Foreign Correspondence

[StephanieVanbryce]

Mauritania calm but new regime faces pressure

By Boukhary Ahmed

Nouakchott - Mauritania was calm on Thursday, the day after the overthrow of President Maaouyia Ould Taya, but international pressure mounted on the 17-strong military council which seized power in the oil-rich north-west African country.

Hospital and military sources said the coup, carried out while Ould Taya was absent in Saudi Arabia for King Fahd's funeral, was entirely bloodless, and that firing heard in Nouakchott on Wednesday was merely warning shots.

Officials of all three hospitals in the city said they had received no casualties from bullet wounds or other violent injuries.

Ould Taya ruled Mauritania for more than two decades
A police officer who backed the coup said, "We did not face any incident requiring the use of force."

The capital was returning to normal on Thursday, with businesses and government offices reopening and traffic resuming, while the presence of troops on the streets was greatly reduced.

The airport, closed for several hours on Wednesday, was also operating normally, and unlike previous coups in a country which has known long periods of military rule, no curfew was imposed or checkpoints set up.

Some residents had spent much of the night driving through the streets in small convoys, sounding their horns in approval of the ousting of Ould Taya, who had ruled Mauritania for more than two decades since seizing power, also in a bloodless coup.

Witnesses contacted by telephone said the rest of the country was also calm as it awaited the next announcements from the Military Council for Justice and Democracy, chaired by Colonel Ely Ould Mohammed Vall, the director of national security, and comprising 16 colonels and a naval commander.

'The military do not intend to hold power for longer than two years'
The announcement of the coup, several hours after troops took over key buildings in Nouakchott, said, "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 new junta 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.

It also vowed to respect all international treaties and conventions already ratified by Mauritania.

While the news brought hundreds of people on to the streets of Nouakchott in apparently spontaneous demonstrations of support, political parties and other groups stayed silent and international bodies and foreign countries condemned the coup.

The African Union reaffirmed its "total rejection of any unconstitutional change of government and the importance of respect for constitutional order."

United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan's spokesperson said he "condemns any attempt to change the government of any country unconstitutionally" and insists that political disagreements be settled peacefully through democratic means.

Britain, speaking in its role as holder of the European Union presidency, said it "condemns any attempt to seize power by force."

"The (EU) presidency calls upon all sides to ensure full respect for democracy, human rights and the rule of law and to safeguard the wellbeing of its own citizens and foreign nationals in Mauritania," it added.

The United States, which saw Ould Taya as an ally in the "war against terrorism" despite criticising abuses of his regime, called for the ousted president to be reinstated.

Israel also condemned the coup and said it would wait to see how it would affect ties with one of the only three Arab countries with which it has diplomatic relations.

But the Arab League, of which Mauritania is a member, remained silent on Thursday, as did all other African countries apart from Ivory Coast, whose President Laurent Gbagbo was nearly overthrown by a military rebellion in 2002.

There was no commment from Niger, which on Wednesday gave shelter to Ould Taya when he found Nouakchott airport closed to him.

Nor was there any immediate threat of international sanctions, while Australian oil company Woodside Petroleum said its drilling operations in Mauritania had been unaffected by the coup.

Mauritania sits on about one billion barrels of oil and 30 billion cubic meters of natural gas, according to the government, but has scarcely begun production. - Sapa-AFP

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=86&art_id=qw1123155360851B256