President includes colonels in his administration

President Alpha Konare appointed seven colonels last week to serve in his administration, a government spokesman told IRIN.

The colonels were given posts in seven ministries: Mines and Energy, Rural Development and Water, Economy, Interior, Health, Public Works and Transport and Communications, the spokesman said.

The appointments were made shortly after the authorities staved off a mutiny by discontented soldiers demanding bonuses due to them for peacekeeping duties abroad. The soldiers believed to have been behind the rebellion include peacekeepers who served in the West African force, ECOMOG, in Sierra Leone and the UN force in Central African Republic.

The spokesman declined to comment on whether the mutiny and the appointments were linked.

The Malian opposition has accused the government of panicking because a similar protest by disgruntled soldiers in Cote d’Ivoire resulted on 24 December in the overthow of Cote d’Ivoire’s elected president, Henri Konan Bedie, the BBC reported.