Alpha Oumar Konaré

Alpha Oumar Konaré ( born February 2, 1946 in Kayes ) from 1992 to 2002, President of Mali.

Academic career

KONARE comes from Kayes in the west of the former French Sudan and is the fifth of 14 children of a teacher. He visited there since 1951, the school and went in 1957 to the Lycée Terrasson de Fougères in the capital Bamako and to the College of Maristes in Dakar. In 1960 he attended the Collège Moderne in Kayes from 1962 to 1964, the École Normale Supérieure in Katibougou. Then he studied from 1965 to 1969 History at the École Normale Supérieure in Bamako and from 1971 to 1975 at the University of Warsaw. After his education he worked in Kayes and Bamako as a teacher. From 1975 to 1978 KONARE was Head of History and Ethnography at the Ministry of Youth, Sports, Art and Culture. In 1980 he was awarded a research contract from the Institut Supérieur de Formation en Search Appliquée and became a professor at the Faculty of History and Geography of the École Normale Supérieure in Bamako. In the following years he was chairman of several academic associations of historians, geographers and archaeologists. From 1981 to 1982, KONARE consultant of UNESCO and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

Professor KONARE an honorary doctorate from the University of Michigan and the University of Rennes. He published several works on historical and archaeological topics.

Political career

1967 KONARE Secretary General of the youth organization of which emerged from the Rassemblement Démocratique Africain Union movement soudanaise ( U.S. RDA) at the École Normale Supérieure of Bamako. After the coup by Moussa Traoré in 1968, he joined the active underground Marxist party Parti du Travail anomalies. Believing in Traoré willingness to reform, he became in 1978 Minister of Youth, Sports, arts and culture, but came back in 1980. In office, he sat down heavily for the promotion of the sport. In 1983 he founded the cultural magazine Jamana and 1989, the daily newspaper Les Echos. In the course of 1990 Traoré party rule was challenged by new opposition groups. KONARE was co-founder of the Alliance pour la démocratie au Mali ( ADEMA - PASJ ), which was part of a collection of motion directed against Traoré forces. He became the first president of the Rally.

On March 26, 1991, a military coup Traoré ended Presidency. KONARE founded the radio station Radio Bamakan and was a delegate to the National Conference, the draft a new constitution and should prepare elections.

President

1992 saw the first free elections in Mali since independence from France in 1960. In the parliamentary elections on 23 February and 8 March 1992, his ADEMA reached 76 of the 116 parliamentary seats. He was a candidate for the succession to the interim president Amadou Toumani Touré, who was involved in the coup in March against Traoré. In the first round of voting on April 12, 1992, he was with 44.95% of votes in the first place and won the second ballot two weeks later with 69.01 % against Mamadou Konaté Tiéoulé. On May 11, 1997 he was confirmed with 95.9 % of the votes in the first ballot in the office, with most opposition parties boycotted the elections. In the parliamentary elections, which were also boycotted by part of the opposition, which ADEMA received in late July / early August, 128 of the 147 deputies. The parliamentary elections of April 1997 were annulled by the Constitutional Court because of irregularities and had to be repeated. In the elections between 1992 and 1997, turnout was only between 20 and 30%. As the Constitution the term of office of the President to two periods limited he could not run again in 2002. The candidate of the ADEMA, Soumaïla Cissé, was defeated here in the second round Amadou Toumani Touré, who won on 12 May 2002 with 64.35 % of the vote on June 8, 2002 Konaré successor.

In 1999 he took until 21 December 2001, chaired by the Economic Community Economic Community of West African States ( ECOWAS) and in 2000 the presidency of the West African Economic and Monetary Union ( UEMOA ). To commemorate the fallen Modibo Keïta in 1968 he opened on June 6, 1999 in Bamako, the memorial Memorial Modibo Keïta. As an opponent of the death penalty KONARE pardoned on 29 May 2002 because of the kinds of offenses during his tenure sentenced to death former president Moussa Traoré. During his tenure there came to a peaceful settlement of the conflict with the Tuareg. He also reached that the African Cup 2002 held in Mali. The year before, he had received the Ordre du Mérite of the Association Confédération Africaine de Football (CAF ).

From 16 September 2003 to February 1, 2008 KONARE was Chairperson of the African Union Commission. The Heads of State of the Union had elected him at a summit in Maputo on 10 July 2003 in this office.

Family

KONARE is married and father of four children since July 15, 1971. His wife Adame Ba, is a professor of history.