Coup chief returns Mauritania to its people

Blue-robed nomads, civil servants, lawyers and village elders have visited the presidential palace, begging the bespectacled man who seized control of this desert nation in a coup to stay.

But the military commander who rules Mauritania, the junta leader Colonel Ely Ould Mohamed Vall, is packing his bags after two years in power, even while many fear that whoever replaces him could plunge the country back into totalitarian rule.

Coups are typically seen as the enemies of democracy, but it was a coup that brought the seeds of freedom to this nation on the edge of the Sahara. "As long as Mauritanians keep on thinking of the president as someone that is indispensable, they will continue to make a monumental error of judgement," said Col Vall, a bookish, soft-spoken man who has more the look of a professor than a shrewd commander. "It's that kind of thinking that leads to dictatorship."

On 3 August 2005, Col Vall led a coup against the long-ruling Maaoya Sid'Ahmed Ould Taya, who was attending the funeral of Saudi Arabia's King Fahd at the time. Hours later, Col Vall issued a statement assuring that "we are here to bring democracy" and Mr Taya fled into exile.

For the tired masses of this country enveloped in sand dunes, it seemed another empty promise as void as the vast desert they inhabit. Before Col Vall took over, Mauritania had nine coups or attempted coups since gaining independence from France in 1960, and nearly all brought further degrees of repression.

But Col Vall's coup was different. He promised to free the press, restore basic rights and hold elections in two years or less in which neither he nor anyone belonging to the 17-member junta would be allowed to stand. Nineteen months later, a record 1.1 million out of a population of 3.2 million are registered to vote for one of 19 candidates.

The press is no longer muzzled, the judiciary appears to be independent and a new referendum-approved constitution has enshrined basic liberties, as well as term-limits meant to prevent future dictatorships from taking root. So changed is Mauritania that many say they wish he had not vowed to step down. Hence the delegations trying to persuade him to stay. But staying on would serve nothing, said Col Vall.

"The problem for Mauritanians is that for the first time in their lives, they don't know what the outcome of the election will be ... Psychologically it's very hard. It terrifies them," said Col Vall, who before the coup headed the country's national police.

Some fear for what the future holds, said Mohamed Fall Ould Ouimer, the editor-in-chief of La Tribune, a newspaper censored during Mr Taya's regime.

"This is a nation of nomads and nomads hate uncertainty. They want to know that when they take off on road X, they'll reach oasis Y after kilometre Z. Now they don't know what's going to happen, so they feel panicked," said Mr Ouimer, who was jailed for writing editorials critical of the former ruler.

Not far from the presidential palace, craftsmen apply plaster to the walls of the home where Col Vall plans to return next week. Under plastic sheets in a back room are Col Vall's belongings. "I always knew I wouldn't stay long," Col Vall said. "And because I knew I wouldn't stay long, I didn't bring much. There will be no need for packing boxes." AP