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Mali’s transition president beaten by demonstrators: security official

21 May 2012 21:42 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Mali’s transition president Diancounda Traore was seriously injured and hospitalized on Monday after a group of protesters burst into the presidential palace and beat him, APA reports quoting Xinhua.

The information was confirmed by a police inspector while hospital sources confirmed the president’s admission.

Back from the presidential palace, some demonstrators said the palace was stormed and there are pieces of clothes of Traore. "We just beat," one said, laughing with joy.

The incident comes a day after the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) reached an agreement with the junta on the extension of the mandate of the transitional presidency. Under the deal, President Traore would lead a 12-month transition back to democratic rule.

After the announcement of the agreement, thousands of pro-junta supporters took to the street on Monday to protest the deal.

Burkina Faso’s Foreign Minister Djibril Bassole said on Sunday in Bamako that there were no conditionalities to this decision that was taken by the presidents of the ECOWAS since members of the National Committee for the Redressment of Democracy and Restoration of the State (CNRDRE, junta) agreed to abide by the decisions taken by the presidents.

In the coming days, the two parties are expected to draft the guidelines of the agreement.

Bassole whose country is charged with the responsibility of mediating in the Malian crisis, also met with Mali’s parliamentarians after holding talks with the CNRDRE president Amadou Haya Sanogo.

He praised the Malian parliamentarians for the way they passed the law to give "general amnesty" to those who carried out the coup d’etat and their associates.

The Burkina Faso foreign minister also noted that captain Sanogo, who led the coup on March 22, will enjoy the status of a former president and that the interim presid