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Algeria firmly responded to the accusations of Mali who claims to have seized the International Court of Justice. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs denounced, this Friday, “false” allegations, a “paradoxical approach” and a desperate attempt to instrumentalize international justice to hide the total failure of the Malian regime. This was indicated by a statement from the ministry.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs reacted strongly to the announcements of Bamako, who claimed to have filed a request against Algeria to the International Court of Justice (CIJ). According to the press release, the Malian government initially declared, on September 4, to have seized the court. However, on September 13, the Minister of State, Minister of Foreign Affairs, the national community abroad and African affairs, Ahmed Attaf, had publicly denied this alleged referral. Faced with this denial, “the junta resolved to submit the request on September 16, as announced by the CIJ”.
For Algiers, this attitude illustrates a “striking paradox with regard to the Malian approach”, that of a power which “trampled on the legality and constitutional order in its country” but which “falsely claims to attach to the law on the international scene”.
The ministry did not fail to recall the direct responsibility of the current Malian authorities in the deep crisis that shakes their country. “This same junta led Mali to the political, economic and security disaster and that it is itself the instigator of a moral bankruptcy,” said the statement.
Bamako’s approach to the CIJ is thus perceived by Algiers as “an attempted instrumentalization of this august judicial organ of the United Nations in a desperate attempt to search for scapegoats which would exempt it from its responsibilities in the tragedy it inflicts in Mali Frère”.
Algeria firmly rejects this strategy and denounces “the shamelessness”. “This maneuver is too gross to be credible,” said the ministry, while reaffirming that the country “has too high an idea of international law” and that it has “deep respect for the CIJ”.
In addition, Algiers assures that she “will notify, in a timely manner, to the CIJ, her refusal of this maneuvering procedure”, categorically refusing to be carried out in what she considers a derisory diversion.
It should be recalled that media had reported that the Malian transitional government had seized the CIJ, accusing Algeria “of aggression” after the destruction of a Malian military drone. On April 1, Algiers had indeed announced that his forces had killed an armed drone having violated his airspace near the border town in Tin Zaouatine, on the border with Mali.
Last Saturday, at a press conference in Algiers, Attaf had categorically denied this information. “There is in reality no request from Mali,” he said, adding that “if Mali had effectively introduced an international affair aimed at another state, the International Court of Justice would have notified the state concerned. We contacted the CIJ as soon as this information is published for verification, but there is absolutely nothing ”.