Protesters defend Mali coup

Several thousand people staged a demonstration in Mali's capital, Bamako, on Wednesday in support of a military takeover which ousted President Amadou Toumani Toure last week.

Chanting pro-junta slogans, protesters hailed a new 69-article constitution that was read out on state television late Tuesday. It enshrines coup leader Captain Amadou Sanogo as the new head of state as well as the head of the army, government and judiciary.

Protesters said they hoped to send a message to the international community which has fiercely condemned the ousting of Mali's democratically elected leader and called for the restoration of constitutional order.

"I want the international community to shut up. This is our revolution," said youth leader Oumar Diara at the rally.

"We, the youth, can live without the international community. We have been living with our eyes closed but now we are waking up," he said.

International condemnation

A delegation of six African heads of state is due to arrive in Bamako on Thursday in a bid to pressure the military leaders to relinquish power. The move comes after Mali's membership of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) was suspended.

The bloc has also put a peacekeeping force on standby, suggesting that it may consider using force to restore order to the West African nation.

"We cannot allow this country endowed with such precious democratic instruments, dating back at least two decades, to leave history by regressing," Ivorian President Alassane Ouattara, who holds the rotating chair of ECOWAS, told reporters after an emergency meeting in his nation's capital.

"It's why Mali needs to immediately return its democratic institutions to normal." said Ouattara.

"This position is nonnegotiable."

Deposed leader unharmed

In his first public comments since he was ousted from power, deposed leader Amadou Toumani Toure confirmed on Wednesday that he was free and unharmed in an undisclosed location in Mali.

In an interview with French broadcaster RFI, Toure, who had been planning to step down after elections in April, called for a swift resolution to the crisis.

"The most important thing is not about my well-being. I am two months to the end of my mandate. I think the most important thing today ... is to find a way out of the crisis."

He added that he supported ECOWAS' plans to step up pressure on the military junta.

The coup was triggered by anger at the government's handling of a two-month-old rebellion in the north of the country. The group of soldiers who led the attack last week said Toure had not responded forcefully to the Tuareg uprising and troops were left ill-equipped to fight the separatist insurgency movement.

ccp/ncy (AFP, AP, Reuters)