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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.

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Arabia

Qatar Offers Asylum to Mauritania's Taya

2005-08-17

Qatar has offered asylum to Mauritania's ousted President Maaouya Ould Sid Ahmed Taya almost two weeks after he was overthrown in a bloodless coup, a Gambian official said yesterday. "Qatar has invited Taya to seek asylum there," said a Gambian official in the capital Banjul, where Taya is currently in temporary refuge. A Mauritanian diplomatic source also said Qatar had made an offer. Officials in Qatar were not available to comment.

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Africa: North

Mauritania seizes GSPC documents

2005-06-27

Mauritania's authorities have seized documents they say were used by Islamic militants in the West African nation to "justify terrorism" and which also give practical tips on staging attacks. The interior minister of the former French colony, where an Islamic fundamentalist group allied to al Qaeda killed 15 soldiers this month, displayed the documents during a news conference on Friday. The papers were seized by security services from members of the Mauritanian arm of the Algerian militant Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), the minister said. "These documents justify terrorism and also give practical instructions on undertaking a certain number of terrorist acts," Interior Minister Lemrabott Sidi Mahmoud Ould Cheik Ahmed said. Mauretanians all seem to have really long names — no "Bobs" or "Herbs" to be found. And they're all Ould. The place must be like an ould folks' home... "Some (of the documents) relate to blowing up cars, how to make fatal poisons, suicide missions, communication methods, the people to be targeted, embassies, strategic locations, maps of certain neighbouring countries," he said. Brief, sternly suppressed vision of bent little ould men, their rheumy eyes rolling with fanaticism, their turbans tending to slide off their slick, hairless domes, blowing up really ould cars... Prime Minister Sghair Ould Mbareck was among those listed as potential targets, the minister added. "Yeah! We gotta take out the prime minister! He's too ould for the job!" "Eh? What's that, sonny?" Authorities in Mauritania, which straddles black and Arab Africa and hopes to begin pumping oil this year, have said the GSPC is recruiting Mauritanians to fight at home and abroad. "A broad? I'd love a broad! It's been years since I had one! 'Course, I'm not sure what I'd do with her..." A deputy head of the GSPC, Amari Saifi, was sentenced to life in prison in Algeria on Saturday after a court found him guilty in absentia of helping to create a terrorist group. Critics say Mauritania is taking advantage of the U.S.-led "war on terror" to crack down on Islamic opponents. They always say that, unless the Islamists actually take over and kill everybody who doesn't agree with them, and then they say that the U.S. should have stopped it, or that it's our fault they're the way they are... Although an Islamic Republic, Mauritania's laws ban any party based solely on religion. The country is paradoxically one of the most repressive states in the region towards Islamists, analysts say. The writer's missed the difference between "Islamic" and "Islamist." He thinks the two are interchangeable... In recent months, Mauritanian authorities have arrested around 50 suspected Islamists, saying they had links to the GSPC, listed by the United States as a terrorist organisation. Authorities said the GSPC was behind an attack on a remote military post this month, in which 15 soldiers were killed. So the crackdown's got their domestic Islamists on the run and they had to import some from Algeria. What's that say about the gummint's tactics?... Anyone?... Bueller? There have been three coup attempts in Mauritania since June 2003. Some of the dissident soldiers wanted for the bids to oust President Maaouya Ould Sid Ahmed Taya are still at large. Many Arabs are angry that Taya, who seized power in a 1984 coup, shifted support from former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to the United States and Israel. ... thereby tipping the world balance of power. Is there anything that many Arabs aren't angry about?

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Africa: North

Al-Qaeda recruiting Mauritanians to fight in Iraq

2005-05-12

Al Qaeda is recruiting and training Mauritanian youths via an Algerian fundamentalist group to fight alongside insurgents in Iraq, police and a government official in the West African country said. A police statement published in a government newspaper on Tuesday said the Algerian-based Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC) trained the youths at camps in Mali and Algeria for attacks at home or to fight abroad. A government minister in the Islamic republic said on Wednesday Iraq was one destination, along with Afghanistan, Chechnya and the Palestinian territories. "Some of those elements have gone to Iraq," the minister, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Reuters. "No one will be able to pick them out of a crowd there, will they? And their accents will blend right in..." Mauritanian police have arrested scores of Islamist opposition leaders and activists since last month, accusing them of colluding with the GSPC, an al Qaeda ally substantially weakened by the Algerian military over the past few years. One local human rights group has put the number of detainees at around 50. Seven young militants were charged on Monday with establishing a criminal association and could face up to 20 years in prison, state prosecutor Mohamed Ould Bakar said. Their lawyer, Ikebrou ould Mohamed, said the prosecution alleges the youths underwent eight months of training at GSPC camps in Mali and Algeria to fight in Iraq. Critics of Mauritanian President Maaouya Ould Sid Ahmed Taya say he is exaggerating the Islamist threat in his country to win more assistance from Western donors, particularly the United States -- which fears West Africa could become a breeding ground for Islamic fundamentalism. The police statement said Islamist activists were responsible for attacking and stealing weapons from a paramilitary police station in the southern town of Aioun, near Mauritania's border with Mali, last month. It said al Qaeda had used large amounts of money to finance religious leaders and mosques in the country to spread its message.

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Africa: North

Analysts say Mauritanian crackdown risks fueling terrorism

2005-05-12

Mauritania is playing a dangerous game stifling Islamic opponents by denouncing them as terrorists and risks turning what is now just a scapegoat for repression into a real threat, analysts say. Same old argument: doing anything about a problem is just gonna make it worse. Best to do nothing, so it gets worse at a slower pace. That's logic, by Gum! Mauritanian police have arrested scores of Islamist opposition leaders and activists since last month, accusing them of colluding with the Algerian-based Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), a movement allied to al Qaeda. Authorities in the Islamic republic have said that al Qaeda is using the GSPC to recruit Mauritanian youths to fight alongside insurgents in Iraq, as well as in Afghanistan, Chechnya and the Palestinian territories. "The international community should realise that the terrorist threat barely even exists in Mauritania and that the wrong policies could help create one," International Crisis Group said in a report published late on Wednesday. It said President Maaouya Ould Sid Ahmed Taya was taking advantage of the U.S.-led fight against terrorism to justify a clampdown on opponents and to try to ingratiate his regime with Western powers, particularly the United States. In doing so he risks radicalising moderate Islamic opponents who maintain that they are pro-democratic, analysts say. They have yet to demonstrate that, of course. "The government is now in danger of creating the very phenomenon it is warning of by tarring the whole wider Islamic revival in the country with the 'terrorist' tag," Olly Owen, Africa analyst at World Market Research Centre, said in a report. Taya has angered many Arabs in a nation straddling black and Arab Africa by shifting support from former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein towards Israel and Washington. The country became only the third Arab League state to establish full diplomatic relations with Israel in 1999. Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom's brief visit to the capital Nouakchott last week sparked demonstrations in which police fired teargas at hundreds of students throwing stones and burning tyres. I rest my case, yer honor... "Although Islamism's political expression remains constricted, the number of its sympathisers is rapidly growing," Crisis Group said in its report. "Islamism has found fertile ground in urban poverty, rejection of the corrupt political class and the abortion of the democratic project," the think-tank said. It urged the government to rethink its strategy of stifling the opposition and instead address the causes of Islamist dissent -- such as widespread unemployment, high-level corruption and a wide poverty gap. Plus they don't chop people's hands off, or lop their heads off, and if anybody had the nerve to say a less than glowing word about The Profit (PTUI) chances are it'd be days or even weeks before he/she/it was killed... One local human rights group has put the number of detained Islamist opposition members at around 50, while seven young militants were charged on Monday with establishing a criminal association and could face up to 20 years in prison. Although GSPC leaders have pledged their allegiance to al Qaeda, analysts say such statements may not have any operational significance and note that the movement has been substantially weakened by the Algerian military over the past few years. "So just because they say they're part of al-Qaeda, that don't mean they actually are a part of it..." "By giving credence to the notion that Islamists are linked to armed rebels, Taya runs the risk of leading the state into an impasse, making it dangerously reliant on U.S. backing against growing domestic discontent," said Robert Malley, Director of Crisis Group's Middle East and North Africa programme.

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Africa: North

Mauritania shuts Saudi charities Nouakchott

2003-07-24

Mauritania, which blamed Islamists for inciting a failed coup attempt last month, has ordered the closure of two Saudi Arabian charities, one of the organisations said on Monday. The attempted coup by renegade soldiers on June 8 followed the arrest of dozens of Islamists and activists of the pan-Arab Baath party sympathetic to Saddam Hussain amid signs of unrest after the U.S.-led war on Iraq. President Maaouya Ould Sid Ahmed Taya, whose country's economy could be revolutionised by oil reserves discovered offshore, accused Islamists of inciting support for the coup bid. A representative of the Saudi Preaching Centre said it and another Islamic charity, the Global Islamic Rescue Organisation, had been visited by officials on Sunday who ordered them to close.

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