Life Under Harsh Islamic Rule In Mali

More than 160,000 Malians have gone to neighboring countries. New York Times

In Timbuktu, Harsh Change Under Islamists -- New York Times

BAMAKO, Mali — Isolated for centuries by the harsh desert that surrounds it, Timbuktu now finds itself even more cut off from the rest of the world.

Rebels who captured the city in northern Mali in April have imposed a form of hard-edged Islamic rule, prompting many residents to flee in fear and changing the face of what had been a tolerant and easygoing destination that drew tourists from around the world.

Women are now forced to wear full, face-covering veils. Music is banned from the radio. Cigarettes are snatched from the mouths of pedestrians. And the look of the ancient mud-brick town is changing. A centuries-old monument, the shrine of a 15th-century saint, has been defaced; bars have been demolished; and black flags have been hung around town to honor Ansar Dine, or Defenders of the Faith, the radical Islamist movement that emerged from the desert and turned life upside down.

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My Comment: While reports are continuing to circulate that the Tuareg and Islamists are in disagreement about nature of an independent Azawad .... they are still continuing to talk.