{"id":9735,"date":"2025-12-11T16:44:29","date_gmt":"2025-12-11T16:44:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/freeazawad.com\/?p=9735"},"modified":"2025-12-11T16:44:29","modified_gmt":"2025-12-11T16:44:29","slug":"denial-and-propaganda-the-denial-of-decades-of-documented-crimes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/freeazawad.com\/en_gb\/denial-and-propaganda-the-denial-of-decades-of-documented-crimes\/","title":{"rendered":"DENIAL AND PROPAGANDA: THE DENIAL OF DECADES OF DOCUMENTED CRIMES."},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Denial and propaganda: The denial of decades of documented crimes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This article by Khamidoune Ag Toumast is a response to those who denies the truth about the conflict between Mali and Azawad (northern Mali).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It`s a response to the many attempts of burying historical truths – documented by the UN, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and even by internal Malian reports. Therefore, this is not a matter of perspective, but a matter of truth and justice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He meets the Malian propaganda with thorough explanations of the real truth, no matter if it`s not the kind of truth that suits them. The truth is the truth and cannot be buried.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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  1. STATEMENT – \u201cThe Tuareg are historically Malian\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    REPLY – History cannot be rewritten to serve propaganda. Before 1960, there was no state called Mali governing Azawad. The Tuareg had their confederations, their territories, and their social structures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Azawad was forcibly incorporated into modern Mali by a colonial border established without consulting its people. This is a historical fact, not a fabrication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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    1. STATEMENT – \u201cThe problem stems from your leaders being manipulated from the outside.”<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

      REPLY – The massacres committed against the Tuareg did not begin yesterday, nor with any foreign interference. They began as early as 1963, then in 1990, 2006, 2012, 2023\u20262024\u20262025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Always the same pattern:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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      Civilian populations collectively accused
      Summary executions
      Villages burned
      Women raped
      Children killed.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

      These are not \u201cexternal manipulations.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      These are atrocities committed by Malian units, acknowledged in public reports. A drop of a child\u2019s blood cannot be justified in the name of \u201cunity.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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      1. STATEMENT – \u201cTuaregs have been ministers, members of parliament, generals\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

        REPLY – Having a few decorative faces in a system does not mean that the system is just. Co-opted individuals do not represent oppressed peoples. Disguised political apartheid cannot be presented as evidence of inclusion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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        1. STATEMENT – “You are a small minority.”<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

          REPLY – People do not obtain their rights through the size of their community, but through the legitimacy of their suffering. Even a single massacred village is enough to demand justice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

          And if we’re talking numbers:<\/strong>
          The Tuareg, Arab, Fulani, and Songhai populations who have suffered at the hands of the Malian army all speak of the same system of repeated abuses. This isn’t a “minority” saying this, but entire traumatized communities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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          1. STATEMENT – \u201cMali is one and indivisible\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

            REPLY – This statement is not an argument. It is a political slogan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Unity cannot be decreed: It is earned through justice, equality, respect, and an end to impunity. When a state attacks a portion of its citizens for 60 years, when it uses bombings, executions, and enforced disappearances, when it treats entire populations as internal enemies, then it is no longer \u201cnational unity.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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            1. STATEMENT – \u201cWe are all brothers, all Malians.”<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

              REPLY – Brotherhood is not proven by words, but by stopping crimes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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              A brother does not justify mass graves.
              A brother does not deny suffering.
              A brother does not trivialize the tears of mothers.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

              I am willing to talk about unity, but not a unity built on the graves of our children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

              I am willing to talk about peace, but not a peace that asks us to forget our dead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

              It is not the truth that divides Mali: it is the unacknowledged injustices and the unpunished crimes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n