fabric were sown together by hand, and held up by sticks. Others painted the three colors on pieces of paper, and held them aloft as the president's convoy rolled into the sand-blanketed square. Women wore vibrantly-colored African prints, and bared their midriffs, their arms and their backs, after nearly a year of being forced to wear a colorless, all-enveloping veil. They danced as men played the drums a loud, raucous celebration after months of privation. Fatou Traore, a 25-year-old student screamed out her thanks as the French president stepped out of an armored Toyota V8 all-terrain vehicle. "It's the president of France who has freed us from the prison we have lived in for the past 10 months," she said, emotions overtaking her, as she laughed and cried at the same time. In a sign of how tense the city remains, Hollande arrived with what looked like a private army. Soldiers holding bomb-sniffing dogs and at least a dozen armored personnel carriers patrolled the square in front of the library of ancient manuscripts which Hollande visited during his two-hour stop in the city. Just before French troops arrived in Timbuktu last week, the retreating Islamic extremists set fire to a portion of the collection at the Ahmed Baba Institute of Higher Learning and Islamic Research. It was their final blow, not just to Mali but to the world. The oldest manuscripts in the repository date back nearly 1,000 years, and are crucial to Africa's identity, because they show that the continent had a written record, not just an oral history, said the library's acting director Abdoulaye Cisse. Although an inventory has not yet been completed, the director believes less than 5 percent of the library's priceless manuscripts were destroyed, because the majority of the library was spirited out of the library and hidden hundreds of miles away in the capital, said Cisse. Despite the outpouring of joy, many expressed worry about France's long-term intentions. Mali's military has proved to be no match for the better-armed Islamic extremists, who seized a territory equal in size to France last year, after the army simply abandoned their posts. Hollande made clear that France intends to hand off the control of the recuperated terrain to Mali's military, and to the African troops pledged by neighboring countries. "Now, it's the Malians who have the responsibility to assure the transition, and especially the security,cheap toms, of their country," he said at the airport. Asked by reporters how soon French troops will begin to draw down from Timbuktu, he said: "The handover is soon enough." Around 800 French soldiers are still stationed in Timbuktu, out of a total of 3,500 taking part in the operation codenamed Serval,toms shoes reviews, after a sub-Saharan wildcat. "If I could have one wish, it would be that the French army stays in the Sahara, that they create a base here," said Moustapha Ben Essayati,cheapest toms shoes, one of the turbaned dignitaries who lined up to shake the French leader's hand in front of one of Timbuktu's ancient mosques. "I'm really frightened that if they leave, the ji Related articles:

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