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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Mauritania
Index
In 1987 the most visible political organization among
Mauritania's blacks was the African Liberation Forces of
Mauritania (Forces Libération Africaine de Mauritanie--FLAM).
Founded in 1983 and outlawed in 1984, the group has developed a
complex and clandestine organization based in Dakar, Senegal. It
drew its membership primarily from the Toucouleur. Among alleged
FLAM members arrested by the government in September 1986 were
Ibrahima Sarr, a television journalist; Tafsirou Djigo and
Mamadou Ly, former cabinet ministers; Mahmoudi Ould Boukhreiss, a
businessman and brother of Colonel Moulay Ould Boukhreiss, a
former minister of justice known for his pro-Libyan sentiments;
Tene Youssouf Gueye, a writer; Oumar Ba, a noted historian and
linguist; and Def Ould Babana, a former diplomat. Several
professors and researchers from the University of Nouakchott were
also linked to FLAM.
FLAM members have claimed responsibility for distributing a
highly articulate, fifty-page pamphlet entitled "Le Manifesto du
Négro-Mauritanien Opprime" (The Manifesto of the Oppressed Black
Mauritanian), documenting alleged examples of officially
sanctioned discrimination. Copies of the manifesto were
circulated in Addis Ababa during the spring 1986 meetings of the
OAU and during the summer 1986 summit meetings of the Nonaligned
Movement in Harare, Zimbabwe. FLAM adherents were also charged
with instigating a series of attacks in September and October
1986 against a fish-processing facility in Nouadhibou, a pharmacy
and gas station in Nouakchott, and three government vehicles.
Although damage from the attacks was minimal, they were the first
such acts of sabotage in Mauritania and thus represented a
dramatic escalation in political violence.
The government responded quickly and harshly to these
attacks. It labeled FLAM leaders as "misled persons" intent on
"undermining the values and foundations of . . . society" by
sowing "hatred and confusion" with the assistance of foreign
enemies, possibly Libya. On September 4 and 5, 1986, army and
police units arrested between thirty and forty suspected FLAM
members. Twenty of the group were later given sentences ranging
from six months to five years. Lieutenant Colonel Anne Amadou
Babali, the black minister of interior, information and
telecommunications, was dismissed from his post, allegedly for
ignoring evidence of FLAM's existence. He was replaced by
Lieutenant Colonel Djibril Ould Abdallah, who was known for his
firmness. Also relieved of their positions were Captain Niang
Harouna and Commander Diouf Oumar of the Mauritanian Army, as
well as the director of BIMA and other highly placed officials
elsewhere in government. Most of those dismissed blacks were
replaced by other blacks from Wolof or Soninké groups, and only a
few were replaced by Maures. None of the new black appointees,
however, supported the FLAM agenda.
With its leadership imprisoned or in self-imposed exile,
FLAM's activities through the first half of 1987 diminished
considerably; nevertheless, discontent among blacks, and
especially among the Toucouleur, simmered. Observers speculated
that further outbreaks of violence might erupt if the government
attempted to implement its 1983 land reform program on a large
scale.
Data as of June 1988
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