Malian civil society organizations have shown their hostility to the award given to Islamic cleric Houka Houka Ag Alhousseini.
The decoration of Houka Houka by the Malian state for “service to peace and living together” is not to the liking of 37 Malian civil society organisations.
They expressed their disagreement in a joint statement published on Wednesday 16 November.
“Our 37 organisations strongly condemn the distinction made by the governor of the Timbuktu region to Mr Houka Houka Ag Alhousseini, former Islamic commissioner of Ansar Dine in Timbuktu, who is still being prosecuted by the Malian justice system for war crimes, crimes against humanity, perpetrated during the occupation of Timbuktu,” said the civil society organisations, calling for “the cancellation of this recognition and for the person concerned to be made available to the Malian justice system so that he can be tried.”
For these organisations, including the Consultative Framework of Timbuktu Human Rights Organisations and Yermatoun, a civil rights association active in the same region, the governor’s “act is contrary to the principle of the rule of law and constitutes an attack on the memory of the victims.”
“This act is likely to celebrate the executioners at a time when the victims are desperately waiting for trials,” the Malian civil society said.
It is all the more upset with the governor of Timbuktu who “is supposed to know that Houka Houka is still being prosecuted for crimes under international law that are not subject to any statute of limitation,” recalling that in 2015, organisations had filed a complaint against the person concerned with the constitution of civil parties “on behalf of 33 alleged victims of sexual violence committed in Timbuktu qualified as crimes against humanity and war crimes.”
On November 11, Houka Houka Ag Alhousseini was honoured along with some thirty religious and customary personalities during the day of traditional legitimacy for services rendered in favour of the return of peace and living together in the Timbuktu region.
Two weeks earlier, in his capacity as Cadi (a Muslim judge with civil, judicial and religious functions) of Zouérat, in the Goundam cercle, he had set three conditions for the reopening of schools to the governor of the Timbuktu region.
The introduction of Arabic in schools, including the Koran and its interpretation in the local language and in all levels of education, different rows between girls and boys separated by a barrier or separate classes and girls to be taught by women and boys by men when classes are separated.
In 2019, the UN Security Council imposed sanctions on Houka Houka Ag Alhousseini for his actions obstructing the implementation of the Algiers Agreement signed in 2014 between the Malian state and northern rebel groups.
Arrested in January 2014 by French soldiers during the Serval intervention to drive jihadists out of northern Mali, Houka Houka was released eight months later by the Malian authorities.
Since then, he has been living in Zouérat, a village west of Timbuktu.
According to the UN, he was reinstated as a teacher in September 2017 by the then governor of the Timbuktu region, Koina Ag Ahmadou, under pressure from the leader of the Coalition of the Azawad People (CPA), Mohamed Ousmane Ag Mohamidoune.
AC/cgd/lb/as/APA