FROM THE BLOGS:Mauritania's Colonels
The Moor Next Door blog Monday, August 08, 2005
The new Mauritanian government has vowed that it will hold elections in a timely manner and that its foreign policy will not change. There has been no evidence in any of the statements put out by the Military Council that they were motivated by Taya's foreign policy desisions (as has been insinuated by some sources, notably Aljazeera). The new government has dissolved the parliament, and
appointed a new president Col. Ely Ould Mohamed Vall. So far, I don't think that there is any reason to believe that the coup was rooted in Taya's foreign policy nor that the Military Council is Islamist. It is made up of Taya's "old gaurd", military personel who were close to him at one time or another. Vall has
met with American and French ambassadors to assure them that there will not be a change in policy regaurding those two countries or Israel. None of the members of the Military Council are alied with the Islamist opposition, though most are being described as "pious" Muslims, but this does not really mean much. They have been called by IslamOnline "
pro-France" and described as liberals. The statements that have come out have listed domestic grievences as the primary source of motivation for the coup; political and religious repression and so forth. But there has been no ideology set forth, suggesting that the Colonels are not seeking control of the country. that is that their rule is not an end, but are rather using themselves/their rule as a means to establish democratic rule.
Another blogger at The Head Heeb has said "I'm starting to suspect that they staged the coup more to ensure the continuity of the government than its overthrow; they realized that Ould Taya was bringing the regime down and decided to turf him out themselves before the Islamists could do so ." I agree with this. As I've said before, radical Islamists are created by secular regimes. Taya's regime, like the FLN regime in Algeria, like the shah's government in Iran was secular and violently and indescriminently repressed Islamic/religious opposition figures. In Algeria, characters like Ali Belhaj, Abassi Madani and the like became martyrs because they were persecuted by an already repressive one party state. This was enhanced when the regime cracked down on students, Amazigh movements and everyone else. This is the case in most other Islamic countries where Islamism has become a major problem. Mauritania prior to the coup had all the pieces in place to become another Algeria, Iran, or Sudan. Taya only needed to "push" the Islamic opposition groups a little bit farther and he would eventually have a full blown insurgency, or at least an ardent theocratic base for his enemies. The Colonels probably viewed the coup as a way to avoid that. If the Colonels are "liberal", they may adhire to the doctrine that democracy is the best way to combat Islamism/terrorism. This theory essentially states that if there is "breathing space" in a society for people to freely and peacefully bring about change or to make their concerns known, then they will not have to resort to radical/drastic measures such as terrorism or other forms of violence. The IslamOnline article states this rather clearly actually: " Analysts have warned that Mauritania 's attempts to stifle opposition groups by denouncing them as terrorists risks backfiring by radicalizing moderate Islamists." That's whay happened in Algeira, Iran, Egypt, and Iraq. Secualr regimes in the Middle East have not dealt well with those with other ideologies. This is because of several reasons; the fundamentally undemocratic nature of their ideologies (such as pan-Arabism/nationalism as in Iraq, Syria, or Algeria); the anti/un-religiousness of their vision and the religiousness of their people (Iran, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, etc) and so on. So perhaps the coup was a way of stopping Taya from making a cliche of his country. The Colonels have promised that none of the members of the Military Council will run in future elections, which shows that they are "commited" to establishing democratic rule. Vall has even promoted the use of French to a certain extent, which shows that he is at least superfically reaching out to the non-Arab/Amazigh population, which is primarily Wolof/"black" African. The path that Taya was leading Mauritania down could have made it another Sudan, embroiled in ethnic fighting. Mauritania's military drove something like 20,000 non-Arabs out of the country into Senegal in 1989 when ethnic tensions broke out over land usage. Both Mauritania and Sudan have problems with human trafficing, race relations and the like, but Mauritania's are not as deeply rooted (most of the non-Arab population arrived after independence) as Sudan's. Improper governance could push the country to that end though. In Sudan, the promotion of Islam and the Arabic language were causes for resentment amongst the non-Arab/Muslim population in the South. Neither the North or South could come up with a "neutral" language that might bring them together even superficially. In much of the Sahel, French is used to bring differing communities together, as in Niger or Mali. In Maurtania, the country has had an Islamic indentity almost always and Arabic is the language of the majority of the people, but not all. French has been proposed as the neutral languge before, but caused protest amongst the Arabs. The Wolof generally use their language or French. Mauritania, having a French colonial legacy might do well to use both Arabic and French as offical languages, as a communal compromise. The intentions of the coup seem positive thus far.
Another blogger at The Head Heeb has said "I'm starting to suspect that they staged the coup more to ensure the continuity of the government than its overthrow; they realized that Ould Taya was bringing the regime down and decided to turf him out themselves before the Islamists could do so ." I agree with this. As I've said before, radical Islamists are created by secular regimes. Taya's regime, like the FLN regime in Algeria, like the shah's government in Iran was secular and violently and indescriminently repressed Islamic/religious opposition figures. In Algeria, characters like Ali Belhaj, Abassi Madani and the like became martyrs because they were persecuted by an already repressive one party state. This was enhanced when the regime cracked down on students, Amazigh movements and everyone else. This is the case in most other Islamic countries where Islamism has become a major problem. Mauritania prior to the coup had all the pieces in place to become another Algeria, Iran, or Sudan. Taya only needed to "push" the Islamic opposition groups a little bit farther and he would eventually have a full blown insurgency, or at least an ardent theocratic base for his enemies. The Colonels probably viewed the coup as a way to avoid that. If the Colonels are "liberal", they may adhire to the doctrine that democracy is the best way to combat Islamism/terrorism. This theory essentially states that if there is "breathing space" in a society for people to freely and peacefully bring about change or to make their concerns known, then they will not have to resort to radical/drastic measures such as terrorism or other forms of violence. The IslamOnline article states this rather clearly actually: " Analysts have warned that Mauritania 's attempts to stifle opposition groups by denouncing them as terrorists risks backfiring by radicalizing moderate Islamists." That's whay happened in Algeira, Iran, Egypt, and Iraq. Secualr regimes in the Middle East have not dealt well with those with other ideologies. This is because of several reasons; the fundamentally undemocratic nature of their ideologies (such as pan-Arabism/nationalism as in Iraq, Syria, or Algeria); the anti/un-religiousness of their vision and the religiousness of their people (Iran, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, etc) and so on. So perhaps the coup was a way of stopping Taya from making a cliche of his country. The Colonels have promised that none of the members of the Military Council will run in future elections, which shows that they are "commited" to establishing democratic rule. Vall has even promoted the use of French to a certain extent, which shows that he is at least superfically reaching out to the non-Arab/Amazigh population, which is primarily Wolof/"black" African. The path that Taya was leading Mauritania down could have made it another Sudan, embroiled in ethnic fighting. Mauritania's military drove something like 20,000 non-Arabs out of the country into Senegal in 1989 when ethnic tensions broke out over land usage. Both Mauritania and Sudan have problems with human trafficing, race relations and the like, but Mauritania's are not as deeply rooted (most of the non-Arab population arrived after independence) as Sudan's. Improper governance could push the country to that end though. In Sudan, the promotion of Islam and the Arabic language were causes for resentment amongst the non-Arab/Muslim population in the South. Neither the North or South could come up with a "neutral" language that might bring them together even superficially. In much of the Sahel, French is used to bring differing communities together, as in Niger or Mali. In Maurtania, the country has had an Islamic indentity almost always and Arabic is the language of the majority of the people, but not all. French has been proposed as the neutral languge before, but caused protest amongst the Arabs. The Wolof generally use their language or French. Mauritania, having a French colonial legacy might do well to use both Arabic and French as offical languages, as a communal compromise. The intentions of the coup seem positive thus far.
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Le Bulletin Tawary Mauritanie-Net , vous informe sur les actualites de la Mauritanie
email de la rédaction : [EMAIL PROTECTED]
INFORMATION : Les articles sélectionnés pour cette revue de presse ne reflètent pas nécessairement l'opinion du COMITE DE GESTION DE MAURITANIE-Net. Nous ne nous portons pas garant de la véracité et de l'objectivité des informations publiées dans ces articles qui engagent la responsabilité des seuls auteurs. Nous vous prions de bien vouloir en tenir compte. Merci.
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