AU Suspends Mauritania Membership

(Business Day)--Tanzania Foreign Minister Bernard Membe said at the weekend that the African Union (AU) had suspended Mauritania’s membership until the western African state was run by a democratically elected government

The pan-African bloc’s move is the latest international condemnation of a coup that at home received a mixture of support and muted criticism from various political camps but, by now, is largely being met with indifference by the population. ‘The AU will suspend membership of the Islamic Republic of Mauritania’, Membe said in Dar es Salaam. Tanzania holds the AU’s rotating presidency. The AU has demanded the release of Mauritanian President Mohamed Ould Cheikh Abdallahi after military leaders seized power. Membe said Mauritania had signed several AU conventions banning illegal changes of government, including one last month.

A group of 11 military officers set up the higher state council on 6 August to run the country after detaining Abdallahi and Prime Minister Yahya Ahmed el-Waghef. The junta is led by Gen Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, the head of the presidential guard, who has pledged to hold elections in about two months. The Mauritanie-web internet site reported that Abdallahi’s overthrow came after he dismissed four senior army officers, including Aziz and the army chief of staff.

Last Monday, 48 legislators announced their resignation from the ruling National Pact for Democracy and Development. Aziz said in an interview on Al-Jazeera TV at the weekend that Abdallahi had been warned of the consequences of trying to oust the military chiefs. ‘I telephoned him ( Abdallahi) personally to explain to him the gravity of his decree and suggest he postpone it to avoid the worst’, Aziz said.

Despite warnings that there would be serious consequences, Abdallahi refused to back down, Aziz said. ‘It was our duty to remind him of his humanitarian responsibilities to try to dissuade him. But he chose to ignore us, just as in the same manner he tried to destroy the country and block its institutions’,he said.

The putsch leader accused Abdallahi of really being the one trying to stage a coup — by trying to push through the order to sack the military leadership outside normal steps. He also accused Abdallahi of corruption, saying they had compromising documents signed by him. The coup has been widely condemned internationally, although the new military junta has promised to hold ‘fair and transparent’ elections soon

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