* U.S. supports African plans to impose sanctions on junta
* Washington concerned about Islamist extremists
WASHINGTON, April 3 (Reuters) – The United States warned on
Tuesday that Mali’s political crisis was putting the territorial
integrity of the large West African state at risk and called
again on coup leaders to immediately return power to civilian
authorities.
The State Department said the United States fully supported
moves by the 15-member ECOWAS bloc of West African states to
impose diplomatic, trade and financial sanctions on Mali’s junta
and urged armed rebels in the north of the country to cease
military operations.
“Mali’s territorial integrity is at stake, and its political
institutions will be further weakened if Captain Amadou Sanogo
and his supporters do not release their illegitimate grip on
Mali and its people immediately,” State Department spokeswoman
Victoria Nuland said.
Sanogo and his supporters have been hit with sanctions by
both ECOWAS and the African Union since they seized power and
deposed President Amadou Toumani Toure last month.
.
The United States, which sees Mali as an important partner
in regional efforts to combat Islamic extremism, has suspended
an estimated $60-70 million in aid to the country and Nuland
said further steps were being discussed.
Nuland said the United States was increasingly concerned
that advances by Tuareg separatist rebels in the north and the
divisions within Mali’s military were threatening the existence
of Mali as a state.
“The United States urgently calls on all armed rebels in the
north of Mali to cease military operations that compromise the
Republic of Mali’s territorial integrity,” Nuland said.
“As civilian leadership is restored in Mali, we also urge
all armed rebels to engage in dialogue with the civilian leaders
in Bamako to find a nonviolent path forward for national
elections and peaceful coexistence.”
Nuland said the United States would strongly support a U.N.
Security Council statement on Mali, which could come within
days, as the first step toward possible broader punitive action.
.
Once one of the most stable democracies in West Africa, Mali
has been in turmoil since the widely condemned March 22 coup
that emboldened Tuareg rebels to seize half the country in their
quest for a northern homeland.
They have been joined by Islamists bent on imposing sharia,
Islamic law, across the whole of the moderate Muslim state,
making it the latest security headache for a region battling al
Qaeda agents and home-grown militant groups such as Nigeria’s
Boko Haram.
ECOWAS decided on Monday to impose diplomatic, trade and
financial sanctions on Mali’s junta with immediate effect.
ECOWAS military chiefs will discuss this week whether to
“activate” a standby ECOWAS military force, but they gave no
detail on when or how it would be deployed.
(Reporting By Andrew Quinn; editing by Christopher Wilson)
