Toespraak van minister Ploumen bij de opening van het film festival Movies that Matter

Toespraak | 23-03-2015

Ladies and gentlemen,

It’s a pleasure to be here again andan honour to say a few words about the subject of tonight’s opening film: thejihadist occupation of Timbuktu in 2012. I’d like to tell you what will be on mymind as I watch this film tonight.

Timbuktu. Few words evoke suchpowerfully exotic associations. For many, it is a near-mythical destination, asynonym for 'far away'. It even inspired an expression: 'From here to Timbuktu'.And that perception lives on, even in the age of the internet and cheap airtravel. During my last visit to Mali, I heard a story about a Dutch couple whoturned up in Timbuktu after a gruelling and hazardous journey during the chaosthat followed the French intervention. When people asked them, in amazement,what they were doing there, they replied: 'We want to get married in Timbuktuand nowhere else.' Perilous romance.

Having watched the film trailer, Ibelieve we're going to see Timbuktu as the mystical place that many imagine itto be. Mali was always a peaceful, dreamy land, where everything moves at a slowpace. Everything goes slowly in Mali. This is due in large part to their specialsocial code, known as 'relations à plaisanterie'. I can best describe it as theopposite of Dutch directness. The people of Mali prefer to get to the pointobliquely, by describing wide circles. Mali has a culture of consultation andconsensus that oils the wheels of relations between different casts and ethnicgroups.

But in this film, that dreamy imagecollides with raw reality. In 2011 the Libyans ousted the dictator MuammarGaddafi. His mercenaries then took the area north of Mali, bringing greaterunrest to a troubled region. A group of Touaregs there had been at odds with thegovernment in Bamako for decades, and an Algerian offshoot of al Qa’ida wascalling the shots in the northern desert mountains. Mali’s central governmentsoon lost control and the black flags of religious fanatics waved over thenorthern part of Mali.

Everything goes slowly in Mali,except population growth. In fact, it’s dramatically outpacing economicdevelopment. And in 2012 we saw the disruptive impact this has. In large partsof the north, young people had – and still have – little prospect of finding ajob. This has limited their choices. Either they could join the ordinarygangsters – mostly Touaregs involved in trafficking arms, drugs and people. Orthey could join the religious gangsters who do the same, but also carry outattacks and kidnappings. When you haven’t got a job or income, you have littleto lose. In the trailer for Timbuktu I saw poverty everywhere, but the jihadistswere driving a flash Toyota pick-up. This single image conveys the attraction ofthese groups.

People who have seen the film tell methis is what makes it so powerful: the everyday but starkly revealing details.Malians have always practised a moderate form of Islam. That is, until thefanatics came and declared just about everything from music to football and love– I could almost say: life – a sin. It would be laughable if it wasn’t sotragic.

Mali asked for help and got it. Alittle more than a year ago, Dutch military personnel were deployed to Minusma,the UN peacekeeping mission. I am deeply saddened by the deaths of René Zeetsenand Ernst Mollinger in Mali earlier this week. They gave their lives for a saferworld.

A peace agreement is currently beingnegotiated which we hope will be signed soon in Algiers and help calm thesituation. But as I said: everything goes slowly in Mali. It will take time forthis conflict to be fully resolved. We are working hard to achieve this. In themeantime, I’m happy that with this film and others, Movies that Matter isintroducing us to that other Timbuktu: not just the mystical, exoticdestination, but also the raw reality. 

Thank you.