DECEMBER 1,
2015
Counterpunch.org
Coming on the heels of the terrorist attack in Paris, the mass shooting and
siege at the Radisson
Blu Hotel in Bamako, the capital of the African nation of Mali, is still
further evidence of the escalation of terrorism throughout the world. While
there has already been much written about the incident in both western and
non-western media, one critical angle on this story has been entirely ignored:
the motive.
For although it is true that most people think of terrorism as
entirely ideologically driven, with motives being religious or cultural, it is
equally true that much of what gets defined as “terrorism” is in fact
politically motivated violence that is intended to send a message to the
targeted group or nation. So it seems that the attack in Mali could very well
have been just such an action as news of the victims has raised very serious
questions about just what the motive for this heinous crime might have been.
International media have now confirmed that at least nine of the 27 killed in
the attack were Chinese and Russian. While this alone would indeed be curious,
it is the identities and positions of those killed that is particularly
striking. The three Chinese victims were important figures in China’s China
Railway Construction Corporation (CRCC), while the Russians were employees of
Russian airline Volga-Dnepr. That it was these individuals who were killed at
the very outset of the attack suggests that they were the likely targets of
what could perhaps rightly be called a terrorist assassination operation.
But why these men? And why now? To answer these questions, one
must have an understanding of the roles of both these companies in Mali and, at
the larger level, the activities of China and Russia in Mali. Moreover, the
targeted killing should be seen in light of the growing assertiveness of both
countries against terrorism in Syria and internationally. Considering the
strategic partnership between the two countries – a partnership that is expanding
seemingly every day – it seems that the fight against terrorism has become yet
another point of convergence between Moscow and Beijing. In addition, it must
be recalled that both countries have had their share of terror attacks in
recent years, with each having made counter-terrorism a central element in
their national security strategies, as well as their foreign policy.
And so, given these basic facts, it becomes clear that the
attack in Mali was no random act of terrorism, but a carefully planned and executed
operation designed to send a clear message to Russia and China.
The
Attack, the Victims, and the Significance
On Friday November 20, 2015 a
team of reportedly “heavily armed and well-trained
gunmen” attacked a well known international hotel in Bamako, Mali. While the
initial reports were somewhat sketchy and contradictory, in the days since the
attack and siege that followed, new details have emerged that are undeniably
worrying as they provide a potential motive for the terrorists.
It is has since been announced that three Chinese nationals were
killed at the outset of the attack: Zhou Tianxiang, Wang Xuanshang, and Chang
Xuehui. Aside from the obviously tragic fact that these men were murdered in
cold blood, one must examine carefully who they were in order to get a full
sense of the importance of their killings. Mr. Zhou was the General Manager of
the China Railway Construction Corporation’s (CRCC) international group, Mr.
Wang was the Deputy General Manager of CRCC’s international group, and Mr.
Chang was General Manager of the CRCC’s West Africa division. The significance
should become immediately apparent as these men were the principal liaisons
between Beijing and the Malian government in the major railway investments that
China has made in Mali. With railway construction being one of the key
infrastructure and economic development programs in landlocked Mali, the deaths
of these three Chinese nationals is clearly both a symbolic and very tangible
attack on China’s partnership with Mali.
In late 2014, Mali’s President
Ibrahim Boubacar Keita traveled to China to attend the World Economic Forum in
Tianjin. On the sidelines of the forum the Malian president sealed a number of
criticaldevelopment
deals with the Chinese government, the most high-profile of which
were railway construction and improvement agreements. Chief among the projects
is the construction of an $8 billion, 900km railway linking Mali’s capital of
Bamako with the Atlantic port and capital of neighboring Guinea, Conakry. The
project, seen by many experts as essential for bringing Malian mineral wealth
to world markets, is critical to the economic development of the country.
Additionally, CRCC was also tapped to renovate the railway connecting Bamako
with Senegal’s capital of Dakar, with the project carrying a price tag of
nearly $1.5 billion.
These two projects alone were
worth nearly $10 billion, while a number of other projects, including road
construction throughout the conflict-ridden north of the country, as well as
construction of a much needed new bridge in gridlock-plagued Bamako, brought
the cumulative worth of the Chinese investments to near (or above) thetotal GDP for Mali ($12 billion in 2014). Such massive
investments in the country were obviously of great significance to the Malian
government both because of their economically transformative qualities, and
also because they had solidified China as perhaps the single most dominant
investor in Mali, a country long since under the post-colonial economic yoke of
France, and military yoke of the United States.
It seems highly implausible, to say the least, that a random
terror attack solely interested in killing as many civilians as possible would
have as its first three victims these three men, perhaps three of the most
important men in the country at the time. But the implausible coincidences
don’t stop there.
Among the dead are also six
Russians, all of whom are said to have been employees of the Russian commercial
cargo airline Volga-Dnepr. While at first glance it may seem irrelevant that
the Russian victims worked for an airline, it is in fact very telling as it
indicates a similar motive to the killing of the Chinese nationals;
specifically, Volga-Dnepr is, according to its Wikipedia page, “a world leader in the global
market for the movement of oversize, unique and heavy air cargo…[It] serves
governmental and commercial organizations, including leading global businesses
in the oil and gas, energy, aerospace, agriculture and telecommunications
industries as well as the humanitarian and emergency services sectors.” The
company has transported everything from gigantic excavators to airplanes, helicopters,
mini-factories, and power plants, not to mention heavy machines used in energy
extraction.
This fact is significant because it is quite likely, indeed
probable, that the airline has been transporting much of the heavy, oversized
equipment being used by the Chinese and other developers throughout the
country. In effect, the Russian crew was part of the ongoing economic
development and foreign investment in the country. And so, their killing, like
that of the CRCC executives, is a symbolic strike against Chinese and Russian
investment in the country. And perhaps even more importantly, the attack was a
symbolic attack upon the very nature of Sino-Russian collaboration and
partnership, especially in the context of economic development in Africa and the
Global South.
It would be worthwhile to add that Volga-Dnepr has also been
involved in military transport services for NATO and the US until at least the
beginning of the Ukraine conflict and Crimea’s reunification with Russia.
Whether this fact has any bearing on the employees being targeted, that would
be pure conjecture. Suffice to say though that Volga-Dnepr was no ordinary
airline, but one that was integral to the entire economic development
initiative in Mali. And this is really the key point: China and Russia are
development partners for the former French colonial possession and US puppet
state.
China,
Russia, and Mali’s Future
China and, to a lesser extent,
Russia have become major trading and development partners for Mali in recent
years. Aside from the lucrative railroad and road construction projects
mentioned above, China has expanded its partnerships with Mali in many other
areas. For instance, in 2014 China gifted Mali a grant of 18 billion CFA (nearly $30
million) and an interest-free loan of 8 billion CFA (nearly $13 million).
Additionally, China established a program that offers 600 scholarships to
Malian students over the 2015-2017 period. Also, the Chinese government
announced the construction of a training and educational center focused on
engineering and the construction industry, as well as the completion of the
Agricultural Technical Center in the city of Baguineda in Southern Mali, not
far from the capital and population center of Bamako.
Of course, these sorts of Chinese
offerings are only the tip of the iceberg as Beijing has also expanded its
contracts with Mali in the transportation, construction, energy, mining, and
other important sectors, including an agreement for China to construct at least
24,000 affordable housing units, making ownership of a decent home possible for
many who would otherwise never have such an opportunity. Going further, as African
Leadership Magazine reported in
2014:
Mali
also relies on China to invest in new power plants to break the electricity
crisis that is affecting the country. This is supposed to make available
cheaper electricity for the industrial development…A hydroelectric dam will be
built in the area of Dire in the North of the country; a hybrid power plant in
Kidal in the North-East and another one in Timbuktu, which is in the North as
well. Solar power plants will also be created in other parts of the country and
all those infrastructures will be connected to the national grid of electricity…
A factory of medicine production that is being constructed in the outskirts of
the capital will be enlarged to be the largest in West Africa…More than 95
percent of the factory has been completed and it will be operating on
January, 2015…Chinese banks that are not yet present in Mali are supposed to
contribute to create small-scaled companies and industries.
To be sure, China is not offering such deals to Mali solely out
of altruism and in the spirit of generosity; naturally China expects to enrich
itself and ensure access to raw materials, resources, and markets in Mali now
and in the future. This is the sort of “win-win” partnership forever being
touted by China as the cornerstone of its aid and investment throughout Africa.
Indeed, in many ways, Mali is a prime example of just how China operates on the
continent. Rather than a purely exploitative investment model (the IMF and
World Bank examples come to mind), China is engaging in true partnership. And,
contrary to what many have argued (that China is merely a rival imperialist
power in Africa), China’s activities in Africa are by and large productive for
the whole of the countries where China invests, a few egregious bad examples
aside.
China is a friend of Africa, and it has demonstrated that
repeatedly throughout the last decade. And perhaps it is just this sort of
friendship that was under attack in the Radisson Blu Hotel in Bamako.
Likewise Russia has been engaged
in Mali, though certainly nowhere near the extent that China has. Russia was
one of the principal contributors to the humanitarian
relief effort in Mali
after the 2012 coup and subsequent war against terror groups affiliated with
Al-Qaeda. Russia provided much needed food, clothing, and basic medical aid,
while also supplying more advanced, and essential, medical equipment to Malian
hospitals desperately trying to cope with the flood of wounded and displaced
people.
Additionally, Moscow became one
of the major suppliers of weapons and other military materiel to Mali’s government
in its war against terrorism in 2013. According Business
Insider in 2013,
Anatoly Isaikin, head of Russia’s state-owned arms exporter Rosoboronexport,“revealed that Moscow had recent military
contacts with the government of Mali…He said small amounts of light weapons
were already being delivered to Mali and that new sales were under discussion.
‘We have delivered firearms. Literally two weeks ago another consignment was
sent. These are completely legal deliveries…We are in talks about sending more,
in small quantities.’”
Finally, Mali has a longstanding
cultural connection with Russia through the Soviet Union’s sponsorship of thousands
of Malian students who studied in Soviet universities from the early 1960s
through the 1980s. As Yevgeny Korendyasov of the Center for Russian-African
Relations at the Russian Academy of Sciencesexplained, “We have had
very close ties to Mali throughout recent history…Though overall financial
estimates of Soviet aid received by Mali are hard to come by, Moscow’s involvement
with the country was all-encompassing.” Indeed, the Soviets educated Malian
officials and intelligentsia, as well as their children, developed local
infrastructure, and mapped the country’s abundant natural resources. Such
long-standing ties, moribund though they may seem today, still have a lasting
legacy in the country.
While the world has been transfixed by terrorism from the
downing of the Russian airliner in Egypt, to the inhuman attacks in Paris and
Beirut, not nearly enough attention has been paid to the attack in Mali.
Perhaps one of the reasons the episode has not gotten the necessary scrutiny
and investigation is the seemingly endless series of terror attacks that have
transfixed news consumers worldwide. Perhaps it is simply good old fashioned
racism that sees Africa as little more than a collection of chaotic states
constantly in conflict, with violence and death being the norm.
Or maybe the real reason almost no one has shined a light on
this episode is because of the global implications of the killings, and the
obvious message they sent. While media organizations seem to have deliberately
ignored the implication of the attacks of November 20th in Mali, one can rest
assured that Beijing and Moscow got the message loud and clear. And one can also
rest assured that the Chinese and Russians are well aware of the true motives
of the attack. The question remains: how will these countries respond?
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