Assimi Goita, Mali's transitional vice president, is working out of a small office in the Koulouba Palace previously occupied by the head of state's deputy chief of staff. Despite its cramped waiting room and minimalist decoration - only a portrait of his superior, Bah N'Daw, sits above the computer between two leather sofas - it is here that the colonel who led last August's putsch receives his many visitors, such as politicians, diplomats and defence company reps. It is also from this office that