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UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs |
MAURITANIA: Over 30 soldiers to face trial on coup charges
ABIDJAN, 3 September 2003 (IRIN) - More than 30 soldiers arrested in Mauritania on suspiscion of organising a failed coup on 8 June will be charged in court shortly and put on trial, human rights activists and opposition politicians said on Wednesday.
The sources told IRIN by telephone from the Mauritanian capital Nouakchott that between 30 and 40 coup plotters remained in detention, including 20 senior officers.
State prosecutors had discovered enough evidence of their participation in the coup attempt, which led to two days of heavy fighting in Nouakchott, to charge all of them, they added.
About 90 other soldiers arrested for questioning over the failed coup against President Maaouiya Ould Sid'Ahmed Taya were released from custody in early August.
Taya, who seized power in a coup 19 years ago, blamed Islamic extremists for the military uprising.
It was preceded by a six-week government crackdown on Islamic radicals, during which 63 Muslim clerics and opposition activists were arrested and a weekly newspaper was closed down.
All these civilians were released on 25 August, but criminal charges still hang over them. These range from reconstituting a banned political party after its dissolution to conspiring to undermine the security of the state.
Law professor and human rights defender Cheikh Saad Bouh Kamara said on Wednesday that all these people were simply arrested for their political beliefs. He said they had been released in view of a lack of evidence against them.
Human Rights Watch welcomed the release of the political prisoners on Wednesday, but questioned whether the government's persistent harassment of the opposition would allow this desert country of 2.5 million people to hold free and fair presidential elections on 7 November.
Peter Takirambudde, the head of the Africa division of the New York-based human rights organisation, said in an open letter to President Taya: "Should the current climate of harassment of opposition members and the restrictions on freedom of expression persist, we do not believe they can be free and fair."
Taya is expected to receive a strong challenge this time from Mohamed Khouna Ould Haidallah, the former military head of state whom he overthrew in 1984. A broad coalition, ranging from liberal reformers to Islamic fundamentalists, has been formed to support him.
Kamara said he had similar concerns about the transparency of the election to Human Rights Watch. He warned that the "invisible hand" of the government could manipulate the poll and noted that the role of local and international election observers had yet to be determined.
"I support the conclusions of Human Rights Watch, but not its reasoning. More than they arrest of citizens, there are other factors which could discredit the elections," he told IRIN.
"Many senior government officials have gone into the interior on the campaign trail and the ministries of defence, finance and justice have been involved in organising the elections," Kamara noted. "The government has not yet approved international observers. Will they be accepted, since local organisations have not yet been authorised to monitor the poll?"
Two of the alleged ringleaders of the June coup attempt, army officers Mohamed Ould Hannena and Mohamed Ould Cheikna, are still on the run.
On Tuesday Al-Jazeera television in Qatar broadcast a video tape recorded which showed the two men announcing the formation of an organisation called the Knights of Change. They urged members of Mauritania's armed forces to join the group with the aim of bringing about "a peaceful democratic transformation" of the former French colony, which is now an Islamic republic.
Theme(s): (IRIN) Conflict
[ENDS]
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