Dozens held after foiled 'coup' in Mauritania

[dArKeR]

By Ibrahima Sylla

Nouakchott - About 30 soldiers have been detained in Mauritania after an alleged coup attempt in the West African nation, a military source said on Tuesday.

There was no official confirmation of the arrests or of reports that a group of soldiers had tried to kill President Maaouya Ould Sid'Ahmed Taya at the airport as he was leaving for France over the weekend.

"There are about 30 of them and they are being questioned," a military source said.

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=68&art_id=qw1092142621103B256

[struggle4progress]

1. Mauritanian Opposition Calls for Dialogue

Nico Colombant
Abidjan
11 Aug 2004, 18:02 UTC

<snip>
Senior opposition leader Mohammed Ould Mawloud says, unless the government begins crisis talks with the opposition on improving democracy, coup attempts and rumors of such coups will continue.
<snip>

Between 20 to 100 people, including army officers, political activists and alleged Islamic radicals are believed to have been detained this week. Arrests of civilians were reported to continue on Wednesday.

Other opposition leaders, who deny their involvement, say the government fabricates coup plots to jail opponents.

Prominent Islamic leaders also deny they were involved in the alleged coup plot, saying they are against the use of force, which is why they are opposed to President Maaouya Ould Taya. He came to power in a 1984 coup.
<snip>

http://www.voanews.com/article.cfm?objectID=E4BBAD32-9A97-4B75-A512F006ABFDE587


Mauritania arrests Islamists after alleged coup plot
Wednesday, August 11, 2004 Posted: 10:55 AM EDT (1455 GMT)

<snip>
Islamic leaders and some Western diplomats have expressed skepticism about the alleged coup plot, with some calling it a pretext by Taya's government to crack down harder on the opposition and potential opposition.
<snip>

Authorities have made an unspecified number of arrests. On Wednesday, police arrested prominent Islamist Mohamed Jemil Ould Mansour, secretary-general of an opposition coalition that includes Islamists.
<snip>

Taya has allied himself with the United States in the war on terror, a dramatic change from 1991, when he condemned the U.S.-led coalition that ousted Saddam Hussein's soldiers from Kuwait in the Gulf War.

<snip>
An opposition politician on Wednesday called the plot "very probably a fabrication."

The government "is trying to liquidate those officers who maybe are hostile to the economic, political and social disasters in Mauritania," the opposition figure, Salek Sidi Mahmoud of the Party of Democratic Convergence, said.

http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/africa/08/11/mauritania.ap/


Market Report: Oil explorers hit by Mauritania coup jitters
Michael Jivkov
11 August 2004

Reports of political turmoil in Mauritania did no favours for Premier Oil, Hardman Resources and Dana Petroleum shares yesterday. Investors in the three oil explorers, which have heavy exposure to the West African country, were unsettled to hear reports of an attempt to overthrow the nation's pro-American government.

A security clampdown is said to have followed and the political turbulence was enough for Hardman to rush out a statement to the Stock Exchange, in which it said that it was monitoring the situation. According to Hardman, Mauritania's capital, Nouakchott, was calm. But over the past year or so, tensions seem to have risen in the country.
<snip>

http://news.independent.co.uk/business/analysis_and_features/story.jsp?story=550188

[RFKHumphreyObama]

2. Again?

They had a coup last year as well

Someone must really have it in for President Maaouya Ould Sid'Ahmed Taya