Mauritania election tops agenda

2008-08-11 10:25

Nouakchott, Mauritania - The leader of Mauritania's military coup left open the possibility he could run for president, saying for the first time that junta members had not decided whether they would bar themselves from a promised ballot.

Speaking in an interview inside the presidential palace, Gen Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz said the question would be decided by the junta's 11-member governing council at a later date.

The country's last coup leader, Col Ely Ould Mohamed Vall, took power in 2005 and barred junta members from running in a 2007 vote to ensure they stood apart from the electoral process. Aziz was also part of that junta, and some members are rumoured to have been upset they could not stand in the poll.

"For the moment, nothing legally would prevent them (junta members) from running," Aziz said on Sunday, speaking on an ornamental white leather chair in the spacious office where Mauritania's first freely elected president sat until he was toppled on Wednesday.

"But whether the members or the president run ... it all depends on what the future dictates," Aziz said. "For now, we have other problems to surmount and the main one is holding elections as soon as possible."

The United States cut off more than $20m in aid after the coup and the European Union has threatened to do the same. The African Union also suspended Mauritania from the 53-nation body because of the military takeover engineered by Aziz.

President Sidi Cheikh Ould Abdallahi accused the military's top brass of colluding with lawmakers who had opposed the president for months over ministerial appointments and other issues. On Wednesday Abdallahi fired Aziz, who was head of the presidential guard, and the country's three other top armed forces chiefs.

'He was acting like a dictator'

Aziz said he and other military chiefs met Abdallahi that morning, warning him that "what he had done risked driving the country toward catastrophe" because it could cause unrest within the military.

"He was acting like a dictator, like somebody who wants to ruin the nation," Aziz said. "We told him that's not the way to do things. The military chiefs have arms and munitions, they have men under their command, they are responsible for securing the country and you cannot just fire them all like that."

When Abdallahi refused to give in, Aziz ordered troops to surround the presidential palace.

"In an extraordinary situation you need an extraordinary solution," Aziz said, referring to the coup d'etat.

The mustachioed Aziz said Abdallahi had also freed radical Muslims from jail who were implicated in plotting attacks on Western embassies.

Several "of these same terrorists" went on to kill four French tourists on Christmas Eve, Aziz said, prompting organisers of the Dakar Rally to cancel the race this year.

He also criticised Abdallahi for allotting Cabinet posts to "Islamic extremists" from the Tawassoul party, which represents hard-line Muslims. The party claims it is wrongly branded as hard-liners.

'We're not going to hurt him'

"We are a moderate Muslim country, we don't want terrorism here," Aziz said. "It was irresponsible."

The US sees Mauritania as a bulwark against the encroachment southward of al-Qaeda-linked militants in North Africa. It had sent dozens of troops to train Mauritania's military in its far northern deserts, but it suspended those programmes after the coup.

Aziz said no al-Qaeda-linked militants were active in Mauritania at the moment, and those which had been are now in prison.

Abdallahi, the ousted president who is under house arrest, was being well-treated and would be released "as soon as possible", Aziz said, giving no date.

"We're not going to hurt him," Aziz said. "but we can't release him now for the security of the country."

The coup was sparked by a political crisis that had been brewing for months. Abdallahi angered lawmakers by appointing in May several Islamists - who critics say represent hardline Muslims - and nearly a dozen Cabinet ministers who served under the regime of dictator Maaouya Sid'Ahmed Ould Taya, who was overthrown in 2005's popular coup.

In June, the legislature passed a vote of no confidence, prompting Abdallahi to shuffle his Cabinet again. He got rid of the Islamists but left half a dozen Taya loyalists in ministerial posts. Lawmakers simultaneously demanded an investigation into allegations his wife had misappropriated public funds and spoke of possible impeachment hearings.

Aziz accused Abdallahi of preventing the legislative branch from functioning - calling it an "affront" to the democratic institutions set up after the 2005 coup, which brought freedoms unheard of here in decades. Abdallahi's supporters say the ousted president acted within the bounds of the law and constitution.

- AP