U.N. urges dialogue to solve Sahel Tuareg revolts
By Pascal Fletcher
DAKAR, June 14 (Reuters) - The United Nations called for dialogue on Saturday to resolve Tuareg rebellions in Mali and Niger and said it would support a proposed regional summit in July to discuss security and smuggling problems in the Sahel.
"As the United Nations, we are ready to fully support the region's efforts," Said Djinnit, the U.N. Secretary General's special representative for West Africa, told reporters in Senegal after a meeting of regional U.N. peace mission chiefs.
U.N. experts say Africa's Sahel belt stretching from the Atlantic to the Red Sea has become a hotbed of arms- and drugs-trafficking, which has helped fuel revolts by Tuaregs and other nomadic tribesmen of the rugged, largely desert zone.
In both Mali and Niger, whose territories jut into the Sahara, rebels have been attacking government and army garrisons and convoys over the last year in what appears to be a repeat of similar Tuareg uprisings in the 1990s.
In recent months, clashes between government troops and the desert rebels have intensified and casualties have increased.
Malian President Amadou Toumani Toure has offered to negotiate with the rebels. But neighbouring Niger's government has ruled out talks with its own Tuareg-led insurgents in the uranium-producing north unless they first lay down their arms.
"We believe, at the end of the day, that dialogue is the solution," Djinnit told Reuters after the meeting in Dakar.
He said the U.N. backed a proposal by Mali's president to host a summit in Bamako in early July of leaders of west and central Sahelian countries -- Mauritania, Mali, Niger, Chad, Burkina Faso, Algeria and Libya.
The meeting would seek solutions to the twin Tuareg revolts as well as measures to counter what Djinnit said was a sharp rise in smuggling of drugs and arms and other organised crime activities in the Sahel corridor.
This had created dangerous links between local rebellions, terrorist networks and crime organisations, Djinnit said.
"Other routes to channel the drugs have been more difficult for the networks, and they have found the weak region in West Africa," he said.
"They are really investing massively in drug trafficking and this definitely needs a collective approach and effective action," he added.
Regional governments and analysts are divided over the extent to which the Tuareg revolts in Niger and Mali are driven by genuine political grievances or whether they are fighting to control lucrative drugs, arms and migrant smuggling routes.
No precise date has been set yet for the Sahel conference.
(Editing by Jeremy Lovell) (For full Reuters Africa coverage and to have your say on the top issues, visit: africa.reuters.com/)
