20120407
AP
BAMAKO, Mali (AP) — Mali's embattled coup leader said late Friday the National Assembly president will become the next head of state, an announcement made only hours after separatist Tuareg rebels declared their independence and as the nation grappled with harsh financial sanctions from its neighbors.

Capt. Amadou Haya Sanogo made the comments to Associated Press journalists gathered at his office along with officials from neighboring West African nations. The move effectively sets the stage for Sanogo to step aside two weeks after overthrowing the country's democratically elected leader.

Sanogo said that amnesty was being granted to coup participants, and that constitutional order was being restored in Mali. In the event that the president is unable to serve out his term, the position then falls to the head of the National Assembly, he said.

While that person will head a 21-day transitional government, Sanogo acknowledged the process could be lengthened because of the ongoing political crisis in Mali.

Burkina Faso's Minister of Foreign Affairs Djibril Bassole later said that Sanogo had been asked to release the Malian ministers who are still being held by junta forces, and he also has been asked to allow ousted President Amadou Toumani Toure to return home and be provided security.

Bassole indicated that Sanogo's removal from power would pave the way for harsh financial sanctions to be lifted, though the foreign affairs minister said discussions were still under way about Sanogo's role in the transitional government.

The coup launched by mutinous soldiers reversed more than two decades of democracy in the deeply impoverished nation. Tuareg rebels fighting a three-month-old insurgency have taken advantage of the power vacuum and have wrested control of the northern half of Mali since the coup, declaring an independent state on Friday. The move was swiftly condemned by Mali's neighbors.

The United States, France and the European Union already have cut all but essential humanitarian aid to the country.

U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland has said that Sanogo must immediately release his "illegitimate grip on Mali and its people." The State Department also has banned the coup leader, his closest associates and their family members from traveling to the U.S.

The Economic Community of West African States, a regional bloc representing six of the eight countries that border Mali, has been uncharacteristically harsh in its condemnation of the coup. Surrounding nations imposed severe financial sanctions on Mali earlier this week, including the closing of the country's borders and the freezing of its account at the regional central bank.

The nation imports all of its fuel, which is trucked in from neighboring Ivory Coast and Senegal.