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UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

MAURITANIA: Another Ould Haidallah associate arrested

NOUAKCHOTT, 17 November 2003 (IRIN) - Mauritanian security agents arrested on Sunday another opposition politician and close associate of jailed former presidential candidate Mohamed Khouna Ould Haidallah, sources said.

Cheick Ould Horma, a medical doctor who transformed his house into Haidallah’s campaign headquarters during campaigns for elections held on 7 November, was arrested in the capital Nouakchott. The state did not say why he was arrested.

Ould Horma adds to the list of Haidallah collobarators who have been arrested since 4 November, three days before the presidential elections in which incumbent President Maaouya Ould Sid’Ahmed Taya won another six years.

Haidallah, who won 18 percent of the votes, was arrested on 6 but released, before being re-arrested the day after elections. He has not yet been charged in court.

A University professor and Haidallah’s campaign spokesman, Ely Ould Sneiba and member of parliament Ismaela Ould Hamar, who was stripped of parliamentary immunity, are among those in detention.

Two of Haidallah’s sons also remained in detention. Last week, one of them, Sidi Mohamed Ould Haidallah, was transferred to a state prison in the town of Aleg, 400 km east of Nouakchott.

Human rights activists in the country have said the arrest so far made over the last two weeks, in which none of those arrested has been charged in court, are illegal. Opposition leaders said Taya, in power since 1984, was rounding up critics and opposition politicians without reason.

Meanwhile Taya, who has been virtually unseen since his re-election, named a new cabinet over the weekend. Eight of the 22 ministers, including Foreign Minister Mohamed Vall Ould Bellal, were new appointees. The ministers for national defence, justice and finance remained unchanged.

Themes: (IRIN) Conflict, (IRIN) Governance

[ENDS]

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