Mauritania

Sarkozy threatens international isolation

Article published on the 2008-08-13 Latest update 2008-08-13 15:21 TU

Protesters who support the coup in the streets of Nouachott.
(Photo : AFP)

The French presidency of the European Union warned Wednesday that the junta that seized power earlier this month in Mauritania faces isolation from the international community. The military government said Tuesday it had issued a "constitutional ordinance", giving it the legal basis to rule until it considers that presidential elections can be held.

 

Meanwhile an internet message purporting to be from the North African wing of Al-Qaeda has urged Mauritanians to take up arms against their coup leaders.

Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb is mainly based in Algeria but has been blamed for attacks in Mauritania. Mauritania is an extremely poor country and its youth is becoming radicalised.

The Mauritanian Prime Minister Yahya Ould Ahmed Waghf, who was released Tuesday, has called for President Sidi Mohamed Ould Cheikh Abdallahi's release and for help from the international community. 

"We have probably the best president we can find...I am not able to find a more democratic president than the actual president. We hope the international community will support us and we don't have any guarantee that if we do have an election what will happen after," he told RFI.

This weekend representatives from the EU, the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the United States told Ould Abdel Aziz they would oppose any "unilateral" elections.

"The French presidency of the EU should be used to the maximum to put pressure and certainly to impress on the junta that there is no acceptable solution but a return to constitutional order," said Mauritania expert Boubacar N'Daiye.

France, the former colonial power in Mauritania and the country that currently holds EU's rotating presidency, has frozen part of its aid to the impoverished country.