Moussa Traoré

This article refers to the former President of Mali; for other namesake see Traoré .

Moussa Traoré (1989)

Moussa Traoré (born September 25, 1936 in Sébétou, Kayes region , † September 15, 2020 in Bamako ) was President of Mali from 1968 to 1991 .

Military career

Traoré completed his training in Kati near Bamako and at the military academy in Fréjus . When French Sudan became independent under the name Mali in 1960, it returned to the country. He became a sub-lieutenant in 1961 and a lieutenant in 1963, and was sent to Tanganyika as a military advisor . He later became an instructor at L'Ecole militaire interarmes in Kati and was promoted to colonel .

president

On November 19, 1968 he participated in the successful military coup against the authoritarian ruling President Modibo Keïta . He became chairman of the military junta Comité militaire de la liberation national and thus head of state. After the coup, all political activities were banned and a rigid police state was established. In the economic field he partly said goodbye to the socialist policies of his predecessor.

Mali was in 1972 and 1973 from the strong drought with subsequent famine in the Sahel affected. The country received international aid, but much was suppressed by the corrupt state apparatus.

In 1974 Traoré proclaimed a new constitution for the "Second Republic". Ex-President Keïta, imprisoned since the 1968 coup, died on May 16, 1977 under unexplained circumstances, which led to riots in the country. Sporadic plots and attempts to overthrow his rule repeatedly forced Traoré to separate from senior officers and cabinet members and to have them imprisoned. Torture and murder of opposition activists were common practice. To strengthen its position in 1979 Unity Party of Union Démocratique du Peuple Malien (UDPM) was founded. The Union Nationale des Femmes du Mali for women and the Union Nationale des Jeunes du Mali for young people were compulsory mass organizations . In the same year, Traoré was elected and formed a new government in which he primarily called civilians. In contrast to his predecessor, Traoré tried to maintain good relations with the West, and in October 1988 he was on a four-day state visit to the United States .

Fall

In 1990, new opposition groups emerged which challenged Traoré's regime. On March 22, 1991, riots were still bloodily suppressed, but four days later a military coup put an end to his rule (see coup in Mali 1991 ). As in 1968, a junta took power, this time under the name Comité de Transition pour le Salut du Peuple . The leader of the coup, Lieutenant Colonel Amadou Toumani Touré , became interim president and led Mali into democracy.

In 1992, Traoré was sentenced to death for violent crimes during his tenure; another death sentence was passed in 1999 against him and his wife Mariam, now for embezzlement of state assets. Both were pardoned and released on May 29, 2002 by President Alpha Oumar Konaré . Traoré still had a certain attachment in the country, which is organized in the Mouvement Patriotique por le Renouveau (MPR) party. In the elections of 2002, the party under its chairman Choguel Kokalla MaÏga achieved 2.71 percent of the votes, in the second ballot it supported the eventual winner Touré.

Web links

Commons : Moussa Traoré  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Election results in African Elections Database (English)
• Biography on the website of the Presidential Office of Mali (French)

Individual evidence

1. ^ Moussa Traoré: l'ancien président malien est décédé , BBC . (French) Retrieved September 16, 2020.
2. ^ Former Malian President Moussa Traoré has died , Deutschlandfunk . Retrieved September 16, 2020.