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| Africa North |
| Mauritania: Al-Q warns Muslims over 'unbeliever democracies' |
| 2008-08-12 |
| Nouakchott, 12 August(AKI) - Mauritania's military junta consulted the United States, France and Israel before toppling elected president Sidi Cheikh Ould Abdallahi in last week's coup, Al-Qaeda's North African arm has claimed."The latest coup in Mauritania could never have succeeded without the agreement of America, France and Israel," said a statement posted on Tuesday to Islamist websites. The message is signed by Abdel Malik Droukedel, leader of the Al-Qaeda Organisation in the Islamic Maghreb and dated 10 August. Several Al-Qaeda cells are believed to be present in Mauritania. The country's security forces in April recaptured five suspected Al-Qaeda militants including a fugitive accused of killing four French tourists last December, officials said. The 24 December killing of the French tourists and a shooting attack against the Israeli embassy in Mauritania's capital Nouakchott in February raised fears of a rise in Islamist militant violence in the Saharan state "For this reason, we warn Muslims to be wary of all forms of unbeliever democracy, because they are just a ploy by the Zionist-Crusader alliance to trick you," read the statement."O people of Mauritania, you need to get back to Islam and and don't hesitate to wage holy war (Jihad) to fight the Jews and the Christians together with the apostate governments," the message continues. The military junta set up a 'State Council' which has promised to hold free and fair elections in Mauritania "as soon as possible." The 'State Council' is led by the head of Abdallahi's presidential guard, Mohamed Abdel Aziz. Mauritania has had a long history of military coups since it gained independence from France in 1960. In 2005, a military junta overthrew authoritarian President Maaouya Ould Sid Ahmed Taya, who had ruled the country since 1980. But the junta only ruled until the country's first presidential election in 2007 and did not stand in those polls. |
| Posted by:tu3031 |
| #3 Stay safe, slr. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2008-08-12 20:09 |
| #2 DLR- It really isn't 'new' per se, as there have been stirrings in the country for the last year and many people have been talking about when it would happen. Where I have been living has been full of talk about what the new government would be like before there was even a coup. But the fact that is unsurprising does not make it any less grave. Close attention needs to be paid to this situation as Mauritania has a long record of human rights violations. The most recent news from www.seneweb.com is that the UN and Senegal are going to continue to repatriate the refugees from the last time that Mauritania decided that black Africans were not allowed to live in their own country and forcibly removed or killed much of the southern population of the country. There is still slavery in the desert of black Africans by Arab Africans. Mauritania is an unstable, racist, Islamic state. It may not be news to us, but it is highly dangerous all the same. |
| Posted by: sjb 2008-08-12 13:29 |
| #1 You act like this is news? That's like saying the Dems want to raise taxes, or Jesse Jackson accused some white guy of racism. |
| Posted by: DLR 2008-08-12 12:51 |