On August 3rd the democratically elected government of Mauritania was overthrown by a military coup. Overshadowed by the Beijing Olympics and a higher profile conflict erupting in the former Soviet Republic of Georgia, not much is being said about the events taking place in this north African country. That said, I would like to take this opportunity to touch on the recent events in Mauritania from a human rights perspective.
At the outset, it is our observation that, at this early stage, there is little impact on the human rights of Mauritanian citizens from this coup. However, it’s worth touching on the recent events and perhaps draw some conclusions here.
But first, a little background about Mauritinia is in order.
Political History
Independent from France in 1960, Mauritania annexed the southern third of the former Spanish Sahara (now Western Sahara) in 1976, but relinquished it after three years of raids by the Polisario guerrilla front seeking independence for the territory.
Maaouya Ould Sid Ahmed Taya seized power in a coup in 1984 and ruled Mauritania with a heavy hand for over two decades. A series of presidential elections that he held were widely seen as flawed. A bloodless coup in August 2005 deposed President Taya and ushered in a military council that oversaw a transition to democratic rule. Independent candidate Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi was inaugurated in April 2007 as Mauritania’s first freely and fairly elected president.
The country continues to experience ethnic tensions among its black population (Afro-Mauritanians) and White and Black Moor (Arab-Berber) communities, although the then new government attempted to ameliorate some of those tensions. [1. CIA World Factbook, August 7, 2008]
A military coup overthrew the Taya government in August 2005. After the overthrow, the Military Council for Justice and Democracy (CMJD) pardoned and released approximately 100 political prisoners, including a number of Islamists, while dozens of political activists returned from exile. In October 2005, the CMJD set out a timeline for holding elections and established an Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to administer the process. It also convened a five-day public debate with representatives from political parties and civil society groups to discuss the transition.
Senate elections were held in January and February 2007, and independents again secured a majority. Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdellahi, running as an independent, secured the presidency with slightly over 52 percent of the final vote. [3. Freedom House Country Report 2007]
Human Rights
According to the U.S. State Department, the government’s human rights record improved during 2007. According to its Human Rights Report for the year, “[t]here were reports of mistreatment of detainees by security forces, harsh prison conditions, impunity, prolonged pretrial detention, executive branch influence on the judiciary, and restrictions on freedoms of press, assembly, and association. Discrimination against women, female genital mutilation (FGM), child labor, trafficking in persons, and the political marginalization of largely southern-based ethnic groups continued to be problems.” [2. U.S. State Department, Human Rights Report 2007]
Perhaps most significantly there was a widespread public perception of governmental corruption and a lack of access to government information.
However, the new government acted quickly to address the country’s most serious human rights problems, most significantly by passing legislation criminalizing the lingering practice of slavery and initiating preparations for the repatriation of thousands of Afro-Mauritanians living as refugees in Senegal and Mali following their expulsion during ethnic tensions and violence in 1989-91. [2. Ibid]
In July, Abdellahi announced his intention to allow the return of black Mauritanians who had been expelled to Senegal and Mali following a 1989 border dispute that led to widespread ethnic violence and the killing of many black Mauritanians. Around 65,000 black Mauritanians had been expelled, and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) estimated in late 2007 that approximately 24,000 were still living in Senegal and 6,000 were living in Mali. The governments of Mauritania and Senegal signed a repatriation agreement in November 2007, and in December, the government established an office to coordinate the repatriation of refugees expected to begin in early 2008. However, no mechanism providing reparations for state violence or compensation for expropriated property was established. [1. Freedom House, "Country Report 2008"]
Economy
Half the population of Mauritania still depends on agriculture and livestock for a livelihood, even though many of the nomads and subsistence farmers were forced into the cities by recurrent droughts in the 1970s and 1980s.
Natural Resources
Mauritania has extensive deposits of iron ore, which account for nearly 40% of total exports. The nation’s coastal waters are among the richest fishing areas in the world, but overexploitation by foreigners threatens this key source of revenue. The country’s first deepwater port opened near Nouakchott in 1986.
As noted above, its current exports include iron ore, fish and fish products, gold and its export partners include China 33.1%, France 9.1%, Italy 8.2%, Spain 8.2%, Japan 5.3%, Netherlands 5.1%, Belgium 4.8%, Cote d’Ivoire 4.6% (2006 data).
A new investment code approved in December 2001 improved the opportunities for direct foreign investment. Ongoing negotiations with the IMF involve problems of economic reforms and fiscal discipline. In 2001, exploratory oil wells in tracts 80 km offshore indicated potential extraction at current world oil prices. Oil prospects, while initially promising, have failed to materialize. [1. CIA World Factbook, August 7, 2008]
Foreign Debt
In the past, drought and economic mismanagement resulted in a buildup of foreign debt, which now stands at more than three times the level of annual exports. In February 2000, Mauritania qualified for debt relief under the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative and in December 2001 received strong support from donor and lending countries at a triennial Consultative Group review.
The Coup
As noted at the beginning of this post, the army overtyhrew the establisherd government and seized the President and the Prime Minister after the President sacked several top army officers. The international community immediately condemned the action.
Al-Qaida, in its Algerian/North African apparition, has tried to piggyback on the international media confusion surrounding the coup by calling for Mauritania’s transformation into an Islamic Emirate.
It has been reported in the Arab press that overthrown President Abdellahi had plans to organize a tribunal to try people implicated in ethnic cleansing and other racist violence against southern Mauritanian peoples (primarily the Peul minority, but also others), connected to as the gruesome “1989 events,” and that this was a trigger cause for the coup. However, this claim apparently has not been taken seriously.
An anonymous pro-Abdelaziz source seems to say that Abdellahi planned to use such tribunals as a way of purging the military . . . If this turns out to be true, Abdellahi could become wildly popular with the Black African southern community for doing what no other Moorish leader have even hinted at doing before him, and the putschists would suffer the opposite reaction; He would become correspondingly unpopular in radical Arab nationalist circles and racist groups among the Moorish majority.
Assessment
In the final analysis, the coup appears to be nothing but a bit of rearranging the deck chairs in Mauritania. The country remains poor and its citizens will not likely see any improvement in their condition. Global companies doing business in Mauritania seem unfazed by the regime change and there seems to be little violence associated with the action. It would appear that the military has reasserted its already existing authority and once foreign governments let off a bit of steam, things will likely return to the normal, deplorable situation, which Mauritanians have suffered from for many years.
Recent Comments