Coup d'état in Mauritania

[Major-General Cawad]

Mauritania officers 'seize power'

 

Overthrown President Taya has arrived in Niger

Mauritanian army officers have announced the overthrow of the president and creation of a ruling military council.

The military council said it had ended the "totalitarian regime" of President Maaouiya Ould Sid Ahmed Taya who has arrived in Niger.

 

 

Hundreds took to the streets of the capital, Nouakchott, to celebrate as troops controlled key points.

 

But the action has been condemned by African and international bodies.

 

The African Union said it "strongly condemns any seizure of power or any attempt to take power by force".

 

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan was "deeply troubled" by the reports, insisting political disagreements should be settled peacefully and democratically, a spokesman said.

 

President Olusegun Obasanjo of regional powerhouse Nigeria said "the days of tolerating military governance in our sub-region or anywhere" were "long gone".

 

Celebrations in streets

 

President Taya, attending the funeral of Saudi Arabia's King Fahd at the time, was flown to Niger's capital, Niamey.

 

He was met by Niger President Mamadou Tandja before travelling on to a villa in Niamey, where officials say he may stay for several days, the Associated Press reports.

 

The national armed forces and security forces have unanimously decided to put a definitive end to the oppressive activities of the defunct authority

 

Officers' statement

 

Army coup: Full statement

 

The new Military Council for Justice and Democracy said it would rule the West African state for a transitional period of two years, after which it would organise free and fair elections.

 

Following the announcement on national radio, people took to the streets of Nouakchott in celebration, hooting their car horns.

 

"I can hear the cars now and people running in the streets. People are celebrating," resident Hassan Ahmed told the BBC's Focus on Africa programme.

 

Heavily armed forces surrounded state radio and television buildings as well as the presidential palace from 0500 GMT.

 

State media broadcasts were cut and the airport closed.

 

Some sporadic gunfire was heard at first, and there were unconfirmed reports of senior army officials being arrested.

 

Shops immediately shut down and civil servants left their offices, said witnesses.

 

Divided state

 

Rebel soldiers came close to toppling Mr Taya in June 2003.

 

The government says it foiled two more attempts in 2004.

 

MAURITANIA

 

 

Dominated by light-skinned Arabic-speakers (Moors)

Black Africans complain of discrimination

Mostly desert

Islamic Republic

Recognises Israel

 

President Taya took power in a bloodless coup in December 1984 and has been re-elected three times since.

 

Correspondents say he later made enemies among Islamists in the country, which is an Islamic Republic.

 

Critics accuse the government of using the US-led war on terror to crackdown on Islamic opponents.

 

Mr Taya has also prompted widespread opposition by establishing links with Israel.

 

Earlier this year, nearly 200 people, including former President Mohamed Khouna Ould Haidallah, were put on trial for a series of alleged coup plots.

 

Mauritania is deeply divided between three main groups - light-skinned Arabic-speakers, descendents of slaves and dark-skinned speakers of West African languages.

[Major-General Cawad]

Afganbi Ay Ka Danbeeyaan Ciidanka Ilaalada qaranka Oo Ka Dhacay Dalka Muritaaniya, Gole Milatari Oo Lagaga Dhawaaqay Dalkaas

Warkii: Aug 03, 2005

 

Nawaakshot(Radiossc.net):-Afganbi ay ka danbeyeen ciidamada ilaalada qaranka ee dalka Muritaaniya ayaa saaka waabarigii lagu soo waramayaa in uu ka dhacay dalkaasi.

 

 

Ciidamada ayaa la wareegay gooba ay ku yaalaan Idaacadda iyo T.v-ga dalka, waxaana ciidamo badan la soo dhoobay hareeraha qasriga madaxtooyada, waxaana lagu soo waramayaa in la qabqabtay dhamaan madaxsare ee dalkaasi.

 

Waxaana dalka lagaga dhawaaqay Gole milatari oo muddo laba sanno ah xukumi doona dalkaasi, ka dibna doorashooyin qaban doona, koodan saraakiisha ah ee inqilaabka ku dhaqaaqday ayaa sheegtay in ay sida u sameeyaan n ay soo afjaraan kaligii talisnnmada madaxweynihii hore.

 

 

 

Inqilaabkan ayaa waxa hogaaminayey G/Sare Maxmed Walad C/casiis taliyaha ilaalada Madaxweynaha, iyo Cali Bin Maxmed Faal taliyaha Amniga dalka., waxayna sheegeen in ay dadweynaha kala hadli doonaan warbaahinta.

 

 

 

Madaxweynaha la afganbiyey Mucaawiya Sayid Axmed Al-taayac ayaa waxa haatan lagu soo waramayaa in ay diyaaradii siday ku soo degtay garoonka diyaarada ee dalka Nayjar ee Waqooyi Afrika, ka dib markii saaka waabarigii loo diiday in ay soo caga dhigato Magaalada Nawaakshot ee caasimada dalka Murutiaaniya.

 

 

 

Madaxweynaha Muritaaniya ayaa dhawr jeer laysku dayey in la inqilaabo, waxaana markii ugu danbaysay ay ahayd bishii juun 2003.

 

 

 

Radiossc.net

[Major-General Cawad]

Government made repeated public pronouncements that revenues will be pumped back into the country

 

Black gold income worries Mauritanians!!

 

 

Average Mauritanians fear oil money will disappear as all other profits from Mauritania's resources have gone.

 

 

By Lauren Gelfand - NOUAKCHOTT

 

There's a new wisdom afoot in Mauritania, says Sidi, shading his eyes against the glare from the shiny 4X4 vehicles parked in front of his Nouakchott hotel: "Fish smell worse than oil, so if you didn't smell any money from fishing, you can bet you'll smell no money from the oil industry."

 

 

Big oil has come to this impoverished country that straddles the divide between north and west Africa, whipped continuously by winds born in the Sahara desert, and with it the environmental, social and above all economic concerns that a windfall from "black gold" can engender.

 

 

"It would be terrible - terrible! - if the profits from oil go into the same pockets as all other profits from Mauritania's resources have gone," said Majid Kamal, an unabashed partisan of the government of President Maaouiya Ould Taya, his former brother-in-law.

 

 

"If the population does not benefit, any money here will go in to civil war."

 

 

By early next year, Australia-based Woodside Petroleum Ltd. will begin pulling 75,000 barrels per day of light, sweet crude from an offshore field known as Chinguetti, which contains reserves estimated at 120 million barrels.

 

 

Another three fields are also under exploration by Woodside, the largest of which, Tiof, is expected to go online in 2007.

 

 

With current crude prices surging beyond 56.30 dollars per barrel, Mauritania could stand to pull in as much as 350 million dollars (290 million euros) in foreign exchange earnings from oil - a respectable sum for a country with an annual GDP of around 1.1 billion dollars.

 

 

The Taya administration, not known for its effusiveness, has been unusually forthcoming with respect to the oil largesse, making repeated public pronouncements that revenues will be pumped back into the country of 2.7 million people, most of them former nomads who eke out an existence in subsistence farming or agriculture.

 

 

In March, the government tapped Zeidane Ould H'Meida, former mining and industry minister, to head the new oil portfolio, which will not only concern itself with managing the stable of foreign investors eager to explore but also the social impacts of the new revenues flowing into state coffers.

 

 

Poverty reduction, education and health are among key sectors to be targeted by the expected oil windfall, Ould H'Meida recently told the weekly Jeune Afrique.

 

 

And Woodside itself has commissioned both environmental and social impact studies to weigh the potential good and ill that the petroleum exploration will have on the country, with the implication that it will engage in some modest social development projects.

 

 

"But ultimately, it is up to the government to decide," said the Woodside spokesman.

 

 

And that is what most people are afraid of, said Mohammed Ali, a currency trader in Nouakchott who whiles away his days counting the new and flashy cars that zoom by his office on one of Nouakchott's main streets.

 

 

Eighty percent of the country's considerable wealth from iron ore mining and commercial fishing is concentrated in the hands of about a dozen powerful families, according to popular estimates shared by Ali, and there is little hope that the economic dynamic will change.

 

 

"Oil is a double-edged sword for us; it could bring us the best or leave us in the worst," said Ahmed Ould Daddah, the veteran opposition leader and former central bank chairman.

 

 

"Because it's certainly not resources that we are lacking but a wise father to distribute them." Black gold income worries Mauritanians

[Major-General Cawad]

 

Military coup led by presidential guard members

 

 

Military coup in Mauritania

 

Military junta will rule Mauritania for no more than two years after ousting Maaouyia Ould Taya.

 

NOUAKCHOTT - Mauritanian President Maaouyia Ould Taya has been ousted and a military junta will rule in his place for no more than two years, a statement by the coup leadership said Wednesday.

 

 

"The military and the security forces have unanimously decided to put an end to the totalitarian practices of the regime from which our people have suffered so much in the last years," the statement quoted by the Mauritanian news agency said.

 

 

"These practices have put the country on a dangerous course. For this reason, the military and security forces have decided to put in place a Military Council for Justice and Democracy."

 

 

The unidentified coup leaders pledged to "establish favourable conditions for an open and transparent democratic system on which civil society and political players will be able to give their opinions freely."

 

 

"The military and security forces do not intend to hold power for longer than a period of two years, which is considered essential to prepare and establish true democratic institutions," the statement said.

 

 

Finally, the new ruling council pledged to respect all international treaties and conventions already ratified by Mauritania.

 

 

Earlier Wednesday, troops led by the presidential guard took over key buildings in Nouakchott, including the military headquarters, the state radio and television offices, the presidential palace and ministries.

 

 

They acted while Ould Taya was in Saudi Arabia for the funeral of King Fahd. He was later reported to have landed in Niamey, capital of Niger.

 

In June 2003 a bloody uprising failed to unseat Ould Taya, and was followed in August and September of last year by two more alleged coup attempts.

 

 

Ould Taya, who seized power himself in a bloodless coup in 1984, is a strong ally of the United States at the head of the northwest African country, which sits on an estimated one billion barrels of oil and 30 billion cubic meters of natural gas.

 

 

He was elected president first in 1992, again in 1997 and for a third time in November last year in an exercise condemned as a "masquerade" by the opposition.

 

 

His government recently cracked down on Islamist radicals, accusing them of links to terrorism and extremist groups in neighbouring Algeria.

 

 

In May the authoritative International Crisis Group said Nouakchott had seized on the US-led struggle against terrorism as a way to legitimize its denial of democratic rights.

 

 

In a follow-up to a March report that called Washington's militaristic approach to the terror challenge in northwest Africa "counterproductive", the Brussels-based think tank said the demonization of Islamists in mostly Muslim Mauritania could be a "very costly mistake".

 

 

In February a court condemned 84 convicted putschists and acquitted more than 100 other defendants, including former president Mohamed Khouna Ould Haidalla, ousted in 1984 by Ould Taya.

 

 

The 2003 coup attempt collapsed after a 36-hour gunbattle with loyalist soldiers at a military barracks near Nouakchott.

 

 

Its mastermind Saleh Ould Henenna, a former army major, told his trial that the country's deep racial and ethnic divisions were the impetus behind his bid to oust Ould Taya, who has ruled with an iron fist since 1984.

 

 

He called for "a political act of salvation for the Mauritanian people."

 

 

Life sentences were imposed in absentia on Mohamed Ould Salek and Mohamed Ould Cheikhna, the founder of an exiled band of renegade military officers known since June 2003 as Knights of Change.

 

 

Mauritania is one of just three Arab countries with diplomatic links with Israel, and Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom was greeted by anti-Israel graffiti and protests when he visited in May.

 

 

Israel has expressed hope that Mauritania might serve as a "bridge" between it and the Arab world and encourage other Arab nations to begin diplomatic relations.

 

 

Palestinian Authority President Mahmud Abbas also visited Nouakchott a month ago.

[Gabbal]

The first coup attempt (and successful at that) of this new century huh? What I don't understand is are the black African members of the military the ones to have led this coup or the armed forces combined against the executive office?

[Muhammad]

somehow it was coming!

 

Taya was a weak, silly, ignorent 'siyasi'!

[Major-General Cawad]

The amazing thing is that the former President had good links and ties with Israel which he recongises as an independent state.

 

He has been ousted by a Military Junta led by both Arabs and African-Slaves (Former).

 

The country is divided by the Arabs and Africans who speak westafrican dialects. Their miscontent of former/past unresolved issues like slavery which is still a common practice in Somalia although the government abolished it some twenty years ago.

 

But there are still grievances and deviatence between the Arabs and Former Westafrican Slaves.