In response to charges that Malian forces and nameless foreign fighters massacred at least 500 people during a 2013 operation, Mali’s interim military government disregarded a UN human rights office assessment.
The governing junta published its conclusions on Friday, after months of examining what rights groups have called the worst tragedy in a decade-long conflict between Islamist insurgents and the army.
The transitional administration “vehemently denounces this biased report that is based on a fictitious narrative and does not meet established international standards,” said government spokesman Abdoulaye Maiga in a statement published on Saturday.
According to the report, on March 27, last year, Malian soldiers and foreigners arrived by helicopter on the hamlet of Moura and started fire on fleeing villagers. It went on to say that hundreds more residents were picked up, shot, and thrown in ditches in the days that followed.
Although Maiga reaffirmed his prior allegations that Islamist militants rather than civilians were killed, he did indicate that a governmental investigation into possible human rights violations during the operation was still ongoing.
There were no civilian fatalities as a consequence of the military operation in Moura. He underscored the government’s commitment to human rights by stating that all suspects seized had been handed over to the gendarmerie.
The United Nations assessment was based on forensic evidence, satellite images, and interviews with victims and witnesses in the West African country. According to the report, the Malian government refused to allow the UN fact-finding delegation to enter the Moura hamlet.
Maiga said that a judicial probe had been launched because the fact-finding expedition had reportedly collected satellite photographs of Moura without first receiving permission, which he described as “a clandestine maneuver against Mali’s national security.”
