BAMAKO - Mali's desert Tuaregs proclaimed independence for what they call the state of Azawad on Friday, a secession bid immediately rejected by the African Union, neighbouring Algeria and the former colonial power France. The nomadic people has nurtured the dream of a Saharan homeland since Mali's independence in 1960 and has come closer than ever to attaining it by seizing key northern towns this week while the capital Bamako was distracted by a coup. Neighbours fear the creation of a new state could encourage separatists elsewhere, while the presence within the rebellion of Islamists with ties to al Qaeda has sparked wider fears of the emergence of a new rogue state threatening global security. "The Executive Committee of the MNLA calls on the entire international community to immediately recognise, in a spirit of justice and peace, the independent state of Azawad," Billal Ag Acherif, secretary-general of the Tuareg-led MNLA rebel group MNLA said on its www.mnlamov.net home page. The statement listed decades of Tuareg grievances over their treatment by governments dominated by black southerners in the distant capital Bamako. It said the group recognised all borders with neighbouring states and pledged to create a democratic state based on the principles of the United Nations charter. It was datelined in the town of Gao, which along with the ancient trading post of Timbuktu and other northern towns fell to rebels in a matter of 72 hours this week as soldiers in Mali's army either defected to the rebellion or fled.
