Mauritania in the News

On a more serious note...


As you all know, my dad is Mauritanian, in Northwest Africa. Seldom do we hear anything aboout Mauritania in the news, but within the past week a Mauritanian military coup makes headlines.

Imagine my surprise as I flipped through the Post on my morning commute and see a headline about a military coup in Mauritania. In recent years there has been much tension between the light skinned Arab "Moors" in the north and the darker Mauritanians in South. Race and ethnic differences always play a role in politics-- we see this same conflict in the Darfur region between Arab vs. African groups.

Mauritanian coup leaders held the President, Prime Minister and two interior ministers hostage for five days, releasing the latter 3 last Monday afternoon. However, President Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi, the country's first freely elected president remained in captivity. Soldiers surrounded him and took him hostage after a military junta announced a coup last Wednesday.

The release of top officials indicates the junta is willing to bow to international pressure. But it is also a sig that the power remained with the military- they have no immediate plans to release the President. Military General Mohamed Ould Abdel Aaia launched the coup last week one hour after President Abdallahi fired the country's top four general's, including Aziz.

iht.com


US State Department's stance?

Mauritania: Military Coup
Statement by Secretary Condoleezza Rice
Washington, DC
August 6, 2008
The United States condemns the Mauritanian military’s overthrow of the democratically-elected Government of Mauritania and welcomes the statements by the African Union and the European Union condemning the coup. We oppose any attempts by military elements to change governments through extra-constitutional means. We call on the military to release President Sidi Mohamed Ould Cheikh Abdallahi and Prime Minister Yahya Ould Ahmed Waghef and to restore the legitimate, constitutional, democratically-elected government immediately. The United States looks to all of our international partners to condemn this anti-democratic action.

state.gov


latest news from The Wall Street Journal

A week after overthrowing this West African country's first democratically-elected president, military leaders appointed a new prime minister in an attempt to secure their grip on power and appease tensions with foreign donor countries.

A spokesman for military leaders who organized last week's coup said Mauritania's ambassador to the European Union, Moulaye Ould Mohamed Laghdaf, had been named prime minister on Thursday. The new premier was asked to form a new government, the spokesman added.

Military personnel overthrew Mauritania's President Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi on August 6, in a bloodless coup that delivered a major blow to one of the rare examples of democratic transition in Africa. Mr. Abdallahi had been inaugurated in March 2007 after two decades of authoritarian governments following independence from France in 1960.




The military led by Gen. Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, right, appointed Moulaye Ould Mohamed Laghdaf, left, Mauritania's prime minister.

The international community has widely condemned the coup. The African Union has suspended Mauritania's membership until further notice, while the U.S. said it has frozen cooperation -- mainly military-based -- with the country. France has suspended aid programs, and the EU as a whole has said it is considering similar sanctions.

In Mauritania, however, initial opposition to the coup has rapidly thinned as several political parties have announced their decision to side with military leaders.

On Thursday, supporters of the country's new military leaders, led by General Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, said the designation of a prime minister would accelerate the return to normal functioning of state institutions after more than a week of political uncertainty. The new premier's diplomatic skills might also help fend off US and EU protests, they added.

Mr. Laghdaf's "experience in Brussels can certainly help to deliver foreign governments a message of appeasement," said Sidi Mohamed Ould Mohamed Vall, a lawmaker who backs the country's new leadership.

Opponents said, however, that the designation of a prime minister did not make the coup legitimate. "A prime minister appointed by the army has no legal status," said Mohamed Jemil Ould Mansour, leader of the moderate Islamic party Tawassoul.

Mauritania, a largely desert and poverty-stricken country that imports about 75% of its food, has faced growing financial difficulties as world food prices have soared.

The declared motives for last week's coup, however, weren't financial. Military personnel say they had to overthrow President Abdallahi and put him under arrest because the former administration had grown soft on increasingly powerful terrorist cells across the country.

It's unclear whether these claims are true. French anti-terrorist investigators who are leading a probe into the December 2007 killing of four French tourists in the south of Mauritania by a group with alleged links to Al Qaeda, say cooperation with Mauritania had been very fruitful under President Abdallahi.

Still, over the past few days, the chorus of support for Mauritania's new military leaders has grown. Supporters of General Aziz have been staging what they describe as "spontaneous" rallies, during which they drive across town with a portrait of Mauritania's new military leader on their windshields.

"Democracy is when people are happy," said Sektou Mohamed Vall as she held a portrait of General Aziz at one of the rallies earlier this week. "With President Abdallahi, we were not happy."

My Thoughts

It's hard to decide which side is right and which side is wrong here. From a public diplomacy standpoint, one must uphold democracy and peace before all else, and so if the military is holding public elected officials hostage this violates rules of international diplomacy, and the rest of the world must show their stance and disagree with what the junta is doing. As we see, France and other European nations have opted for some sort of economic sanctions, while the US publicly condemns General Aziz's actions.

On the other side, however, one must think about the citizens directly affected and how they feel. At the end of the Journal article someone was quoted as saying that democracy is when people are happy and we are not happy with the elected President. The military decided to take matters in their own hands to reconcile the political situation. While initially Mauritanians were against the coup, slowly but surely, the military is gaining more public support. We will see what happens...

and for those of you who hadn't heard of Mauritania, now you know... don't f*ck with us... lol

until next time,

~

t. childz©