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    Monday, December 22, 2008

    Mauritania releases ex-president in bow to international opinion

    CAIRO — Mauritania has released its ex-president from custody.

    After more than four months in captivity, the military has freed ousted President Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi—. On early Dec. 21, Abdallahi, 71, was driven from a villa where he had been held to his home in Nouakchott.

    "The release of Abdallahi was the chief demand of the international community, and that has now been fulfilled," a Mauritanian official said.

    On Aug. 6, Abdallahi was arrested amid a coup that toppled the first elected government in Mauritania. France and the United States canceled military and security aid to the North African state. The Bush administration also prevented coup leaders from entering the United States.

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    "President Sidi is not looking for a confrontation," Mauritania's National Front for the Defense of Democracy spokesman Beijel Ould Houmeit said. "He will stay on in [his home village of] Lemden, at the disposition of the Front, which has supported him. He will remain at our disposition until [constitutional] legality is restored to Mauritania."

    Officials said Mauritania had been conducting talks with the African Union, EU and the United States in an effort to ease international sanctions and renew aid programs. They said the coup leadership pledged to release Abdallahi and stage national elections.

    Mauritania has sought military and security assistance from the West to battle the Al Qaida Organization in the Islamic Maghreb. Nouakchott has been struck by a series of AQIM attacks in late 2007 and 2008.

    "I'll push my freedom to the limits the coup leaders put on it," Abdallahi said in an interview with the French daily Le Monde on the eve of his release. "I am firmly resolved to fight to make this coup d'etat fail."

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