Promising rhetoric from the new leaders of Al Jumhuriyah al Islamiyah al Muritaniyah.
Inshallah they will withdraw Muritaniyah’s recognition of the Jewish Entity in Palestine.
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/78C66FE2-9C69-44BF-BF1F-F256F68E90E9.htm
A group of army officers in Mauritania has announced the overthrow of President Maaouya Ould Sid’Ahmed Taya.
The group identified itself as the Military Council for Justice and Democracy and announced the coup in a statement run by the state news agency on Wednesday.
“The armed forces and security forces have unanimously decided to put an end to the totalitarian practices of the deposed regime under which our people have suffered much over the last several years,” the statement said.
The group said it would exercise power for two years to allow time to put in place democratic institutions.
It pledged to “establish favourable conditions for an open and transparent democratic system on which civil society and political players will be able to give their opinions freely.”
“This council pledges before the Mauritanian people to create favourable circumstances for an open and transparent democracy,” it said.
An opposition leader and a military source said they believed the head of the presidential guard, Colonel Mohamed Ould Abdel-Aziz, was involved in the coup d’etat.
There were reports that some senior members of the military had been arrested but it was not possible to confirm them. Hundreds of people took to the streets of capital Nouakchott, shouting and honking car horns in celebration after the coup announcement, witnesses said. Convoys of cars with people hanging out of them shouting “Praise Be to God” and making victory signs paraded down one of the main sand-blanketed avenues.
“There was no democracy here, there was just slavery. We have been freed from a dictatorship,” said one man, Bilal, aged around 45, watching from a side street.
“It’s like we’ve been imprisoned for decades. I’m so happy. Change is good. We’ve been disappointed by the regime,” shouted Mohammed, in his early 20s, as he ran down the street.
Police armed with batons patrolled other parts of the city but appeared to be maintaining a low profile, while some streets around key buildings were still sealed off by soldiers, residents said. Earlier Wednesday, troops led by the presidential guard took over key buildings in Nouakchott, including the military headquarters, the state radio and television offices, the presidential palace and ministries.
They acted while Taya was in Saudi Arabia for the funeral of King Fahd.
He was later reported to have landed in Niamey, capital of Niger and was received by Niger’s President Tandja Mamadou and government ministers.