Mali's Tuaregs boycott peace deal as violence erupt in north

By Souleymane Ag Anara and Tiemoko Diallo BAMAKO (Reuters) - Mali's Tuareg-led separatist rebels boycotted the signing of a peace deal with the government and its allied armed groups in the capital Bamako on Friday after signalling approval at talks in Algeria a day earlier. Hours before the ceremony, rebels from the separatist Coordination of Movements of Azawad (CMA) clashed with pro-government militia in the northern town of Menaka. In the Tuareg separatist stronghold of Kidal, hundreds of people demonstrating against the deal, carrying banners and chanting slogans including "Better martyrdom than humiliation", hurled rocks at U.N. peacekeepers. The CMA, a coalition of five Tuareg and Arab rebel groups, said it wanted more guarantees before signing the Algerian-brokered deal, one of many that have tried to put an end to decades of northern uprisings. Only a couple of dissident members of the CMA took part in Friday's ceremony in Bamako, alongside representatives of six pro-government armed groups. Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe, who chairs the African Union, and several other heads of state, were also there. The CMA issued a statement describing the ceremony as a "unilateral signature" and saying its initialling of the deal in Algiers on Thursday was only a preliminary step. "The CMA does not envisage any signature before the conclusion of further discussions to take into account its concerns," it said. Diplomats want an agreement that would allow Malian and international forces to concentrate on tackling al Qaeda-linked Islamist fighters in the country's lawless desert region. During the most recent northern uprising in 2012, separatists briefly joined forces with Islamist militants to seize control of the northern two-thirds of the country before a French-led military intervention pushed them back. A spokesman for U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon in New York welcomed Friday's signing as a step towards lasting peace in Mali and expressed hope that the missing parties would quickly join the agreement. France's Secretary of State for Development Annick Giraldin said Paris had introduced a resolution before the U.N. Security Council to impose sanctions on anyone violating the deal. In the northern town of Kidal, protesters marched to a camp housing peacekeepers and police from Mali's U.N. mission, MINUSMA, to vent their frustration. "MINUSMA isn't there for peace. They are there to support the Malian government," Mohamedine Aichata Walet, one of the protesters, told Reuters. The United Nations deployed additional peacekeepers to Menaka in the northeast on Friday after fighting between the pro-government Gatia militia and CMA forces some 30 km (19 miles) outside the town. A CMA spokesman said it had lost at least seven fighters in the clashes and killed 34 Gatia gunmen before the militia retreated. It was not immediately possibly to verify this.