The HAGUE: The destruction of shrines in Mali’s fabled city of Timbuktu was a result of the “negligence” of the west African country’s French colonizers, the International Criminal Court heard Monday.
A police chief who is accused of playing a pivotal role during the 2012-13 extremist occupation of the city, known as the “Pearl of the Desert,” is on trial at The Hague-based tribunal for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
“The events of 2012 are the result of corruption and the negligence of the French colonizers,” said Melinda Taylor, defending Al Hassan Ag Abdoul Aziz Ag Mohamed Ag Mahmoud.
“The state of Mali was a fiction created by French colonizers that existed on paper, but never in reality,” Taylor told the judges on the opening day.
The French left the “north of the country to fend for themselves,” according to tribal and religious practices, the lawyer said.
Timbuktu was occupied by the extremist group Ansar Dine, one of the Al-Qaeda-linked factions which controlled Mali in 2012 before being driven out by a French-led international intervention.
During the occupation, the extremists also took pickaxes to 14 of the town’s famous mausoleums of revered Muslim figures.
Al Hassan however “should not be convicted because he happened to live in the wrong place at the wrong time and because of his ethnicity,” said Taylor.
“The question is not whether these crimes were committed in Timbuktu but whether this person sitting in front of you should bear the responsibility for these crimes,” she added.
Prosecutors say Al Hassan, 44, was a key figure in the police and court system set up by the militants after they exploited an ethnic Tuareg uprising in 2012 to take over cities in Mali’s volatile north.
Al Hassan committed “unimaginable crimes,” personally overseeing corporal punishments, including floggings and amputations as well as arranging for women and girls to be forced to marry militants as part of a system of gender-based persecution, prosecutors said.
He is the second extremist to face trial at the ICC for the destruction of the Timbuktu’s shrines, following a landmark 2016 ruling at the world’s only permanent war crimes court.
ICC judges found Ahmad Al-Faqi Al-Mahdi guilty of directing attacks on the UNESCO World Heritage site and sentenced him to nine years in jail.
Timbuktu destruction due to French negligence: lawyer
https://arab.news/v4fv8
Timbuktu destruction due to French negligence: lawyer
- Al Hassan Ag Abdoul Aziz Ag Mohamed Ag Mahmoud is on trial at The Hague-based tribunal for war crimes and crimes against humanity
- Al Hassan’s lawyer Melinda Taylor: ‘The state of Mali was a fiction created by French colonizers that existed on paper, but never in reality’
Shooter kills 9 at Canadian school and residence
- The shooter was found dead with an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound
- A total of 27 people were wounded in the shooting, including two with serious injuries
TORONTO: A shooter killed nine people and wounded dozens more at a secondary school and a residence in a remote part of western Canada on Tuesday, authorities said, in one of the deadliest mass shootings in the country’s history.
The suspect, described by police in an initial emergency alert as a “female in a dress with brown hair,” was found dead with an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, officials said.
The attack occurred in Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia, a picturesque mountain valley town in the foothills of the Rockies.
A total of 27 people were wounded in the shooting, including two with serious injuries, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said in a statement.
Prime Minister Mark Carney said he was “devastated” by the “horrific acts of violence” and announced he was suspending plans to travel to the Munich Security Conference on Wednesday, where he had been set to hold talks with allies on transatlantic defense readiness.
Police said an alert was issued about an active shooter at Tumbler Ridge Secondary School on Tuesday afternoon.
As police searched the school, they found six people shot dead. A seventh person with a gunshot wound died en route to hospital.
Separately, police found two more bodies at a residence in the town.
The residence is “believed to be connected to the incident,” police said.
At the school, “an individual believed to be the shooter was also found deceased with what appears to be a self?inflicted injury,” police said.
Police have not yet released any information about the age of the shooter or the victims.
“We are devastated by the loss of life and the profound impact this tragedy has had on families, students, staff, and our entire town,” the municipality of Tumbler Ridge said in a statement.
Tumbler Ridge student Darian Quist told public broadcaster CBC that he was in his mechanics class when there was an announcement that the school was in lockdown.
He said that initially he “didn’t think anything was going on,” but started receiving “disturbing” photos about the carnage.
“It set in what was happening,” Quist said.
He said he stayed in lockdown for more than two hours until police stormed in, ordering everyone to put their hands up before escorting them out of the school.
Trent Ernst, a local journalist and a former substitute teacher at Tumbler Ridge, expressed shock over the shooting at the school, where one of his children has just graduated.
He noted that school shootings have been a rarity occurring every few years in Canada compared with the United States, where they are far more frequent.
“I used to kind of go: ‘Look at Canada, look at who we are.’ But then that one school shooting every 2.5 years happens in your town and things... just go off the rails,” he told AFP.
‘Heartbreak’
While mass shootings are extremely rare in Canada, last April, a vehicle attack that targeted a Filipino cultural festival in Vancouver killed 11 people.
British Columbia Premier David Eby called the latest violence “unimaginable.”
Nina Krieger, British Columbia’s minister of public safety, said it was “one of the worst mass shootings in our province’s and country’s history.”
The Canadian Olympic Committee, whose athletes are competing in the 2026 Winter Games in Italy, said Wednesday it was “heartbroken by the news of the horrific school shooting.”
Ken Floyd, commander of the police’s northern district, said: “This has been an incredibly difficult and emotional day for our community, and we are grateful for the cooperation shown as officers continue their work to advance the investigation.”
Floyd told reporters the shooter was the same suspect police described as “female” in a prior emergency alert to community members, but declined to provide any details on the suspect’s identity.
The police said officers were searching other homes and properties in the community to see if there were additional sites connected to the incident.
Tumbler Ridge, a quiet town with roughly 2,400 residents, is more than 1,100 kilometers (680 miles) north of Vancouver, British Columbia’s largest city.
“There are no words sufficient for the heartbreak our community is experiencing tonight,” the municipality said.
