Mauritania: Of Bondage, Of Shame

MAURITANIA

Of Bondage, Of Shame

Voters in the conservative West African state of Mauritania go to the polls to elect a new president on June 22. It will arguably be their first real exercise of their democratic rights since a series of coups between 1978 and 2008, reported Africanews.

It might also be the beginning of the end of the desert country’s greatest shame.

Incumbent President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, a 62-year-old former general, is stepping down after his second term due to term limits, the London-based Arab Weekly explained. He helped stage a 2005 coup and rose to power after a 2008 coup.

In office, Abdel Aziz portrayed himself as a peacemaker between the country’s Arab-Berber community and the Haratines, who are former slaves and their descendants, wrote Al Jazeera. Recently, in an Eid al-Fitr holiday address, he asked voters to “demonstrate their democratic sense” and “engage in responsible competition in an atmosphere of tolerance and brotherhood” in the run-up to the election, Turkey’s Anadolu Agency reported.

Human rights advocates disagree with the president’s assessment of himself. They had a different message for voters.

“Mauritania’s next president must urgently tackle the country’s poor human rights record by taking a tougher stance against slavery, human trafficking, and attacks on the rights to freedom of expression, including intimidation and harassment of activists speaking out against discrimination,” proclaimed Amnesty International and 32 local human rights organizations in a statement.

Human Rights Watch implored Abdel Aziz to show some respect for civil liberties before he left office and release blogger Mohamed Ould Cheikh Mkhaïtir, who has been in prison for the past five years for an allegedly blasphemous post.

The president has also failed to squelch Mauritania’s most notorious violation of human rights: the institution of slavery. The country was the last to ban slavery, in 1981, but lawmakers didn’t pass a law to enforce the ban until 2007. As many as one out of every five people in Mauritania’s population of 4.4 million are slaves, according to CNN.

Six candidates are running, making a July 6 runoff possible. The contenders include the president’s pick, former Defense Minister Mohamed Ould Ghazouani, and two candidates who have made slavery part of their campaigns: anti-slavery activist Biram Dah Abeid and the main opposition candidate, former Prime Minister Sidi Mohamed Ould Boubacar.

“I am thinking of those who have suffered and continue to suffer from slavery, of all those who suffer from bitterness, arbitrariness, injustice and marginalization,” Boubacar said as he announced his candidacy in March, Radio France Internationale reported.

Whoever wins will have a rare historic opportunity. Whether they take it is another question.