Mali General Seeks Power by Ballot
By ELLEN KNICKMEYER
Associated Press Writer

April 27, 2002, 4:13 PM EDT

BAMAKO, Mali -- Paratroop commander Amado Tourmani Toure was doing the
expected in Africa when he stormed the presidential palace the night of
March 25, 1991, ousted an entrenched dictator by force and seized power.

Just 14 months later, though, Toure did the unexpected in Africa. Having
overseen a democratic transition, Toure yielded power as promised.

The democracy born that day now wins Western praise as a model for Africa.
That praise also comes with hundreds of millions of dollars in foreign
assistance every year.

Now, Toure is back trying to win power a second time -- this time by the
democratic ballot box.

Toure, a retired general with 10 years as an African statesman behind him,
is a leading candidate in Sunday's first-round presidential vote to succeed
this year's race to succeed two-term President Alpha Oumar Konare.

Surprisingly, he is not a shoo-in in a field of 24 candidates, including
former Prime Minister Ibrahim Keita.

"At the time, I must say, I was not thinking of coming back to be president
later," the 53-year-old Toure, white hairs sprouting at his temples, said
Saturday in his office in Bamako, the capital of this West African country.

Toure wore the brown flowing robe of a West African man of means to talk
politics.

The office walls were decorated with photo after photo of Toure with former
President Carter. A gilt-framed portrait of Toure in camouflage fatigues was
propped in a corner.

A GI Joe action figure sprawled on the desk.

Toure was a French military-schooled lieutenant colonel the night he led his
paratroop regiment into Gen. Moussa Traore's private quarters.

A dictator for 23 years, Traore lost army support when he ordered soldiers
to fire on protesters filling the streets. The demonstrators were demanding
reforms amid worsening economic troubles in Mali.

"There was lots and lots and lots of dead, young people, students," Toure
recalls.

At least 106 civilians died.

Toure's fellow junior officers nominated him to take charge. His paratroop
regiment raided the palace and took the dictator to jail at a paratroopers'
camp -- fighting running battles with die-hard loyalists along the way.

"At 6 a.m., we announced to the people that the government was dissolved,
that there had been a coup putting down the president," Toure said.

"And I think the population, for the most part, welcomed the news. It was a
relief. People were happy the army stopped the wave of violence."

Presidential palaces across Africa are filled even today with leaders who
took power by similar means -- but put off for years or decades their
promises to give it up.

Toure immediately made clear that Mali would be different.

His government granted most leaders of the old regime amnesties that spared
their lives. He also invited the opposition into a transition government.

In 1992, still in the army, he launched a post-junta career of good works at
home and international mediation in Africa. U.N. Secretary-General Kofi
Annan made Toure one of his designated peace-brokers in the continent's
conflicts.

Last year, Toure retired -- making ready then, most believe, for this year's
election.

One of Toure's main competitors is former Finance Minister Soumaila Cisse,
who is attracting young voters with a flashy campaign. Cisse's barnstorming
by helicopters is awing villagers in a mud-hut and charcoal-fire country,
where Timbuktu constitutes a big city.

The other is Keita, who has been endorsed by a new Islamic political
movement.

Toure views resisting political Islam as one task. The other, larger one is
fighting corruption, which washed in with billions of dollars of aid since
1991.

Like all the top candidates, Toure, not coincidentally with his time in
power, is a wealthy man.

Disillusionment with Mali's money-greased democracy is running so strong at
home that many see Toure -- the revered coup-leader -- as lowering himself
to enter politics.

Toure calls himself the candidate with the most to lose -- his hero status.

"But it's a risk I take wholeheartedly," he said.
Copyright © 2002, The Associated Press

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