From Fear to Hope - Mauritania

At the end of an IRIN interview about child malnutrition a Mauritanian doctor paused, leaned over and whispered, "Be responsible how you quote me, things can happen to people here."
His fear of telling a foreign journalist the extent of the country's child health problems is a legacy of a reign of terror imposed on Mauritanians for 21 years - until August last year when Colonel Ely Ould Mohamed Vall took power.
Vall seized the opportunity while President Mauouiaya Ould Sid Ahmed Taya, also a colonel, was on a state visit abroad. Taya himself gained power through a coup, in 1984, and ruled with an iron fist until he was deposed.
Under Taya, the doctor's comments about Mauritania's chronic social and environmental problems would have been considered as implicit criticism of the regime and could easily have landed him a stint in the central prison.
But outwardly at least, Mauritania has turned over a new leaf under Vall.
The new junta pledged to boost development, respect human rights and install democracy in less than two years before holding democratic elections. The two-year deadline was subsequently reduced to 19 months and presidential elections are now scheduled for March 2006.
Vall is the latest in a series of military men who have seized power and quickly set their countries on the track to democratic rule - breaking tradition with post-colonial coups that installed despots such as Mobutu Sese Seko of the former Zaire and Gnassingbe Eyadema of Togo.
After the sudden death of President Sani Abacha in Nigeria in 1998, the military oversaw a transition that led to democratic elections in 1999.
That same year, members of the presidential guard assassinated President Ibrahim Bare Mainassara. The head of the guard led a transitional government that held a constitutional referendum in July and national elections the following November.
HAPPY DAYS
As the Mauritanian interim regime has shown its colours, enthusiasm for it has only grown.
"Before, we were dictated to," said Seide Ould Seide, representative of Terre Vivante, one of the largest Mauritanian NGOs. He compares the former repression in Mauritania to that in Iraq under Saddam Hussein or in present-day Turkmenistan.
But now, "there are no red lines or taboos," Seide said. "We can agree or not - that freedom is great. People like this freedom."
Accomplishments racked up by Vall's regime include a sweeping amnesty for "political crimes" one month after seizing power, and releasing from jail scores of people imprisoned during Taya's rule.
In a bid to slash corruption in the country, in December last year the government authorised an across the board 50 percent pay hike for civil servants. Income tax has been cut by 30 percent, and civil servant and military pensions increased by 15 percent.
Then, after saying he has no designs on power after the presidential elections, Vall set on the path to multi-party democracy.
In late June the government held a nationwide referendum on constitutional revisions meant to bring an end to military coups and pave the way for democratic elections.
A whopping 76 percent of the country's 3 million people turned out to vote. Ninety-seven percent of them agreed to the changes, which put limits of two terms on future presidents, ensuring that power changes hands every decade.
The junta has also set up a 15-member national electoral commission (CENI) which will supervise future elections.
ACCEPTANCE
After the coup, the United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Kofi Annan, the United States, former colonial power France and the European Union all condemned the seizure of power, leery at the prospect of yet another military coup in an impoverished African country.
Even the African Union, the predecessor to which was once labelled the "dictators club" for its tolerance of political repression in 1970s and 1980s Africa, suspended Mauritania's membership of the 53-nation group "until the restoration of constitutional order in the country".
The AU has since said it supports Mauritania's transition.The changes Vall has made, combined with frantic diplomacy in the first days of the coup, have won over the international community as well. The World Bank and European Union have both restarted loans and grants to the cash-strapped country, which the UN deems among the poorest in the world.
The U.S. Ambassador in Nouakchott, Joseph LeBaron, told the Reuters news agency earlier this month that Mauritania could even become "an example to the rest of Africa and the Middle East" on how to make a transition from rule of the gun to rule of law.
Politicians gearing up for the country's first ever multi-party presidential elections in March are equally enthusiastic.
Asked to provide a summary of Vall's first and last full year in office, Moustapha Ould Bedreddine, secretary general of the Union of the Forces of Progress (UFP), said that everything has been "positive".
AFTER VALL
Although President Vall's regime has turned out to be a surprise success, a question mark hangs over the country's post-election future.
While many Mauritanians clearly trust Vall, he has promised that he will not be a candidate in the presidential race, and has strictly ruled out all the members of his cabinet from running too.
And as Vall has dominated discussion of politics in Mauritania for the last year, relatively little is known about his rivals from about 35 different parties, with just eight months to go before the election.
As the doctor's lingering nervousness about being quoted showed, many Mauritanians are wary about the long-term transformation of their country.
The country started pumping oil from reserves in February. Revenues are currently building up in an account outside Mauritania, with Vall's government committed to leaving the successor rulers to decide how to spend it.
That golden egg could provide a considerable incentive to any presidential hopeful.
But in the heady days of Vall's leadership, some still see a positive future, whatever March's election brings.
"Now we have seen what a military regime can do, we can demand much more of a civilian one," Terre Vivante representative Seide said.
"Now we are free, we can express what we want."