AU Chairman: Crisis in Mauritania is Over, Backs Lifting of AU Sanctions.
Posted on 15. Mar, 2009 by Admin in Libya News
Nouakchott-The Chairman of the African Union Muammar Al-Qathafi has declared on Thursday that the political crisis in Mauritania that started in August last year had ended and that sanction imposed by the AU on Mauritanian officials should now be removed. Gaddafi spent more than three days in Mauritania last week during which he mediated between conflicting factions in a bid to solve their dispute peacefully. I have assured myself that the military authorities are determined to organise presidential elections on June 6, so this file is closed from now on, Gaddafi told reporters in a reference to sanctions before leaving Nouakchott. The problem is over, the case is closed, because what is needed is the return to civil life, the Libyan leader said.Meanwhile, Gaddafi told reporters on Thursday that he would be traveling to Guinea-Bissau and Guinea-Conakry from Mauritania in order to help bring down the increasing tensions in the country since the assassination of Joao Bernardo Vieira, the president of Guinea-Bissau, just hours after the assassination of his army chief of staff.Gaddafi said he was going on such mission because that was his responsibility as President of the African Union to find peaceful solution to these tensions and to prevent foreign intervention in these African countries.Political dispute in Mauritania was intensified after the military seized power in an August 6 coup that deposed President Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi.The AU has imposed sanctions on members of the junta, including a travel ban and a freeze of bank assets. The military rulers have announced they would hold new presidential elections on June 6, a committed has been reconfirmed by the AU chairman on Thursday.The Leader Al-Qathafi met Monday with junta leader Ould Abdel Aziz and he also held meeting with all former Mauritanian presidents and senior officials of active political organizations in the country.On Wednesday, Gaddafi told the Mauritanian a large gathering of social and political leadership that they should look toward Mauritania that will be born after June 6 when the military junta has announced elections.The AU Chairman said Mauritania's political, economic and social situation is very fragile and cannot support an overload, Gaddafi told members of parliament and political parties. If one must judge people for coups d'etats, then not just (Mauritania's current junta leader Mohamed) Ould Abdel Aziz must be judged, but also leaders of all past coups in the country, the AU Chairman stressed.On Monday, the AU Chairman met with Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, head of the ruling military junta and both held a long discussion on ways to solve the crisis. He also held discussions with members of the National Front for the Defence of Democracy, a coalition of groups that support the deposed president, and with Ahmed Ould Daddah, an opponent of the former government.The coalition on Tuesday called for the junta to demonstrate goodwill to make the Libyan mediation efforts a success. We asked during a meeting with a delegation of Libyan mediators that the military rulers give proof of their goodwill... and show they are ready to move towards an agreement, Jemil Ould Mansour, head of one of the coalition's member parties, told AFP.The Libyan delegation seemed to understand our concerns and we have good hope of a positive solution, Mansour added.Mansour demanded that the junta release jailed political figures including Yahya Ould Ahmed El-Waghef, who was prime minister under the ousted president.{Tripolipost}