Ousted Mali President Amadou Toumani Touré Arrives in Senegal DAKAR, Senegal - The former president of Mali, ousted in a military coup at the end of March, has arrived in Dakar, officials said Friday, in flight from a country still in the grip of the soldiers who forced him out. The former president, Amadou Toumani Touré, had been in hiding in a suburban district of Mali's capital, Bamako, for most of the period after the coup. On Thursday night, according to Senegal officials, he left on a Senegalese government plane with 17 family members and aides, arriving here in the Senegalese capital. Senegal is the only country in the region to have never known either a coup or a civil war. Mr. Touré, until recently considered one of West Africa's democratic exemplars, was forced to flee his presidential palace in Bamako on March 22 after an attack by mutinous soldiers. The soldiers, facing international pressure, promised to hand over power to civilians after Mr. Touré agreed to give up what remained of his presidency. He had been scheduled to step down before elections this month. But the military junta reasserted its power this week, calling into question the promised handover of power. More than 20 opposition politicians and former aides to Mr. Touré have been arrested, mostly at night, by armed, masked soldiers. The most recent arrests - which the military junta has attributed to a vague countercoup plot - occurred on Wednesday. Mr. Touré is himself an ex-general. He first came to power in a 1991 coup and subsequently won several elections that were generally considered free. He is now ensconced in the Residence Pasteur, a villa in central Dakar where high-ranking state guests are lodged. "He'll stay as long as is necessary," said a spokesman for President Macky Sall of Senegal. "It's not safe and sound in Mali right now," said the spokesman, El Hadj Hamidou Kassé. The soldiers hold de facto power. It's the soldiers who are pulling the strings. For the moment, Mr. Touré is not considered a political refugee, Mr. Sall's office said. Mr. Sall himself won a generally peaceful election, defeating an incumbent who immediately ceded power, just days after the coup in Mali - another demonstration of Senegal's exceptional status in West Africa. Another spokesman for Mr. Sall said Mali's former president "seemed very serene." "I saw someone who didn't seem preoccupied, but calm," said the spokesman, Abou Abel Thiam, adding that Mr. Touré "did not speak after he arrived." Mr. Kassé said, "This is a soldier who knows how to keep a stiff upper lip."