Loyal troops put down coup
2003-06-08 12:49
Nouakchott - Forces loyal to the pro-Israel Arab president of Mauritania, who recently cracked down on Islamic militants in the west African desert state, on Sunday put down a coup attempt, government sources said.
President Maaouiya Ould Taya and his family were safe and in good health, and Ould Taya himself was directing the operation from the presidential palace to put down the remnants of the coup attempt, the sources said.
Soldiers and civilians wounded in the overnight fighting were being treated in hospitals in Nouakchott, hospital sources said, but they did not say how many were injured nor give details of their injuries.
Some fighting was still going on at about 09:00, in particular near the state television station in the far northwest of the city that lies on the Atlantic Ocean, witnesses said.
But the situation appeared to have calmed down around the presidential building and army headquarters in the city centre, where automatic weapons fire and explosions were concentrated overnight after they began around 01:00.
Some witnesses said a plane had flown over the city several times during the night and there were reports of anti-aircraft fire.
State radio and television had not broadcast any news of the attempted coup in this former French colony by mid-morning, and it was not known which parts of the army had taken part.
The reported coup attempt came amid heightened tension in the vast Sahara desert country of just 2.7 million people, about a third of whom are black and the rest are either of Arab or mixed descent.
The government of the Islamic republic has in recent weeks been cracking down on Islamic militants.
On Tuesday, 36 people were charged with "plotting against the constitutional order" and other offences including incitement to damage security at home and abroad and of belonging to illegal organisations.
The official media have continued their campaign against fundamentalism and the threat of terrorism, with political and religious commentators stating that Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network cells were "alive and well and living in Mauritania".
In May Mauritanian Prime Minister Cheikh El-Avia Ould Mohamed Khouna warned that extremists hoped to use Mauritania as a new base, after being chased out of other countries.
Pro-Israel
The arrests in Mauritania come amid a heightened terrorist alert worldwide, fuelled by terrorist attacks in Saudi Arabia and Morocco, which borders Mauritania to the north.
President Ould Taya himself came to power through a coup in December 1984. After a multi-party system was set up, he won the presidential election in 1992 and was reelected in 1997.
The next election, for which his candidature has been announced, is scheduled for November 7.
While officially an Islamic republic, Mauritania has had diplomatic relations with Israel since 1999 and since the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States has on several occasions repeated its determination to combat international terrorism.
There is widespread opposition in Mauritania to Ould Taya's links with Israel. Mauritania became in 1999 only the third Arab League state to set up full diplomatic relations with the Jewish state.
Mauritania, which won independence from France in 1960 and many of whose people are nomads, supports itself through fishing and fish products, iron ore, and gold.
Tourism has become an increasingly important sector in recent years, with tour operators bringing in tens of thousands of Europeans for hiking and adventure holidays.