A peace of Timbuktu: Democratic governance, development and African peacemaking

Mali is admired for two recent accomplishments. The first is the country’s transition to democracy, which took place in 1991 – 1992. This effort included the overthrow of Moussa Traoré’s 23 year old military dictatorship on 26 March 1991, a process of military and civilian collaboration which fostered national reconciliation, a referendum for new constitution, and elections which brought to power Mali’s first democratically elected President. Government and Legislature. The second achievement is the peacemaking between the Government of Mali and the rebel movements in the northern part of the country: this process successfully prevented the outbreak of civil war and present useful lessons for the international community in preventive diplomacy. The peacemaking culminated in a ceremony known as the Flame of Peace, when rebel weapons were incinerated in Timbuktu on 27 March 1996. This study of the events surrounding the uprisings in the North of Mali and the measures which restored peace (and those which will maintain it) is the result of a collaboration between the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR).