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 Several days after French special forces parachuted in and liberated this storied city, there is a growing sense of freedom. Though in the houses immediately facing the Islamic tribunal, many of the 8- and 9-year-old girls are still wearing the head covering.
"It is out of fear of the Islamists that they still wear this, says Diahara Adjanga, the mother of one girl. "They hit everyone
-- even children."
The Islamists seized control of Timbuktu and the other northern provincial capitals of Gao and Kidal last April. During the nearly 10 months of their rule, the al-Qaida-linked extremists imposed harsh regulations for women and publicly whipped those who went in public without veils.
Across northern Mali, the Islamists stoned to death a couple accused of adultery, and amputated the hands of suspected thieves in actions reminiscent of the Taliban in Afghanistan.
The French military launched an intervention to oust the Islamists from power in northern Mali on Jan. 11 and rapidly forced their retreats from the major towns in less than three weeks' time.
Fatouma Traore, 21, said that there was one commander who was especially brutal to the women in Timbuktu.
"We don't want the army to catch him. It's the women who want to arrest him so that we can kill him ourselves. . Even if you're talking to your own blood brother on the stoop of your house, they hit you. Even if you are wearing the veil, and it happens to slip off, they hit you. This man, Ahmed Moussa, he made life miserable for women. Even an old grandmother if she's not covered up, he would hit her."
She picks up her 1-year-old niece and hoists her on one hip, saying: "We even bought a veil for this baby."
Timbuktu still looks mostly deserted, four days after it was liberated from Islamist rule.
The electricity and the phone networks remain cut. At night, the only illumination is the light given off by people's cell phones and the flashlights they have inside shops and hotels.
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 At the entrance to the town, there is a single checkpoint manned by a few Malian soldiers who flag down entering cars. Each car that is allowed to enter the city at night is signaled by a warning shot fired into the air.
A French armored personnel carrier on Thursday stood sentinel in the middle of the city. In the market, over a dozen shops owned by the city's Arab population have been gutted, pillaged by the population because the town's Arab citizens were suspected of having been allied with the Islamists.
Some fear the Islamists will try to stage new attacks as the French leave. On Thursday, the Malian military said four soldiers were killed and five others wounded by a land mine on the road to Gao, fueling such fears.
Modibo Traore said the deaths took place in Gossi, a city that had been under the control of Islamists until recently.
However, Moussa Traore, a 26-year-old teacher in Timbuktu, said the sense of freedom already is overwhelming despite the uncertainty.
"We were totally deprived of our liberty. We couldn't listen to music, we couldn't play soccer. We couldn't wear the clothes we wanted. We couldn't hang out with the girls we liked," he said. "Now we can do everything
-- we can listen to music, we can kick a ball, we can flirt. All I can do is say: Thank you, God."
[Associated
Press; By RUKMINI CALLIMACHI]
Associated Press writer Krista Larson in Sevare, Mali contributed to this report.
Copyright 2013 The Associated
Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
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