ECOWAS talks focus on Mali troops deployment

West African defence and foreign ministers held talks Monday on the possible deployment of regional troops to Mali amid reports that Islamists destroyed the tomb of a Muslim saint in a region under their control. The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) is trying to broker an end to the political crisis in Mali -- which has been effectively sliced in two after a putsch. "We have affirmed our willingness to support and encourage Mali in its efforts towards the legitimate regaining of its territorial integrity," Ivory Coast's Foreign Minister Daniel Kablan Duncan said after the meeting. He described the task involved as "huge but not impossible." The latest meeting came in the wake of a formal request earlier this month by Mali's interim President Dioncounda Traore for ECOWAS military assistance to recover the occupied territory in the north and combat Islamist extremists there. Traore's request for assistance made it clear that "the deployment of active military forces" would not be needed in the capital Bamako. Mali insists that the West African troops must only provide logistics and air support and would be involved in law and order operations after the north of the country has been retaken by Bamako. "This is no longer the time for indecision but for concerted action," ECOWAS Commission chief Kadre Desire Ouedraogo said, adding that action must be taken against "criminals of all sorts who occupy northern Mali". Youssoufou Bamba, Ivory Coast's ambassador to the UN, speaking for ECOWAS, told the Security Council in New York on Monday that the West African nations need fighter jets and other international military support to beat the Islamists who seized northern Mali. But the UN Council gave no immediate sign it would give the backing for an intervention force. "The green light from the UN is an absolute condition," a Western diplomat in West Africa said recently, adding that not many African countries had so far volunteered to join the ECOWAS force. Senegal and Ghana have no plans to take part, while Burkina Faso President Blaire Compaore, the top mediator in Mali's crisis, has signalled support. An international Sahel conference presided by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is to meet on the crisis in New York on September 26. ECOWAS has had 3,300 regional troops on standby for months but was awaiting a formal request from the Malian authorities to seek UN Security Council approval for a military deployment. The country was considered one of the region's stable democracies until a March coup plunged it into turmoil. Taking advantage of the chaos, extremists allied to Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb seized key towns in the huge arid north, an area larger than France or Texas. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay on Monday condemned the ongoing human rights violations in northern Mali, decrying "serious human rights violations and possibly war crimes." Sources in the north said Islamists had destroyed the tomb of a Muslim saint in the region under their control. "The Islamists on Saturday destroyed the mausoleum of Cheik El-Kebir, 330 kilometres from Gao," a local politician told AFP on condition of anonymity. "Twelve of them arrived at the site. They demolished the mausoleum with hammers, picks." The sources said the Islamist militant Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO) was responsible for the destruction. Oumar Ould Gaddy, a Gao resident who is believed to be close to MUJAO, confirmed the reports, adding that "there is another mausoleum which they will also destroy soon." Kebir's tomb is venerated by the Kunta tribe whose members live in Mali, Algeria, Mauritania and Niger. The latest attack came two months after Islamists destroyed two tombs at the ancient Djingareyber mud mosque in Timbuktu, an intellectual and spiritual capital which was crucial in the spread of Islam throughout Africa, soon after taking over northern Mali. Senegal and Mauritania's leaders voiced concern about "serious threats" from the Islamist takeover of northern Mali, warning against terrorism and the partition of the west African nation. "We think that if the Malian factions want to engage in dialogue, we encourage them," said Senegalese President Macky Sall, on his first official visit to Nouakchott. "But for those who choose the path of terrorism and the partition of Mali, they will face the consequences of their choice."