Mauritania's President Remains Detained Despite Military Claims

By Stephen Kaufman

Despite the Mauritanian military junta's transfer of President Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi from detention in the capital Nouakchott to his home village of Lemden, Mauritania's president remains in detention, the Bush administration says.

The country's first democratically elected government was overthrown in an August 6 military coup. Despite calls from the African Union, the European Union, the United States and others in the international community for Abdallahi's release and the restoration of his constitutional rule, Mauritanian military leaders have continued to hold him in custody.

Abdallahi "is the only elected president on the [African] continent subjected to such treatment," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said in a November 18 statement.

"He is forced now to remain in a village of a few hundred inhabitants located about three hours by car from the capital. Visitors are screened and a small force of police and military personnel are always present," McCormack said.

The president's continued detention in Lemden "does not constitute a 'release,' as it was described by the military junta," he said.

U.S. officials have condemned the coup "in the strongest possible terms." Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said August 6 that the United States is opposed to "any attempts by military elements to change governments through extraconstitutional means" and called for the military to release the president and prime minister and "restore the legitimate constitutional, democratically elected government immediately."

On August 7, the Bush administration suspended all foreign assistance except humanitarian aid to Mauritania; on October 16, it barred certain members of the military junta and other individuals from traveling to the United States.

In an October 17 statement announcing the travel restrictions, spokesman McCormack said Mauritania's people "deserve the right to the democracy they worked so hard to obtain and to enjoy the security and development that can only come with democracy."

U.S. diplomats in Mauritania have urged the country to "forsake the path of isolation and confrontation with the international community," according to a statement released October 24. "We remain convinced that only through a return to constitutional rule and reconciliation with the international community will Mauritania be able to find its own legitimate and durable solutions to the many challenges it faces," the statement said.

Source: U.S. Department of State

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