Desert coup: Democracy loses to the military in Mauritania

[Bravo Zulu]

Desert coup: Democracy loses to the military in Mauritania
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
A military coup in Mauritania last week overthrew the first civilian president chosen in a multi-candidate election in the country's post-independence history.

Mauritania gained independence from France in 1960 and had military or ex-military civilian rulers from 1978 until 2007, when President Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi was elected. He lasted until he fired four top military officers, including Gen. Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, head of the presidential guard and former army chief of staff. At that point, an 11-officer High Council of State, with Gen. Abdel Aziz at the head, seized power, arresting President Abdallahi and his prime minister.

The United States was providing military aid, economic assistance and humanitarian help to Mauritania, a mostly desert and semi-desert country of 3.4 million people. U.S. assistance to the military was based on an alleged al-Qaida threat there. Nearly all Mauritanians are Sunni Muslim.

For the most part, the people live off agriculture and herding. The country has iron ore deposits, some gold and copper and apparently some offshore oil and gas, although it has exported none and cannot be described as an oil state.

After the coup, the United States shut down all but its humanitarian aid. The African Union announced the suspension of Mauritania's membership pending a return to constitutional government. The new military council has pledged elections within two months.

Given the short life of Mauritania's democratic experiment, the military junta's pledge of rapid elections is hard to believe, as is any respect that the military might have for future independent actions of a civilian government. What kind of a government cannot fire senior military officers without being overthrown itself?

It is also difficult to see why the United States provided aid to the Mauritania military, strengthening an army that, with dreary regularity over the past 30 years, seized or held political power in the country. It's the sort of desert adventure that America can do without.

First published on August 12, 2008 at 12:00 am
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08225/903524-192.stm

[pscot]

1. Sounds like a Monty Python skit

n/t