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296 CHAPTER 6under rebel attacks. 79 Many bellah had become internally displaced peoplewithin Mali as they had felt forced to leave their homesteads. Few had thechance to integrate into the movements. Their fate was cruder than that of therefugees outside Mali (as the latter at least had some support from internationalorganisations), while simultaneously being excluded from the rebel forces. Preexistinganimosity towards their former masters also made many bellah join inthe repression of free Kel Tamasheq by the Army and the Ganda Koy. Whenthe Army attacked the Kel Tamasheq and Arab community in Léré in 1991,many bellah joined in, guarding the survivors who were more or less internedoutside the village for more than a year.The bellah took our possessions, engaged in trade in our place, set up shops almosteverywhere in the South, killed our cattle. Others lived with our herds in the bush.They also killed people in the bush and looted their camps. During the last dry season,we had neither access to the wells, nor to the market because of the problems[between the Malian Armed Forces and the rebels]. The bellah were charged tosurvey us. Some we knew, others we didn’t. At night, military vehicles patrolled toprevent our escape. They threw stones at us when we tried to leave. 80Like the Ganda Koy, the Mouvement pour l’éveil du Monde Bellah usedracial motives as the Tanekra had largely excluded the bellah community fromits actions. Finally, the bellah, like most other inhabitants of the North, rejectedthe National Pact. They felt excluded from its stipulations and saw it as nothingbut a privilege for their former masters. Support for the Ganda Koy in thebellah community and the racial view of the problems of the North by thebellah themselves meant that, on the one hand, Ganda Koy discourse could notbe simply anti-Kel Tamasheq. To this day, most bellah see themselves as partof the Kel Tamasheq community, but as second-rank citizens. On the otherhand, opting for racial discourse had become less problematic and the onlyoption left to other the Kel Tamasheq accused of supporting or joining therebellion. Despite the failure of the Mouvement pour l’Eveil du Monde Bellahand the integration of bellah in the Ganda Koy, bellah political organisation didcome off the ground with the founding of a regional political party in Ménaka:the Union Malienne pour la Démocratie et le Développement (UMADD). TheCercle of Ménaka has a large bellah population, next to a large ‘free’ KelTamasheq population. The UMADD was often seen as ‘the bellah party’,although many of its adherents came from the imghad population of the Cercle.Its two main leaders belong to the tewsit Ishidenharen, one of which is of bellah7980It has to be noted that Kel Tamasheq of bellah origins also fell victim to pogroms inBamako, if it was known that they were Kel Tamasheq.Association des Refugiés et Victimes de la Répression de l’Azawad, Témoignage deFati Wellet Hamomo, retenue en hotage à Léré de mai 1991 à mai 1992 (Bassikounou,26/05/1992). Personal archives.