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Mauritania's Junta Gains World Support
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Adeniji
(R) praised the peaceful atmosphere in Mauritania and the
unanimous approval of the August 3 military coup. (Reuters)
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NOUAKCHOTT,
August 11, 2005 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – After
gaining instant clear support at home, Mauritania's new military
rulers seemed on the right track internationally, with Washington and
the African Union indicating they would be dealing with the junta
while insisting promises of a swift return to constitutional rule be
met.
In
a clear change of heart, the United States said Wednesday, August 10,
that it was pressing Mauritania's military junta, which staged a
bloodless coup last week against President Maaouya Ould Sid'Ahmed Taya,
to carry out a constitutional transition of power, according to
Reuters.
"The
guys running the country right now are the guys we're dealing with
because they're the ones making the decisions and we are trying to get
them to make the right decision," US State Department spokesman
Adam Ereli said Tuesday.
"That
decision is to have in Mauritania a government that is in power on the
basis of constitutional process," Ereli told reporters in
Washington.
Dropping
its demand to the return of the ousted president, Ereli said the
United States would work with the AU and others "to see that
government in Mauritania is consistent with international standards
and respects the will of the people and is responsive to the
people."
The
United States, the European Union and the African Union (AU) among
others had condemned the military coup against Taya's regime, with US
officials initially calling for the ousted president to be restored to
power.
Reassured
But
the African Union echoed a similar positive stance, saying that it was
reassured that Mauritania's new military rulers are popular and eager
to restore democracy, according to Reuters.
"We
are reassured because there is a consensus on the need for
change," Nigerian Foreign Minister Oluyemi Adeniji, head of an AU
mission which arrived in Nouakchott Tuesday, told reporters after
talks with the military junta, political party leaders, businessmen
and representatives of civil society.
"We
think it will be much easier to steer the process for returning the
country to democracy."
Adeniji,
whose country currently holds the rotating AU presidency, also praised
the peaceful atmosphere in Mauritania and the unanimous approval of
the August 3 military coup.
Thousands
of Mauritanian people flocked into the streets when news of the
military coup against Taya's regime emerged last week.
Within
hours all the country's opposition parties backed the new rulers, with
Taya's own party, the Social Democratic Republican Party (PRDS), also
throwing its weight behind the junta.
And
in the first comment on the military coup by regional organizations,
envoys of the Arab Maghreb Union (UMA), headed by Libyan Foreign
Minister Abderrahman Shalgham met with the junta leader Ould Mohamed
Vall Tuesday.
Following
the talks, Shalgham said the UMA, which groups Mauritania, Algeria,
Libya, Morocco and Tunisia, "could not oppose the voluntary
choice of the Mauritanian people."
"After
hearing the words of the president of the military council…we have
the impression that the Mauritanian people have started to approve
(the change) and we approve what the Mauritanian people approve."
He,
however, declined to say if the UMA recognized the new regime pending
a report to other member states.
Senegalese
President Abdoulaye Wade also spoke to Vall Monday by telephone,
saying he was prepared to help in a peaceful transition to a civilian
government, according to the Mauritanian news agency.
New
Government
Only
one week after the successful military coup against Taya's regime,
Mauritania's military junta announced Wednesday a 24-member civilian
government, three days after naming Sidi Mohamed Ould Boubacar as
prime minister.
The
new line-up has 18 ministers, four junior ministers and a
secretary-general to the government.
No
members of the last government of Ould Taya, which had resigned
Sunday, were included in the new Cabinet line-up.
Mauritania's
military junta has pledged presidential elections within two years.
The
military council has promised that members of the caretaker government
will not be allowed to stand in elections at the end of the transition
period.
Mauritania
-- which hopes to start pumping oil early next year -- is one of only
three Arab League member states that have established diplomatic ties
with Israel.
It
is also, according to analysts, one of the most repressive countries
in the region towards Islamist movements.
Police
have arrested scores of Islamic opposition leaders and activists since
April.
In
May, security forces searched mosques around the capital and arrested
imams.
Analysts
have warned that Mauritania 's attempts to stifle opposition groups by
denouncing them as terrorists risks backfiring by radicalizing
moderate Islamists.
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