaila Cisse after an election campaign focused on law, order and ending the culture of impunity in public office.

    “I want to reconcile hearts and minds, restore true brotherhood between us so that all the different people can play their part harmoniously in the national symphony,” Keita said to huge applause.

    While he officially became Mali’s president Wednesday, an inauguration celebration is to take place Sept. 19. World leaders, including French President Francois Hollande, are expected to take part.

    The 68-year-old veteran of the political scene in Bamako is charged with leading the country out of a 17-month political crisis sparked by a military coup.

    Army officers angry at the level of support they had received to combat a separatist Tuareg rebellion in the north overthrew the democratically elected government of President Amadou Toumani Toure on March 22, 2012.

    In the chaos that followed, the Tuareg seized control of an area larger than France before being ousted by al-Qaida-linked groups who imposed a brutal interpretation of Islamic law on the local population, carrying out amputations and executions.

    Their actions drew worldwide condemnation and prompted France to launch a military offensive at Mali’s behest to oust the Islamists in January.

    The country’s return to democracy has allowed France to begin withdrawing some of the 4,500 troops it had sent in.

    “France welcomes the new president of the Republic of Mali, Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, on the occasion of his swearing-in ceremony,” said French foreign ministry spokesman Philippe Lalliot in a statement.

    “Granted a strong legitimacy with the outcome of the recent elections, the new authorities can now meet the needs of the people of Mali and the challenges facing Mali. France is ready to give its full support to President Keita.”

    The son of a civil servant, Keita was born in 1945 in the southern industrial city of Koutiala, the declining heartland of cotton production in the country.

    His election in the first presidential polls since 2007 was seen as crucial for unlocking more than US$4 billion in aid promised by international donors who halted contributions in the wake of last year’s coup.

    His daunting workload over the coming months will include tackling an economy battered by political chaos and war, as well as healing ethnic divisions in the north and managing the return of 500,000 people who fled an Islamist insurgency.

    A 2012 report by a Washington-based think-tank, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace Foundation, spoke of “state complicity with organized crime” as the main factor enabling the rise of armed Islamist rebel groups in the north.

    Corruption has tainted government institutions and the military in Mali since it gained independence from France in 1960 and the country remains in the bottom third of Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index.

    Advocacy groups have urged Keita to tackle deep-rooted corruption.

    Junior military officers said widespread anger over graft was one of the triggers of their March 2012 coup.

    In addition to the simmering rebellion in the north, Keita also faces the tasks of tackling corruption and ethnic tensions, and rebuilding the country’s economy.

    Keita also faces a daunting task in reviving Mali’s economy, which shrank by 1.2 percent last year. Mali is sub-Saharan Africa’s third-largest gold exporter.

    Keita, who earned a reputation for toughness in crushing student protests as prime minister during the 1990s, pledged to restore the rule of law.

    “I will bring an end to impunity,” he said. “I will fight corruption tirelessly. No one will be able to illicitly enrich themselves at the expense of the Malian people.

    “As president, I will ensure the proper management of public funds. I will put in place appropriate mechanisms to ensure transparency and efficiency of public spending. No one will get rich illegally off the back of the Malian people.”

    Analysts have called on Keita to use the mandate from his overwhelming victory in the election to appoint a Cabinet of capable technocrats, rather than political allies.

    Many voters said they thought Keita was best equipped from an initial field of 28 candidates to reunite the nation after more than a year of turmoil.

    Once he names his government, though, he will have only two months to resume talks with the northern Tuareg rebel group known as the National Movement for the Liberation of the Azawad, the name they call their homeland.

    And even as he tries to move past Mali’s coup era, there are lingering ghosts: The coup leader Amadou Sanogo was recently promoted from captain to four-star general, making him the highest-ranking military official even after the recent democratic election.

    “After a deeply troubling period, Mali stands at a crossroads,” said Corinne Dufka, senior West Africa researcher at Human Rights Watch. “President Keita’s actions — or inactions — could usher in greater respect for human rights or a return to the problems that caused Mali’s near-collapse last year.”

    (SD-Agencies)