More arrested in connection with 2003 failed coup d’etat

The Mauritanian security services have arrested several relatives of Major Saleh Ould Hanenna, the mastermind of last year's failed coup against President Maaouiya Ould Taya, security sources said on Wednesday. The sources said at least six relatives of Ould Hanenna had been rounded up in the last two weeks, most of whom were serving or retired members of the armed forces. Ould Hanenna himself is still at large. Government officials say they believe he is holed up in the desert near Mauritania's eastern border with Mali, a remote area that is controlled by tribal warlords, smugglers and bandits. The military sources said the latest arrests came as the government reopened a commission of inquiry set up to investigate the June uprising. Many of those questioned about it earlier are now being interviewed again, they added. About 120 members of the armed forces were arrested shortly after the coup attempt and are still being held in custody awaiting trial. Dozens of others were interrogated and subsequently released. The uprising led to two days of heavy fighting between insurgents and loyalist troops in the capital Nouakchott, during which dozens of people were killed. The government's latest crackdown on the suspected coup plotters began shortly before it decided to reject out of hand the legalisation of a new opposition party formed by supporters of former president Mohamed Khouna Ould Haidalla, which included several well known Islamic radicals. Ould Haidalla was deposed by Ould Taya, the incumbent head of state, in a 1984 coup, but tried to make a comeback by running against him in presidential elections last November. Ould Haidalla was officially placed second in the poll, which the opposition claimed was riddled with fraud. Supporters of Ould Haidalla tried to register the new Party for Democratic Convergence last week, but were told by the Interior Ministry on Sunday that the request would not even be considered. Military sources told IRIN that the latest wave of arrests began on 29 March when Babah Ould Cheikh, a former non commissioned officer in the army who now works as a mechanic, was picked up in the town of Aleg, 260 km southeast of the capital Nouakchott. The sources said he had confessed to being the national recruiter for Ould Hannena's underground opposition movement, "The Knights of Change." They said Ould Cheikh came under suspiscion after it was noticed that he had a new four-wheel drive car, travelled a lot to the Malian frontier and had a lot more money than his job would normally have allowed him to earn. The sources said four serving military officers who are also related to Ould Hannena were subsequently detained during the first week of April. The latest supsect to be detained is Ould Hannena's elder brother, Sidi Mohammed Ould Hanenna, who serves as a Mauritanian diplomat. The latter was arrested by the gendarmerie at his home in Nouakchott on Sunday, since when his family say they have had no news of his whereabouts. The Knights of Change have so far remained militarily inactive, even though Ould Hanenna threatened to “open the gates of hell” in Mauritania if Ould Taya rigged last November's presidential election. The movement set up a website, which is seldom updated and has issued a handful of communiques. While Mauritanians overwhelmingly condemned last year's coup attempt, many hoped that it would open Ould Taya's eyes to a deep-seated political malaise in this staunchly Islamic country of three million inhabitants and prompt a new spirit of tolerance and reform. However, Ould Taya has shown no sign of relaxing his iron-fisted style of government. Most of those arrested after the coup attempt where relatives or clansmen of Ould Hanenna and his henchman Mohamed Ould Cheikna. Political loyalties in the light-skinned ruling elite in Mauritania are closely tied to family and clan links. However, the wave of arrests that followed the coup attempt gave rise to a joke that kinship has now become a criminal offence.