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TIMELINE-Mauritanian junta releases ousted president

21 Dec 2008 16:43:28 GMT
Source: Reuters

Dec 21 (Reuters) - Mauritania's military junta on Sunday freed from house arrest ousted President Sidi Mohamed Ould Cheikh Abdallahi, who vowed to fight to return to the office he lost in a bloodless coup in August. [ID:nLL345249]

The generals who overthrew Abdallahi, the first democratically elected president of the west Saharan Islamic state, had said this month they would release him as part of negotiations to head off threatened European Union sanctions.

Here is a timeline of events in Mauritania since independence:

November 1960 - Independence won from France as the Islamic Republic of Mauritania with Moktar Ould Daddah as president.

1964 - Daddah proclaims a one-party state and the next year all parties merge to form the Parti du Peuple Mauritanien.

1966 & 1971 - Daddah is re-elected as president.

1975 - Mauritania is declared an Islamic Socialist Republic.

July 1978 - Daddah is deposed in a bloodless coup by Moustapha Ould Mohamed Salek who assumes absolute power as president in March 1979.

December 1984 - After a number of coup attempts, Maaouya Ould Sid'Ahmed Taya seizes power and proclaims himself president. Almost two years later, Taya imposes sharia law.

January 1992 - Taya is elected president with 63 percent of the vote under a 1991 constitution permitting multiple political parties but the opposition denounces the victory as fraudulent.

-- Taya is re-elected in 1997, and again in 2003 after another coup attempt in June that year.

August 2005 - The army seizes power to end Taya's regime, and says it plans to rule for up to two years.

November 2005 - 17-member junta pledges to hold presidential elections in March 2007.

June 2006 - In a referendum meant to end decades of coup attempts, voters overwhelmingly back constitutional changes ensuring no president can serve for more than a decade.

March 2007 - Former minister Sidi Mohamed Ould Cheikh Abdallahi wins a presidential run-off poll with 52.85 percent of the vote defeating his rival, opposition figure Ahmed Ould Daddah. Abdallahi was sworn in on April 19.

July 2008 - Abdallahi asks Prime Minister Yahya Ahmed El Waghef to form a new cabinet after the prime minister and his government resign following criticism over the government's response to soaring food prices.

August 6, 2008 - Presidential guardsmen seize Abdallahi in a coup after he sacked several top army officers, including presidential guard chief General Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz.

August 7 - An 11-strong junta led by Abdel Aziz promises it will work with politicians and civic groups to organise presidential elections.

-- Washington demands Abdallahi be restored to power and, like the European Union, warns international aid could be cut.

August 9 - The African Union says it will suspend Mauritania until democracy is restored.

October 20 - EU threatens to apply sanctions if the junta fails to restore constitutional rule within a month.

November 21 - EU says it is considering applying individual sanctions against members of Mauritania's military government.

December 21 - The military junta frees Abdallahi from house arrest.

Sources: Reuters/Europa Publications. (Writing by David Cutler, London Editorial Reference Unit; Additional writing by Jijo Jacob; Editing by Pascal Fletcher)

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