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280 CHAPTER 6Masters of the Land: February to October 1994In Algeria and Libya, the exiled Kel Tamasheq in the Tanekra had discovered arelative freedom in the reshaping of tewsit hierarchy, which had led to competitionover leadership within the Tanekra and the ‘Tamanrasset War’ of themid 1980s. Complementary to this process was the reshaping of the ideas onTamasheq warrior status. In previous times, the warrior status of an individualhad been linked to his tewsit affiliation. Now, warrior status became determinedby individual participation in the Libyan campaigns in Lebanon and Chad, andparticipation in the rebellion itself. Contrary to the civilian population, anddespite the retaliation on civilians by the Army, these new warriors discoveredthey could use violence as a means to reshape tewsit hierarchy under circumstancesthat had been missing for more than a century: State absence. After thefirst six months of rebellion, the state was absent in Northern Mali. Administratorshad been killed or had abandoned their posts, except in the major citiessuch as Kidal, Ménaka and Gao. After the Tamanrasset Agreement in 1991, theArmy withdrew to a small number of posts, also largely situated in the maincities and villages. The number of posts would only decrease after the signingof the National Pact in 1992. Indeed, the Army occasionally left its barracks tofight rebel units and more often to terrorise and kill the nomadic population. Butcrudely put, that was ‘all’ it did. With this last remark I do not intend to trivialisetheir actions. It is to say that, on one hand, the Army largely influencedpeoples’ behaviour through the exercise of violence but, on the other hand, ithad no means to directly control or influence developments within Tamasheqsociety, as it had had in previous decades. This situation of ‘independence’, orthe absence of the state, combined with heavy military repression despite thisabsence, had a large influence on the reorganisation of the rebel movementalong tewsit lines. The atrocities the Army committed against the civil populationforced the population and the rebels to organise their defence. The conceptsof illellan – the strong members of society – and tilaqqiwin – the weakmembers of society needing protection – needed to be reformulated to deal withthe developments Tamasheq society underwent. In previous periods, notably inpre-colonial times, strong tewsiten had protected weak tewsiten. In practice, theclans and tribes of illellan status had monopolised violence to the detriment ofthe tilaqqiwin. During the colonial period, but particularly during the KeitaRegime and the years of exile, the imghad had become aware of the possibilityof a political existence independent from the noble clans. As a large number ofrebel fighters were of imghad origins, they felt they did not need fighters ofellellu origins to protect them and their tewsit from the Army. However, thisreformulation of strong and weak in society on the basis of personal combatskill instead of tewsit affiliation meant a fragmentation of protection. Where one