In Mali, in a joint report, human rights organizations denounce the status quo in the investigations into the mutiny that broke out in Kati’s Soundjata Keita camp in 2013.
“More than four years after the events in Kati, the families of the victims and our organizations regret that this file has not progressed and urge the newly appointed examining magistrate in charge of the case to take all necessary measures to close this investigation within a reasonable time”, says a report written by the AMDH and FIDH. Last Friday, these two human rights organizations presented the report Mali: Facing crisis, make the choice of justice, in which they return to what is known as “the Kati mutiny case”.
In September 2013, a mutiny broke out in the Soudjata Keïta camp in Kati, at the time the stronghold of the former military junta led by Captain Amadou Haya Sanogo, who had just been promoted general by Dioncounda Traoré, then president of the Transition. The demands and jealousy of Sanogo’s “green beret” comrades led to serious altercations in Kati. Amadou Haya Sanogo had made promises to promote and increase the pay of the soldiers of this camp.
Some mutineers disappeared, while others were been abducted. The government launched the operation “Saniya” to restore order in the camp: thirty soldiers were arrested and the camp soldiers disarmed. The families of the missing mutineers had no news of their loved ones, thus bringing the AMDH-FIDH to file a complaint with the district court of the commune III, with criminal indemnification proceedings, against the Chief warrant officer Fousseyni Diarra , Captain Christophe Dembélé and General Amadou Haya Sanogo.
“(…) On February 23, 2014, two mass graves were discovered in the rural commune of Kambila, less than 10 km from the city of Kati, and comprising five corpses of military green berets. Then, on March 1, 2014, a body bearing a colonel’s badge was found in a well in Malibougou, near Kati, in a villa belonging to a soldier close to General Sanogo”, said the AMDH-FIDH’s report.
In May 2014, expertise was carried out on the found bodies, and the civil parties auditioned by the examining magistrate. “Thus seven people are charged and then released provisionally, and about forty soldiers are put before justice”, adds the document. Since then, nothing. Four years later, this case is still at the stage of investigation, much to the disappointment of the families of the victims.
Sahelien.com