'They took him by force'
2008-12-21 09:24
Nouakchott - Security forces early on Sunday forcibly removed Mauritania's recently deposed president from the village where he had been under house arrest, his daughter said.
A police official confirmed that police were given orders to take ousted President Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi into custody and drive him to his home in the African country's capital, Nouakchott, where he was to be freed. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak the press.
A military junta deposed Abdallahi in a coup on August 6 and placed him under house arrest. Both the United States and France canceled aid to African country, demanding Abdallahi's release. The US has also placed a travel ban on the leaders of the junta.
Bowing to the international pressure, the junta recently announced that the former president would be freed unconditionally before the end of the month. But the president's daughter says her father was never informed directly about the junta's plan, learning about it from press reports and from visiting diplomats.
For the first four months, the ruling junta kept Abdallahi under house arrest in a villa in the capital. They then transferred him to his native village of Lemden, located 241km from Nouakchott, where he was allowed to leave his house, but not the town.
Three soldiers followed him at all times, said his daughter Amal Mint Abdallahi.
She said security forces banged on the door at 03:30 on Sunday, waking the family. "They took him by force. They didn't allow him to take his things or for his family to come along," Amal Mint Abdallahi told The Associated Press by telephone from her father's house in Lemden.
Mauritania, a desert-encircled nation, has had numerous coups since independence from France in 1960. It appeared that the country had turned a corner last year when a different military junta organized elections deemed free and fair. But less than 1 years after taking office, Abdallahi had a falling out with the country's top generals, firing several of them.
Hours later, the same generals announced a coup, taking Abdallahi into custody and imprisoning his wife and children in the presidential palace.
Associated Press writer Rukmini Callimachi contributed to this report from Dakar, Senegal.
- AP