Mauritania's coup is a setback for democracy.
National Catholic Reporter, Oct. 3, 2008 by Stephen Zunes
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The overthrow in August of what arguably constituted the most democratic government in the Arab world marks a serious setback in Africa as well as the Middle East.

There had been great expectations for Mauritania when the country had its first free elections in 2006. As one of the poorest and least developed countries in the world and, as with many other African countries, its boundaries and nationhood largely an artificial creation of European colonial powers, Mauritania fanned hopes that if democracy could take hold there, it could triumph anywhere.

Mauritania's elected government under President Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi proved a disappointment in many ways, with widespread corruption and factional disputes with parliament. What brought down the government, however, was the all-too-familiar scourge faced by many nascent democracies: the coup d'etat.

Whatever the failures of President Abdallahi's administration, history has shown that military coups against an unpopular leader, even when the generals claim the best of intentions, tend to create more problems than they solve. Furthermore, there are far more democratic means of holding leaders accountable.

Coups tend to concentrate power among a small number of individuals and therefore make it more difficult for the people to hold their government or military accountable. When military officers have taken the risk to launch a coup, they often feel entitled to exercise state power themselves. For example, in Mauritania, a puppet civilian State Council announced by the putschists never materialized, leaving no formal checks and balances available to hold the new military leadership accountable.

Furthermore, in violating international norms by taking over a government by force, coup plotters usually require the support of a foreign power, thereby compromising their country's sovereignty. In the case of Mauritania, its powerful neighbor Morocco, where coup leader Gen. Mohamed Ould Abdelaziz received his training, appears to be backing the military takeover. Such support can hardly be reassuring for Mauritanians, since the U.S.-backed Moroccan monarchy for many years claimed Mauritania as Moroccan territory and has invaded and occupied the neighboring country of Western Sahara, on which it had made similar territorial claims.

Finally, coups set a terrible precedent for future transitions of power. As we have seen in Haiti, Thailand and a number of African countries, once coups are established as the de facto method of power transfer, they are far more likely to continue in the future. In Mauritania, the military takeover of Aug. 6 has shattered the dreams of Mauritanians who wanted political change in their country to take place through free elections, not just the force of arms.

There are better ways to hold corrupt and inept leaders accountable. If circumstances make it impossible for a population to exercise their will through free and fair elections, there is the option of massive civil resistance. In such countries as the Philippines in 1986, Bolivia in 1981, Serbia in 2000, Mall in 1991, Chile in 1988, Czechoslovakia in 1989 and Ukraine in 2004, corrupt and autocratic regimes have been brought down nonviolently without leadership from the military or external forces. In these and other cases, ordinary people, using such nonviolent methods as strikes, boycotts, civil disobedience, mass demonstrations and the establishment of parallel institutions, expanded the political space available to them, fought for their rights and emerged victorious.

Such nonviolent civil resistance movements avoid not only the pitfalls of coups and foreign intervention but also provide a surer basis for sustainable democracy. Nonviolent civil resistance movements help correct the imbalance of power in a society by stimulating wide and diverse civilian participation, thereby decentralizing power away from a ruling elite and toward the people themselves.

The exercise of such "people power" can do much to break the cycle of coups and other non-democratic transfers of power that have afflicted Mauritania and other countries, and holds far greater promise for bringing about democratic and responsible government. We may even see it in Mauritania.

MAURITANIA CORP

Leaders of a military coup in Mauritania said they would hold "free and transparent" presidential elections "in the shortest time possible," according to a statement released Aug. 7

Presidential guard chief Mohamed Ould Abdelaziz set up an 11-strong council to rule the northwest African Islamic republic on Wednesday after he ousted President Sidi Mohamed Ould Cheikh Abdallahi, Mauritania's first freely elected president

Moor 30%
Black 30%
Mixed Maur/Black 40%

Note: Table made from pie chart.

COUNTRY FACTS

Population 3.1 million
Area (mostly desert) 1,025,220sq km
Religion Sunni 99.5%
GNI per capita $760

CHRONOLOGY
* 1960--Mauritania becomes independent from France as the Islamic Republic of Mauritania, with Moktar Ould Daddah as president
* 1964--Daddah proclaims a one-party state and the next year all parties merge to form the Parti du Peuple Mauritanienne Daddah re-elected as president in 1966 and 1971
* 1975--Mauritania is declared an Islamic Socialist Republic
* 1978--Daddah is deposed in a bloodless coup by Moustapha Ould Mohamed Salek who becomes president in 1979
* 1984--After a number of coup attempts, Maaouya Ould Sid'Ahmed Taya seizes power and proclaims himself president
* 1992--Taya is elected president, but the opposition denounces the victory as fraudulent. Taya is re-elected in both 1997 and 2003
* 2005 August--Military junta seizes power to end Taya's regime. Mohamed Ould Abdelaziz is one of the architects in the coup
* November--17-member junta pledges to hold presidential elections in 2007
* 2007 March--Former minister Sidi Mohamed Ould Cheikh Abdallahi elected as president
* 2008 July--Abdallahi asks Prime Minister Yahya Ahmed El Waghef to form a new cabinet after the prime minister and his government resigned following criticism over the government's response to soaring food prices
* August 6--Mohamed Ould Abdelaziz, one of the foul military officers sacked by Abdallahi, responded by arresting the president and prime minister, He took up leadership of the State Council and issued a "Communique No. 1" revoking the dismissals

Sources: World Bank, The World Factbook

[Stephen Zunes is a professor of politics and chair of Middle Eastern Studies at the University of San Francisco. Hardy Merriman is a senior adviser to the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict.]
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