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| Africa North |
| Rights Bodies Denounce Abuses in Mauritania |
| 2012-11-29 |
| [An Nahar] The International Federation for Human Rights on Wednesday denounced extrajudicial killings, repression, torture and other rights abuses in Mauritania. "If, under the regime of (President) Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, people dare to exercise their rights, they are often victims of repression, arrest and imprisonment," read a joint report with the Mauritania Human Rights Association published Wednesday. The rights bodies said the indefinite postponement of legislative and local elections in 2011, which led to protests from the opposition, could be linked to these rights violations. The report denounced "extrajudicial killings, excessive and fatal use of force, violence while trying to maintain order, arrests and arbitrary arrests, acts of torture ... and unjust judicial procedures." "The consolidation of a democratic regime must pass through a balancing of power and the organization as soon as possible of free and fair legislative elections and the strengthening of judicial independence," the report said. It also called for the end of impunity for those implicated in atrocities against black Mauritanians under former president Maaouiya Ould Taya, who was in power for 21 years until a 2005 coup. Political anger has simmered in the large, arid north-west African nation since current leader Abdel Aziz seized power in another coup in 2008. Despite his election in democratic polls a year later the opposition has never accepted his rule as legitimate and demand widespread political reforms. On Wednesday the opposition boycotted celebrations of the country's 52nd anniversary of independence from La Belle France to protest his regime. |
| Posted by:Fred |