GAO, August 24, 2008 (AFP) - Malian human rights group Temedt on Sunday announced a campaign to persuade the government to help what it described as 7,000 people being held as slaves in the north of the country.

'Today there are around 7,000 people who are victims of slavery in the Gao region,' in the North east of Mali close to the border with Niger and Burkina Faso, Ahmed Ag Mohamed, a spokesman for Temedt, told AFP.

'They are blacks owned by Arab or Tuareg masters. It is slavery because these people are involuntarily subordinate to others who ill-treat them physically,' he explained.

'These slaves live with their masters. They are forced to work against their will for their masters and they are beaten and abused,' Ahmed Ag Mohamed added.

Temedt would start a campaign to raise awareness of the issue and would be asking the government to take action.

Although slavery is outlawed under Malian law, some observers say the authorities don't really enforce the ban.

In an unprecedented move, several former slaves from the Gao and Menaka northern regions have filed legal complaints against their masters in recent weeks.

Mohamed, whose group is supporting the plaintiffs, said they had not so far had any response from the authorities. 'But we will renew our efforts.'

Takawalat, from near Gao village, whose family was among those to file a complaint, said they had escaped an abusive master.

'Currently (our master) is still holding one of my children,' Takawalat, who lives with her husband and her five other children, told AFP.

Temedt, which means blood relations in the Tuareg tamasheq language, was set up two years ago.