Mali’s Bad Trip - By Andrew Lebovich | Foreign Policy
▻http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2013/03/15/mali_s_bad_trip?page=0,2
One night in Bamako, as my conversation with a Timbuktu Arab notable drew to a close, I asked him if the drug trade would come back to Mali once the situation stabilizes and French forces pull away from the north. His response was matter-of-fact: “Of course it will!” The only way to make a dent in the trade and the problems it causes, he said, was to “clean up all of this administration” — the security services, the government in Bamako, and the system of rule that characterized northern Mali under Touré. And that is a problem that goes far beyond al-Qaeda.