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Generational Dynamics Web Log for 25-Mar-2012
25-Mar-12 World View -- Chaotic rebellion in Mali provides opportunity for an al-Qaeda linked Islamist state

Web Log - March, 2012

25-Mar-12 World View -- Chaotic rebellion in Mali provides opportunity for an al-Qaeda linked Islamist state

Feminist alert: 15 female PKK militants killed in clashes with Turkey's security forces

This morning's key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com.

Chaotic rebellion in Mali provides opportunity for an al-Qaeda linked Islamist state
Egypt's other Christians
Venezuela's Chavez returns to Cuba for cancer treatment
Feminist alert: 15 female PKK militants killed in clashes with Turkey's security forces

Chaotic rebellion in Mali provides opportunity for an al-Qaeda linked Islamist state

Captain Amadou Sanogo - Leader of Mali's coup d'état

Captain Amadou Sanogo - Leader of Mali's coup d'état

According to an analysis by Jamestown, there are numerous forces fighting in Mali, especially in the capital city Bamako:

The government of President Amadou Toumani Touré, and Mali's army. Until recently, Mali has been considered a model of democracy in Africa, heavily supported by aid from America and the EU, including Mali's former colonial power, France. Touré himself led a coup in 1991 against the former dictatorship. He became president in 2002, was re-elected in 2007 and was scheduled to step down next month in new elections. Even before the recent coup, Mali's army was in disarray, with very low morale, because it was running out of ammunition, and it had suffered some major defeats at the hands of the Tuareg rebels. A shortage of ammunition was one of the key factors in a massacre of much of an army garrison on March 16.

A breakway army group, led by Capt. Amadou Haya Sanogo, declared a coup on Thursday, and said that they have captured president Touré and are holding him captive. Sanogo formed a military junta, saying that they were suspending the constitution and dissolving the democratic institutions. After the coup announcement, drunken soldiers looted Mali's presidential palace. Soldiers smelling of alcohol ripped flat-screen TVs, computer monitors, printers and photocopiers out of the presidential palace, carting them off in plain sight. Others in pickup trucks zoomed across the broad avenues, holding beer bottles in one hand and firing automatic weapons with the other.

The rebellion of ethnic Tuaregs, recently invigorated by the return of senior Tuareg fighters, carrying large stores of stolen weapons, from the war in Libya, where they were defending Muammar Gaddafi. The Tuareg Mouvement National de Libération de l'Azawad (MNLA) has as its objective the creation of an independent, secular Tuareg state in Azawad (northern Mali). The rebellion has been making gains
A separate rebellion is from a Salafist group, the Ansar al-Din movement, with a Tuareg leader, Iyad ag Ghali. Although the Ansar al-Din and MNLA movements are somewhat allied, they have different objectives. Ag Ghali is less interested in establishing the independence of the new state of Azawad, and more interested in implementing Sharia law in northern Mali.

Finally, there's Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), which has long been creating bases in northern Mali. Other nations in the region are under pressure from AQIM activities, and are highly alarmed by what appears to be a strategic disaster in the making.

Mali (CIA World Fact Book)

Mali (CIA World Fact Book)

So, both the army and the rebel movement are split. Adding to the utter chaos, nearly 200,000 refugees have poured out of Mali in the last two months, seeking food, shelter and refuge in neighboring nations already suffering from drought and shortages. The chaos has created excellent conditions for al-Qaeda to entrench itself in Mali with minimal interference. Unless the internal collapse within the armed forces can quickly be reversed, both AQIM and the MNLA will score what may prove to be irreversible gains against a state rendered largely defenseless by its own military.

Al-Qaeda has been trying for years to repeat Iran's 1979 Great Islamic Revolution in some country -- Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Yemen, Somalia, and others. Mali is their latest opportunity. Jamestown

Egypt's other Christians

The vast majority of Egyptian Christians belong to the Coptic Orthodox Church, but there are a number of other Christian denominations with significant numbers of followers in Egypt. The largest is the Greek Orthodox Church of Alexandria, with some 350,000 members. In 451 AD, theological disagreements led the Egyptian Church to split from most other churches of the time. In the modern period, the Greek Orthodox Church in Egypt experienced a revival, with immigrants from Greece, Syria and Lebanon. The Coptic Catholic Church, with 170,000 members, recognizes the spiritual authority of the Pope in Rome. The Evangelical Church of Egypt is the largest of a number of Protestant Churches in Egypt, with about 250,000 members. It was originally founded in the 1800s by American Presbyterian missionaries. Al-Ahram (Cairo)

Venezuela's Chavez returns to Cuba for cancer treatment

It's been wide suspected, and denied by authorities, that Venezuela's president Hugo Chávez is much more ill from cancer than he's admitting. Chávez has not identified the type of cancer nor the location in his pelvic region where the tumors have been removed. On Saturday, Chávez announced that he would return to Cuba on Sunday for radiation treatment. "Tonight, I'm leaving for Havana. I've decided, on the recommendation of my medical team and also my government political team, to begin now, as we're going to begin on Sunday, radiation therapy treatment." Chávez described it as a "complement to the surgery that I underwent" last month. AP

Feminist alert: 15 female PKK militants killed in clashes with Turkey's security forces

Turkish forces killed 15 female rebel fighters from the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in clashes in southeast Turkey, in what is believed to be the largest one-day casualty toll for women since their guerrilla group began fighting for autonomy nearly 28 years ago. The PKK, which is fighting for autonomy in Turkey’s mainly Kurdish southeast, was born out of Marxist ideology and believes in equality between men and women. It is believed to have several female units. Female PKK militants carried out suicide bombings in 1990s, killing dozens of troops and civilians. AP

(Comments: For reader comments, questions and discussion, see the 25-Mar-12 World View -- Chaotic rebellion in Mali provides opportunity for an al-Qaeda linked Islamist state thread of the Generational Dynamics forum. Comments may be posted anonymously.) (25-Mar-2012) Permanent Link
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Generational Dynamics Web Log for 25-Mar-2012 25-Mar-12 World View -- Chaotic rebellion in Mali provides opportunity for an al-Qaeda linked Islamist state

Chaotic rebellion in Mali provides opportunity for an al-Qaeda linked Islamist state

Egypt's other Christians

Venezuela's Chavez returns to Cuba for cancer treatment

Feminist alert: 15 female PKK militants killed in clashes with Turkey's security forces

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Generational Dynamics Web Log for 25-Mar-2012
25-Mar-12 World View -- Chaotic rebellion in Mali provides opportunity for an al-Qaeda linked Islamist state