Mauritania: Mauritania police violently break up women's demo

AFP
Apr 19, 2009

NOUAKCHOTT (AFP) — Mauritanian police on Sunday violently broke up a sit-in protest of some 60 women against last year's coup and planned June presidential elections in the West African country.

"Several women including members of parliament, former ministers and some political activists were wounded by blows with truncheons and clubs," the anti-coup National Front for the Defence of Democracy (FNDD), one of the protest's organisers, said in a statement.

Women at the demonstration, held in front of the headquarters of the United Nations mission in Mauritania, shouted "No the coup!" and "The road to the June 6 (elections) is the road to chaos!"

They also called for the release of political prisoners before being roughly dispersed by police.

The international community has widely condemned the August coup, which ousted Mauritania's first democratically elected president.

The ruling military junta has since promised a return to what it calls "constitutional order" and to hold elections on June 6.

Coup leader, General Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, stepped down as head of state on Thursday so he could run for president.