* UN chief Ban warns Mali becoming terrorism safe haven
* Islamist extremists control two-thirds of Mali
* West Africa wants UN approval for military intervention
UNITED NATIONS, Aug 8 (Reuters) - U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon
warned on Wednesday that Mali was becoming a safe haven for
"terrorist and criminal" groups as West African countries pushed
for the U.N. Security Council to back the deployment of troops
to stabilize the country.
Islamist militant groups control about two-thirds of Mali
after hijacking a secular rebellion earlier this year, and then
seized more territory after a March 22 military coup toppled
President Amadou Toumani Toure in the southern capital Bamako.
Ban told the U.N. Security Council that the Islamists had
illegally imposed Sharia law in the north of Mali, where the
security situation was now volatile and unpredictable. Mali was
once seen as a rare stable democracy in a tumultuous region.
"With the influx of regional and international Jihadists,
there is reason to be concerned that the north is becoming a
safe haven for terrorists and criminal elements," Ban said.
West African bloc ECOWAS is pushing for the deployment of a
3,000-strong intervention force in Mali to restore stability in
the capital of Bamako, and then improve Mali's defeated military
to help it retake the north.
ECOWAS, an umbrella group of 15 countries aimed at promoting
regional cooperation, has intervened militarily in past African
conflicts, such as the wars in Liberia and Sierra Leone.
The U.N. Security Council last month endorsed political
efforts by West African leaders to end the unrest in Mali, but
stopped short of backing force. It said it was ready to examine
a request by ECOWAS for a U.N. mandate for intervention once
more details were provided on the plans.
The Security Council has also called upon U.N. member states
to submit names of al Qaeda-linked individuals, groups or
entities connected to Mali's unrest to the council's al Qaeda
sanctions committee for inclusion on a U.N. al Qaeda blacklist.
So far no new names from Mali have been added to the
blacklist.
Ban encouraged "the Security Council to give serious
consideration to the imposition of targeted travel and financial
sanctions against individuals or groups in Mali engaged in
terrorist, religious extremist or criminal activities."
ECOWAS Commissioner for political affairs, peace and
security, Salamatu Hussaini Suleiman, told reporters that ECOWAS
needed a formal request from Mali for a stablization force,
which it expected to receive soon.
HUMANITARIAN CRISIS
Suleiman told the Security Council time was running out in
Mali and that "a council mandate to deploy a stabilization force
in Mali will constitute concrete and decisive action."
"Every day that we postpone concrete action offers the
terrorists and criminal networks yet another opportunity to
consolidate, another opportunity to commit atrocious war crimes
and worsen the plight of populations in the north," she said.
The lead mediator in regional efforts to end the unrest,
Burkina Faso Foreign Minister Djibril Bassole, traveled to
Mali's rebel-held north for the first time this week and told
rebels they must cut ties to "terrorist movements" like al Qaeda
before any peace talks could begin.
Sanda Ould Boumama, spokesman for al-Qaeda linked group
Ansar Dine, said on Wednesday that the question of imposing
Sharia was "not negotiable" and he did not make any commitment
to distancing themselves from terrorism groups.
"We are defending what is written in the Koran. We are not
terrorists but (warriors) who want to bring people back onto the
right path. The mediator has his point of view on terrorism and
we have our own," he told Reuters by telephone.
Mali's U.N. Ambassador Oumar Daou told the Security Council
that while progress had been made in restoring order in southern
Mali, the situation in the north was of great concern. He said
the Mali government would work with ECOWAS, the United Nations,
the African Union and others to reclaim the north of Mali.
Ban said the conflict has displaced more than 174,000 people
within Mali and more than 253,000 had fled to neighboring
countries. In addition, he said 4.6 million people in Mali and
more than 18 million people were affected by a severe food
crisis.
Ban also said Ansar Dine had deliberately destroyed nine of
the 16 mausoleums in Timbuktu that had been U.N. classified as
part of the "indivisible heritage of humanity."
(Editing by Vicki Allen)