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258 CHAPTER 6special permits, as did other cars. In practice this meant a stop to most motorisedtransport since almost all vehicles used in the North are four-wheel-drivesor trucks. Random civilians were interrogated and executed. When these executionsmade the Malian and European press, the Malian authorities ascribedthem to ‘uncontrolled elements of the Army’. Some of these executions mightindeed have been the result of frustration and stress among the Malian soldiers.The majority of these executions however, were part of a deliberate terrorcampaign to undermine support for the rebellion and to discourage the fighters.Spokesmen for the Tamasheq and Bidân civil population accused the MalianArmed Forces of having started a campaign of ethnic cleansing in the Région ofTimbuktu in July 1990, entitled Kokadjè in Bamanakan, which indeed means‘cleaning’. 12 Whether or not this was actually the case, other sources confirmthat Malian soldiers had no trouble in employing any means necessary to endthe rebellion and to stop civilian support. The largest ‘cleaning operation’ tookplace at I-n-Abalan, near Ti-n-Essako in July 1990, where the Army killed anestimated 94 nomads. 13 The ghastliness of these executions was in accordancewith methods applied during Alfellaga as well. On 29 July 1990, a unit ofairborne soldiers passing by the camp of the chief of the Idnan tribe, Attaher agBissaada, let the inhabitants of the camp dig their own grave, after which theywere killed by throwing in hand grenades. 14 An anonymous witness in a LeMonde article of 15 August 1990 stated that eleven people were executed inGao. Their bodies were run over by a tank after which ‘the people picked uppieces of the corpses, one a finger, another a head, and went to wiggle themabout in front of the doors of Tuareg families’. 15 Estimates of the number ofcivilians killed by the Army during the first two months of rebellion alone rangebetween 125 and 262. 16 Georg Klute estimates that the number of civil victims1213141516ressa. Saisie par les combattants touaregs après le succès de leur attaque du 9 août1990), Boilley, P. 1994: 841-845.‘Les réfugiés touaregs au Burkina’, Liberté no 3, 1992. Kokadjè – ‘to wash thoroughly’in Bamanakan – was the campaign slogan of the ADEMA party during thepresidential and parliamentary elections of 1992. This might have caused confusionin the North as the Northern regions did not participate in these elections due to therebellion. On the other hand, the term might well have been employed to indicate‘ethnic cleansing’ by Bamanakan speaking soldiers as well, in a stroke of soldieresquehumour about democracy.Nous, Touaregs du Mali (Paris 1990).Ibid. and Amnesty International, Mali: Ethnic conflict and killings of civilians (21September 1994).‘Des affrontements meurtriers auraient opposé l’armée aux Touaregs’, Le Monde,15/08/1990.The number of 125 is advanced in Le Monde, 15/08/1990. The number of 262 isadvanced in ‘chronologie Cheick’ in annex to Klute, G. 2001. Klute himself esti-