ASC-075287668-2887-01

270 CHAPTER 6(which, at that point, still excluded the Tamasheq movements). Touré proclaimedhe would lead the CRN through a transitional phase, during which anew constitution would be written; political parties could be founded; anddemocratic elections for parliament and presidency would be organised. Hehimself would not propose his candidacy as president. After the presidentialelections, he would step down and rejoin his post in the Army. All this, so hepromised, would be done within nine months. In order to build democracy inMali, and especially to discuss on which grounds it should be based, Touréorganised a National Conference in July 1991. These National Conferenceswere much in vogue in the early 1990s all over francophone West Africa.Democracy took sail under the wind of the Franco-African summit at La Baule.The Malian National Conference gathered representatives of all the new politicalparties and civil movements in the country, including the Tanekra, whichwas represented by Iyad ag Ghali. On the one hand, the main outcome of theNational Conference with regards to the North was a certain amount of recognitionfor the role the rebellion had played in bringing about the fall of Traoré.Yet, on the other hand, the Conference rejected the Tamanrasset Agreement, onthe grounds that it had been anti-constitutional and too lenient towards therebellion. Iyad ag Ghali, representative of the rebellion at the National Conference,pleaded for federalism as the new form of state rule, or at least economicand political autonomy through the creation of regional assemblies which hadalready been proposed in the Tamanrasset Agreement. The conference could notagree to these proposals and would not go further than to propose a decentralisedform of state administration. However, the National Conference agreedon the need to solve the rebellion and a majority of delegates agreed this shouldbe done peacefully.Thus, for Touré to organise his democratic tour de force, a lasting peace inthe North was necessary. In order to appease the Tanekra, Touré offered seatsto two representatives of the Tamasheq movement in his interim government,and he assured that the Tamanrasset Agreement would be respected. 32 However,the Tamanrasset Agreement was ‘only’ a cease-fire, which had been violated byboth sides before the ink had dried. New negotiations were needed. Theseultimately led to the signing of the Pacte National, the National Pact. Negotiationsleading to the National Pact started in December 1991 in the Algerian32The first two representatives of the movements were Cheick ag Baye and HamedSidi Ahmed. They were replaced by Acherif ag Mohamed and Malainine ould Badi.When Touré formed a government (prior to the election of Konaré in 1992), Mohamedag Erlaf, an Idnan from the Adagh with relatives in the movement, becameMinister. He remained in the various governments under Konaré on various ministerialposts as a sign of inclusion of the Tamasheq movements and society in theMalian state. Poulton, R. & I. ag Youssouf 1998: 61.