On this day in ...... 1992, in Mali's capital city of Bamako, the Pacte nationale (English summary) was signed with the aim of ending years of fighting between the government of Mali and Tuareg rebels in the northern part of the country. The agreement called for greater democracy in elections and governance, and a subsequent plan called for disarmament, demobilization and reintegration (DDR). The U.N. Development Programme has written of this period:
The National Pact initially brought peace. But in this poverty-stricken, drought-afflicted democracy, the newly elected government had no money to finance DDR, and western donors were remarkably unsupportive of the new President. The disappointed Tuareg movements took up arms again, determined to obtain a share of the national pie. Meanwhile, opposition parties refused to accept that they had been beaten in a fair election, bringing students into the streets. By 1994, the fragility of the government was extreme and civil war was a real threat.
... 1689 (320 years ago today), London-born Princess Mary and her Hague-born cousin, William of Orange, were crowned co-rulers of England. This coronation of William III and Mary II (left) followed William's 1688 invasion of the island country and ouster of King James II, Protestant Mary's Catholic father, on invitation of Protestants in Parliament. It's written that "Parliament ... wanted the throne to be the sole possession of Mary, with William serving as Prince Consort, but Mary refused due to her self-imposed subservience to her husband." The couple's reign was marked by armed conflict in Ireland and Flanders and by Mary's delivery of 3 stillborn children, so that on William's death in 1702 Mary's sister became England's Queen Anne.(Prior April 11 posts are here and here.)
