Mauritania: ITUC Condemns Coup and Calls for Immediate Restoration of Constitutional Rule

On the day following the coup d’état staged in Mauritania on Wednesday 6 August, the ITUC joined the Mauritanian trade union movement in its emphatic condemnation and called for the immediate restoration of Constitutional rule in the country.

Brussels, 7 August 2008 (ITUC OnLine): On the day following the coup d’état staged in Mauritania on Wednesday 6 August, the ITUC joined the Mauritanian trade union movement in its emphatic condemnation and called for the immediate restoration of Constitutional rule in the country.

The Mauritanian Head of State, Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi, was arrested on Wednesday in Nouakchott during a bloodless coup led by the head of the Presidential Guard, who the President had just dismissed. International actors, such as the African Union, the United Nations, the European Union and the United States, have been quick to condemn the coup, which comes less than a year and a half after the presidential election of early 2007, hailed as a “democratic example” for Africa and the Arab world.

The General Confederation of Mauritanian Workers (CGTM) immediately and emphatically condemned “this taking of power by force” and called for “a restoration of Constitutional rule with the handing back of power to the legally elected institutions and the President of the Republic”.

President Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi had succeeded the military junta that had been leading the country since the ousting in 2005 of President Maaouya Ould Sid’Ahmed Taya by a previous bloodless coup. The democratically elected president was soon faced with a serious socio-economic crisis. Oil extraction, commenced two years ago, has not yet had a positive impact on the day-to-day lives of the people, inequalities are growing, and poverty among Mauritania’s workers is increasingly widespread. Over recent months, the country has been hit by a severe food crisis. As workers’ purchasing power dwindles amid soaring food and basic commodity prices, the ITUC expresses complete solidarity with the Mauritanian trade union movement and insists on the urgent need for the country to meet these pressing social challenges within the framework of peace and participatory democracy.

The ITUC represents 168 million workers in 155 countries and territories and has 311 national affiliates. Website: http://www.ituc-csi.org

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