Amadou Sanogo promises free and fair election but offers no timetable, as Tuareg rebels penetrate Timbuktu
The junior officer who overthrew Mali's democratically elected leader last month and dissolved the nation's constitution made a public U-turn on Sunday, declaring amid intense international pressure that he was reinstating the 1992 charter and planning to hold elections.
Captain Amadou Sanogo added that he would hold a national convention to agree a transitional government which would organise free and fair elections, but he did not announce a timetable.
Sanogo's announcement came as Tuareg rebels penetrated the northern city of Timbuktu, a move that deepens the country's crisis. Residents said the rebels had entered the town after a heavy firefight, and were going house to house asking people to remain calm. The nomadic Tuaregs, who are descended from the people who founded Timbuktu in the 11th century and seized it from invaders in 1434, attacked the city in their fight to create a independent homeland.
Taking advantage of the chaos surrounding last week's coup, the rebels took the town of Kidal, 800 miles from Bamako, on Friday. They also seized the biggest northern city of Gao, 50 miles nearer the capital, on Saturday. Neither city has ever fallen in previous rebellions.
Mali, once a model democracy, was plunged into crisis on 21 March when a mutiny erupted at the Kati military camp, six miles from the presidential palace. The 30-something Sanogo was one of the few officers not to flee the camp when the rank-and-file soldiers began rioting, and he quickly became their leader as they broke into the camp's armoury, grabbed automatic weapons and headed for the seat of government.
His coup reversed 21 years of democracy, and sent President Amadou Toumani Touré into hiding. Touré was due to step down after presidential elections scheduled to take place at the end of this month. Mali's neighbours had given the country a 72-hour deadline to restore constitutional order, or else face crippling sanctions. Sanogo's declaration appears intended to stave off the sanctions, which were due to take effect on Monday.
A senior adviser to the president of neighbouring Ivory Coast said the regional body representing west African states was considering postponing the sanctions for a week. The information was confirmed by a diplomat from Burkina Faso, the country leading mediation efforts.
In his declaration, Sanogo said: "We take a solemn promise to re-establish from this day on the constitution of the Republic of Mali of 25 February 1992, as well as the institutions of the republic.
"Taking into account the multidimensional crisis that our country is facing … we will engage in consultations with all the actors of society in the context of a national convention in order to put in place a transitional body with the aim of organising calm, free, transparent and democratic elections in which we will not participate."
Legal experts, however, said Sanogo's declaration was contradictory. If the 1992 constitution is reinstated, said law professor Malick Sarr at the University of Bamako, then the ousted president should become head of state again.
Sarr said Sanogo may be leaning on an article in the 1992 charter, which says that in the event the president is unable to carry out his functions, there can be a transitional period of up to 45 days before new elections are held.
The article, however, states that the transition will be led by the head of the national assembly. When reporters asked Sanogo if he still considered himself president, he failed to answer the question and turned to leave.