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The Origins and Evolution of Mauritania's Second Republic

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 November 2008

Anthony G. Pazzanita
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Extract

By the mid-1990s, it had become almost a truism in certain circles that the democratic system of government, with its accompanying protections of individual rights and its facilitation of private economic activity and political pluralism, was in the ascendancy in many areas of the world hitherto not thought of as amenable to that model. But although various achievements and setbacks in democratisation have been extensively and even painstakingly documented in all continents, one intriguing experiment in Africa has gone nearly unnoticed.

Type
Articles
Information
The Journal of Modern African Studies , Volume 34 , Issue 4 , December 1996 , pp. 575 - 596
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1996

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References

1 According to Africa South of the Sahara, 1995 (London, 1995), p. 606, Mauritania had a population of about 2·03 million in 1991.Google Scholar

2 See Gerteiny, Alfred G., Mauritania (New York, 1967), pp. 136–40.Google Scholar

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4 Ibid. pp. 157–60.

5 Curran, Brian Dean and Schrock, Joann, Area Handbook for Mauritania (Washington, DC. 1972). pp. 153–4.Google Scholar

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11 Ibid. For the French text of FLAM's primary political tract, entitled Le Manifesto du négromauritanien opprimé, see Un Apartheid méconnu: livre blanc sur la situation des noirs en Mauritanie (Paris, Forces de libération africaine de Mauritanie, Section Europe-Nord, January 1991).

12 See Africa Research Bulletin: political, social and cultural series (Exeter), 27, II, 1–30 November 1990, p. 9899. Hereinafter, ARB: psc.

13 See Amnesty International, Human Rights Violations in the Senegal River Valley (London and New York, 10 1990),Google Scholar and Human Rights Watch/Africa, Mauritania's Campaign of Terror: state-sponsored repression of black Africans (New York, 04 1994).Google Scholar

14 See Parker, Ron, ‘The Senegal-Mauritania Crisis of 1989: a fragile equilibrium’, in The Journal of Modern African Studies (Cambridge), 29, I, 03 1991, pp. 155–71, and West Africa, 15–21 May 1989, pp. 798–90, and 19–25 June 1989, pp. 1007–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

15 Doyle, Mark, ‘Blood Brothers’, in Africa Report (New York), 34, 4, 07—08 1989, pp. 13–16,Google Scholar and ‘Nouakchott's New Nationalism’, in ibid. 34, 5, September–October 1989, pp. 37–40.

16 See Africa Confidential (London), 31, 17, 24 08 1990, p. 1, and 32, 3, 8 February 1991, pp. 6–7.Google Scholar Also, King, John, ‘Iraq's Growing Involvement in Mauritania’, in Middle East International (London), 3 08 1990, pp. 18–19.Google Scholar

17 Economist Intelligence Unit Country Report, Mauritania (London), 4th Quarter 1995, p. 36. Hereinafter, EIU Report.Google Scholar

18 Foreign Broadcast Information Service Daily Reports: Near East and South Asia (Washington, DC), 16 04 1991, p. 6. Hereinafter, FBIS: NESA.Google Scholar

19 ARB: psc, 28, 4, 1–30 April 1991, pp. 10081–3.

20 EIU Report, Mauritania, 3, 1991, p. 34.

21 President Ould Taya publicly called the idea of a national conference ‘ridiculous and antidemocratic’. See his comments in Jeune Afrique (Paris), 1605, 2–8 10 1991, pp. 28–31.Google Scholar

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23 EIU Report, Mauritania, 3, 1991, pp. 37–8. Also arrested was Colonel Djibril Ould Abdellahi, a one-time CMSN member and Minister of the Interior from 1986 to February 1990, when he had been suddenly dismissed. Ould Abdellahi, however, was not an FDUC adherent, and he (along with the other detainees) was released on 29 July 1991.Google Scholar

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25 ARB: psc, 28, 8, 1–31 August 1991, p. 10230.

26 Projet de Constitution: soumis au référendum le 12 juillet 1991 (Nouakchott, 1991).Google Scholar For an English translation, see Blaustein, Albert P. and Flanz, Gisbert H. (eds.), Constitutions of the Countries of the World (Dobbs Ferry, NY, 08 1993), Release 93–5.Google Scholar

27 ARB: psc, 28, 8, 1–31 August 1992, p. 10268. The PRDS was founded on 29 August 1991.

28 Ibid.

29 Ibid. 28, 10, 1–31 October 1991, p. 10307.

30 A comprehensive listing of Mauritanian political parties from the French colonial period to the end of 1993 is contained in Mohamedou, Mohammad-Mahmoud, Societal Transition to Democracy in Mauritania (Cairo, Ibn Khaldoun Centre for Development Studies and Dar el-Ameen Publishers, 1995), pp. 209–14.Google Scholar

31 ARB: psc, 29, 1, 1–31 January 1992, pp. 10414–15. See also the comments by Daddah, Ahmed Ould in The Courier (Brussels), 137, 01—02 1993, pp. 32–4.Google Scholar

32 ARB: psc, 29, 1, 1–31 January 1992, pp. 10414–15.

33 Africa South of the Sahara, 1995, p. 600. However, the announcement of the results of the presidential voting was greeted with violence in Nouakchott and Nouadhibou. See The New York Times, 27 January 1992.

34 ARB: psc, 29, I, 1–31 January 1992, p. 10415.

35 Ibid. 29, 2, 1–29 February 1992, pp. 10457–8.

36 Africa Report (New York), 37, 2, 03—04 1992, p. 7.Google Scholar

37 ARB: psc, 29, 3, 1–31 March 1992, p. 10499. Non-PRDS candidates winning seats included ten independents, one from the PMR and two from Ould Baba's RDU. In the second round, however, voter turnout declined to only about 33 per cent.

38 Ibid. For a variety of reasons including the UFD-led boycott (which for the senatorial elections included the RDU), only the PRDS and the Baathist Parti de l'avant garde nationale (PAGN) fielded candidates for the Sénat. Three additional seats, not chosen in April 1992, were allocated for Mauritanians residing abroad; all went to the PRDS in mid-May 1994. See EIU Report, Mauritania, 3rd Quarter 1994, p. 29.

39 The 18 April 1992 Cabinet was composed entirely of civilians, except for Colonel Ahmed Ould Minnih, who was named Minister of Defence. For a listing of Government ministers, see ARB: psc, 29, 4, 1–30 April 1992, p. 10531.

40 Ibid. 29, 6, 1–30 June 1992, p. 10612. Ahmed Ould Daddah was formally elevated to the leadership of the UFD in June 1992.

41 ARB: psc, 30, 3, 1–31 March 1993, p. 10928, and 30, 6, 1–20 June 1993, p. 11044.

42 EIU Report, Mauritania, 3rd Quarter 1993, pp. 30–1.Google Scholar

43 Ibid. 1st Quarter 1994, p. 35, and Mohamedou, op. cit. p. 228. Further tarnishing the lustre of the opposition was the fact that the UFD captured only 17 councils, while independent candidates garnered the remainder. The UPD completely failed to obtain any local representation, while the RDU presented its few candidates in co-operation with the PRDS.

44 EIU Report, Mauritania, 2nd Quarter 1994, p. 30.Google Scholar

45 An example of this was Al-Bayane, edited by Béchir, Yahia Ould, who was interviewed in The Courier, 137, January—February 1993, pp. 36–7. The independent newspaper encountered financial difficulties and ceased publication by early 1995. See EIU Report, Mauritania, 1st Quater 1995, p. 32. For more on the country's press, see Mohamedou, op. cit. pp. 166–8.Google Scholar

46 One publication, the French-language Mauritanie nouvelle, was enjoined for three months in April 1996, but the Interior Minister who issued the order, Mohamed Lamine Salem Ould Dah, was dismissed early the following month. FBIS: NESA, 11 April 1996, p. 16, and 7 May 1996, p. 23.

47 Ibid. 3 October 1994, pp. 24–5, 11 October 1994, pp. 24–6, and 14 October 1994, pp. 12–14.

48 Ibid. 12 October 1994, p. 23.

49 See Simon, Catherine, ‘God Beckons for Mauritania's Dispossessed’, in the Manchester Guardian Weekly, 16 April 1995, p. 15. For coverage of earlier Islamist activity in Mauritania, see EIU Report, Mauritania, 4th Quarter 1993, p. 30.Google Scholar

50 FBIS: NESA, 8 November 1994, p. 30.

51 Ibid. 22 February 1995, p. 23, and Africa South of the Sahara, 1996 (London, 1996), pp. 609–10.Google Scholar

52 EIU Report, Mauritania, 1st Quarter 1995, p. 30, and West Africa, 30 January-5 February 1995, p. 151. All the detainees were released by 3 February 1995.Google Scholar

53 Outside pressures were also instrumental in gaining the release after 48 hours of Cheikh Saad Bouh Kamara, a Mauritanian intellectual detained in January 1994 for making statements to the effect that slavery still existed in the country. FBIS: NESA, 25 January 1994, pp. 16–17.

54 See EIU Report, Mauritania, 4th Quarter 1995, p. 28, and FBIS: NESA, 24 October 1995, pp. 17–18. The Iraqi ambassador in Nouakchott was expelled simultaneously with the arrests.Google Scholar

55 FBIS: NESA, 11 December 1995, p. 22. As many as 33 of the 52 accused Baathists were acquitted outright and released, while the rest were relieved of all punishment by an appeals court. EIU Report, Mauritania, 1st Quarter 1996, pp. 28–9.

56 Ibid. 4th Quarter 1995, pp. 28–9. For Ahmed Ould Daddah's reaction to the arrests, see FBIS: NESA, 31 October 1995, pp. 47–8.

57 See EIU Report, Mauritania, 1st Quarter 1995, pp. 30–1, and 2nd Quarter 1995, pp. 27–8. Also Jeune Afrique, 1787, 6–12 April 1995, pp. 16–18.Google Scholar

58 EIU Report, Mauritania, 4th Quarter 1995, p. 29.Google Scholar

59 ARB: psc, 31, 6, 1–31 June 1994, pp. 11472–3.

60 EIU Report, Mauritania, 2nd Quarter 1995, p. 27.Google Scholar

61 Another prominent figure from the period of military rule, an ex-Minister of the Interior, Djibril Ould Abdellahi (also known as Gabriel Cimper), reconciled with President Ould Taya in late 1994. Ibid. 4th Quarter 1994, pp. 28–9.

62 Ibid. 3rd Quarter 1995, pp. 25 and 27.

63 Ibid. and FBIS: NESA, 26 July 1995, pp. 18–19.

64 See ARB: psc, 32, 8, 1–31 August 1995, p. 11950, and FBIS: NESA, 18 August 1995, pp. 16–17. Action pour changement was the twentieth Mauritanian political party to be formed since August 1991.

65 ARB: psc, 33, 2, 1–29 February 1996, p. 12153. The Sénat elections were rescheduled for 10 April 1996, and, as expected, went heavily in favour of the PRDS.

66 West Africa, 15–21 July 1996, p. 1091, and EIU Report, 3rd Quarter 1996, pp. 30–2.

67 The Boston Globe, 13 October 1996.

68 Interviewed by Reuters, 13 October 1996.

69 West Africa, 28 October–5 November 1996, pp. 1663–4, and Soudan, François, ‘Ou est passée l'sopposition?’, in Jeune Afrique, 1869, 30 10–5 11 1996, pp. 26–7.Google Scholar

70 West Africa, 4–10 November 1996, p. 1703.

71 Mohamedou, op. cit. p. 184.

72 See Ould-Mey, Mohameden, Global Restructuring and Peripheral States: the carrot and the stick in Mauritania (Lanham, MD, 1996), pp. 93–163.Google Scholar

73 EIU Report, Mauritania, 1st Quarter 1996, p. 31.Google Scholar

74 US State Department, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 1993 (Washington, DC, 1994), p. 180, and …for 1994 (Washington, DC, 1995), p. 162.Google Scholar

75 See Mohamedou, op. cit. pp. 215–22.