标题: A bad example? [打印本页] 作者: tauringhuang. 时间: 2008-8-18 21:48 标题: A bad example? Aug 14th 2008 | NOUAKCHOTT
From The Economist print edition
Africa’s reaction to the continent’s latest coup is being carefully watched
AFPAFTER a decent election last year, Mauritania was held up as a fine new democracy for Africa. Alas, no more. The latest military putsch, on August 6th, put failed and successful coups in the last three decades into double figures and prompted a flood of international criticism, including suspension of aid and of membership of the African Union (AU). But will such remonstrations make a jot of difference?
The hopeful part of the story goes back to 2005, when soldiers including Colonel Muhammad Ould Abdelaziz overthrew Maaouya Ould Taya, a nasty dictator who had been in power for two decades. For once, the soldiers kept their promise to organise fair elections. But Colonel Abdelaziz stayed close to the centre of power, first by persuading Sidi Muhammad Ould Cheikh Abdallahi to compete in the presidential election of 2007, which he won, and then by serving as the head of his presidential guard.
The election looked fair but the soldiers never went away; the transition to democracy was not as clean as it was presented as being. Colonel Abdelaziz became a general and last week regained power after Mr Abdallahi tried to sack him.
Foreign governments, which supported Mr Abdallahi’s government as a bulwark of stability against the perceived threat of Islamist extremists in the Sahel, the swathe of Africa just to the south of the Sahara desert, reacted angrily. America and France, the former colonial power, immediately froze non-humanitarian aid.
But the Arab League, few of whose 22 members are democracies, was more accommodating. Its envoy, Ahmed ben Hilli, annoyed friends of the ousted president by suggesting that he had been reassured by General Abdelaziz’s promise to hold new elections in due course. Algeria, Libya and Tunisia continued to tut-tut.
The AU’s response, however, has been more nuanced. Its suspension of Mauritania was a move that automatically follows a coup but the AU’s envoy, Lamamra Ramtane, sounded conciliatory. He told General Abdelaziz that he had come to Mauritania to help everybody find a solution. Nonetheless, he still made a veiled threat. Mauritania, he said, must not fall into a “vicious circle” that could force other governments to take “measures with consequences that would anger” those who had just taken power.
Despite a reputation for dithering that has worsened during the crises in Darfur and Zimbabwe, the AU has occasionally stood up decisively to coup-makers. In Lesotho in 1998 and in the Comoro Islands this year, it backed military intervention to restore democracy. AU sanctions helped reverse a coup in Togo in 2005. These were all minor countries, like Mauritania, where AU action could prove effective. South Africa and Nigeria played the biggest roles in those interventions—and have been the rudest about this latest coup.
So could sanctions and even military intervention follow? Maybe, if backed by foreign countries. But threats may make Mr Abdelaziz dig in his heels. He has promised fresh elections, but has pointedly refused to say whether he would withdraw from public life afterwards. Whether or not governments in Africa or elsewhere manage to prod or force Mauritania back towards electoral democracy, its army looks likely to go on running the show, in civilian garb or behind the scenes.