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- WORLD, Page 44World NotesMALIThe Winds of Democracy
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- The elusive promise of African democracy gained new strength
- in Mali last week as President Moussa Traore was overthrown by his
- disenchanted army, after 22 years of military dictatorship. The
- coup was triggered by three days of pro-democracy rioting in the
- capital of Bamako, during which at least 150 civilians were
- killed and more than 1,000 wounded in clashes with Mali's
- security forces.
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- Promising to replace Traore's "bloodthirsty and corrupt
- regime" with multiparty democracy, the coup leaders quickly
- formed a 17-man National Reconciliation Council headed by Lieut.
- Colonel Amadou Toumani Toure, 43, commander of the parachute
- forces. The council has announced plans to form a 25-member
- interim administration, which will hold mul tiparty elections
- by 1992. But democracy still faces a stiff challenge in this
- drought-prone nation of 8 million, one of the world's poorest
- countries. While the coup brought the chance of greater freedom,
- it also continued the pattern of violent overthrows plaguing the
- continent.
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