Mauritanians vow support for army rulers after coup

ROSSO – Jubilant at the ousting of their president, Mauritanians have cast aside international condemnation and pledged support for a military junta that has promised to lead them to democratic rule.

The army seized power on Wednesday, while President Maaouya Ould Sid’Ahmed Taya was out of the country, and installed a “Military Council for Justice and Democracy” which has vowed to hold presidential polls within two years – and promised none of its members will stand. Thousands of people clad in traditional blue and gold boubous marched through the sandy streets of Rosso, a frontier town on the Senegalese border, late on Saturday after the junta outlined its plans for the West African country.”Mauritanians had lost all hope of development, democracy and social justice.But this is our moment,” said Ahmed Diop Moctar Neche, a pharmacist shouting to be heard above the crowd.”This is not the Mauritania of yesterday.They cannot tell lies to the people,” he said.One man held a picture of Colonel Ely Ould Mohamed Vall, the junta’s leader, above his head in the middle of the throng.Police officers and soldiers were among the crowd.”We felt trapped, condemned, like a prisoner who had lost all hope of being freed,” said Baba Ould Soufi, 48, an agricultural engineer.Taya seized power in a 1984 coup and ruled with an iron fist for two decades.Dissident soldiers nearly toppled him in 2003 and the government says it foiled two more coup bids in 2004.Thousands of black Africans – who make up about one third of the population in a country where light-skinned Moors have long dominated government – were forcibly expelled from the region around Rosso during Taya’s rule.- Nampa-ReutersThousands of people clad in traditional blue and gold boubous marched through the sandy streets of Rosso, a frontier town on the Senegalese border, late on Saturday after the junta outlined its plans for the West African country.”Mauritanians had lost all hope of development, democracy and social justice.But this is our moment,” said Ahmed Diop Moctar Neche, a pharmacist shouting to be heard above the crowd.”This is not the Mauritania of yesterday.They cannot tell lies to the people,” he said.One man held a picture of Colonel Ely Ould Mohamed Vall, the junta’s leader, above his head in the middle of the throng.Police officers and soldiers were among the crowd.”We felt trapped, condemned, like a prisoner who had lost all hope of being freed,” said Baba Ould Soufi, 48, an agricultural engineer.Taya seized power in a 1984 coup and ruled with an iron fist for two decades.Dissident soldiers nearly toppled him in 2003 and the government says it foiled two more coup bids in 2004.Thousands of black Africans – who make up about one third of the population in a country where light-skinned Moors have long dominated government – were forcibly expelled from the region around Rosso during Taya’s rule.- Nampa-Reuters