ould taya`s fall was inevitable, says rights ngos

Ould Taya`s fall was inevitable, says rights NGOs


Nouakchott, Mauritania, 08/11 - The 3rd August 2005 overthrow of President Maaouya Ould Sid`Ahmed Taya "came by no surprise to Mauritanians," the Forum of National Human Rights Organisations in Mauritania (FONADH) suggested here Wednesday in a statement.

The FONADH groups some 15 NGOs including the Mauritanian Human Rights Association (AMDH), SOS Slaves, the Study and Research Group on Democracy and Economic and Social Development (GERDDES), as well as associations of survivors and victims of repression, and widows of men killed by the ousted regime.

The statement charged that the deposed head of state had turned Mauritania into "an arena in which violence, intolerance, and the constant fear of informers were commonplace".

It recalled the constant violations of individual and collective freedoms with "the arrests of opposition leaders, the dissolution of political parties, and censorship..."

It said the deposed regime "has dilapidated the State and the country`s economy" by its "incompetence, bad management, endemic prevarication, and threat on social stability".

The NGOs` collective takes note of "the good intentions of the military junta CMJD and recommends the immediate and unconditional release of prisoners of conscience, the return of political refugees, and the fair assessment of slavery practices in the country. It also demands the preparations for the return of deportees, the regularisation of the status of surviving soldiers, the final solution to the issue of widows and orphans, and the restitution of the lands in Senegal river valley to the expropriated right owners".

The FONADH finally urges the military junta to open "a constructive dialogue on the humanitarian loss" suffered during the 1989-1992 in the country.