PRESIDENT ABDALLAHI'S UNDELIVERED MAURITANIAN NATIONAL DAY

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 NOUAKCHOTT 000715

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV KPAO KDEM MR
SUBJECT: PRESIDENT ABDALLAHI'S UNDELIVERED MAURITANIAN NATIONAL DAY
SPEECH

REF: A. NOUAKCHOTT 707

B. NOUAKCHOTT 696



1. (U) President Abdallahi was supposed to deliver an address to
the nation on Mauritanian National Day (November 28). However, he
was prevented from doing so by security forces that arrived and
banned journalists from entering his village (Ref A). A text of the
speech was released by the FNDD to the media instead, and received
moderate coverage in the press. In his speech, Abdallahi offered no
new initiatives or proposals towards resolving the crisis,
preferring instead to expand on themes that he put forth in his
first address to the nation November 21 (Ref B). He listed the
gains made under his administration, particularly with respect to
securing international assistance and foreign investment, and called
on Mauritanians to "continue this fight together" to "defeat this
power grab by force."


2. (U) The following text is an English translation of the original
French:


BEGIN TEXT

My dear compatriots,

I speak to you today, on this forty-eighth anniversary of the
Independence of our country while it goes through a particularly
serious stage of its history.

Serious, in fact, because the hopes that were born from the last
legislative and presidential election that should have enabled our
people to finally start up, thanks to the institutional stability
and the national concord, on the path of an economic, social, and
culturally sustainable development, were blown into pieces on August

6. The ambition of a man has put an end, by force, to
constitutional legality, trampling underfoot the popular will
translated through the verdict of ballot boxes as well as the
commitments made before the international community.

This verdict gave me a mandate, according to the program upon which
you elected me, to initiate in all areas an innovative policy that
broke with the policies and customs of the past.

That is how I forbade myself from the solitary exercise of power,
giving to the government and other institutions of the State the
fullness of their prerogatives, just as I gave to the heads of the
armed and security forces determined support and a complete
confidence in all matters touching on security.

Trying hard to be the President of all my fellow countrymen, I
conferred often with the political and social actors of the country
whether they were from the majority, or the opposition, or economic
operators. I also tried to make myself available to my fellow
countrymen and to hold with each one the language of respect and
benevolence, but always the one of truth, far from any demagogy as
well as from any authoritarianism.

I know that this attitude could have sometimes been interpreted by
some, accustomed as they were to decades to personal powers and the
cult of the State, as a sign of weakness, but in fact it was a
deliberate will to foster a new political culture in the country,
based on the freedom and dignity of the citizen.

As for the majority which, until the launching of the provoked
crisis, was supporting the government action, I had asked it to act
as a stimulus and a critic of the government action, and not as a
blind and sycophantic supporter of this action. At the same time,
the opposition was enjoying all the guarantees that were conferred
to it by the law and all the consultations with power that it wished
to have.

Furthermore, restoring the national concord through the return of
the refugees, achieving the social emancipation by criminalizing
slavery in order to reinforce the unity of our people, as well as
the rebuilding of the State of law in all its aspects, were
undertaken as the beginnings for any economic and social
development.


NOUAKCHOTT 00000715 002 OF 004


On the economic level, as everyone knows, the situation just after
my inauguration was, to say the least, worrying. Heavy constraints
weighed on the public finances, with a total debt of the State of
nearly 700 billion ouguiyas (approximately $2.7 billion),of which
nearly a third was in the form of internal debt corresponding to
treasury commitments and debts of major public enterprises. The
initial budget of 2007 showed an unexpected deficit of nearly 30
billion ouguiyas (approximately $115.4 million),nearing the amount
of the investment budget on domestic resources. Difficulties in
supplying potable water and electrical energy, in Nouakchott as well
as in the interior, made living conditions difficult and handicapped
economic activity. The education system was not able to meet its
mission of training and educating in response to the economic and
social demands of the country. At the same time, most of the
indicators of our health system were alarming.

Therefore, it was absolutely necessary and a priority to conceive
economic and social reforms appropriate to this situation, matched
with a public investment program, to ensure basic social services,
with the purpose of fighting poverty and achieving a more sustained
and distributive economic growth. Naturally, mobilizing the
appropriate financing as well as the institution of a climate
attractive for international private investment and favorable to the
competitiveness of our private enterprises were the major
challenges.

Our efforts towards this aim have, thank God, been crowned with
success because, in less than seven months, we prepared a three-year
investment program and obtained funding for an amount in the order
of 3 billion dollars among which 2.5 billion was from outside
participation. The already-signed agreements total 600 million
dollars.

Moreover, we have noted serious intent from private foreign
investors to invest an amount in the order of 6 billions dollars.

All this was able to be obtained thanks to our three-year
development program, the exemplary nature of our democracy, and to
our clear orientations with respect to governance reform.

For basic services, we were able in few months to alleviate the most
urgent problems in Nouakchott and Nouadhibou by ensuring the regular
supply of electricity and by reinforcing the Idini water pipe which
allowed us to avoid in 2008 the problems we experienced in 2007
right after the naming of the first government. For the middle and
long term we have been able to obtain, in record time, an additional
funding of 217 million dollars allowing us to realize the Aftout
Essahli Project. Likewise, we have obtained funding for an
additional capacity of 60 megawatts and commitments for installing a
total capacity of 160 megawatts with a large power station in
Nouakchott before the recently started discussions with PETRONAS for
the construction of a gas power station with 700-megawatt output.

Inside the country, the emergency hydraulic program enabled us to
protect dozens of villages and towns from the drought that
threatened them during 2007 and 2008. Additional progress was
expected with the financing of the Dhar Project from which the towns
of Nema, Timbedra, Amourj, and Adelbagrou were going to benefit, and
with the construction of the electrical transport line from Rosso to
Boghe.

Road infrastructure was of particular interest. Financing
agreements were already signed for an amount of nearly 270 million
dollars for the rehabilitation of the roads between Kiffa and
Tintane and between Nouakchott and Rosso as well as the remainder of
the funding of the road between Atar and Tidjikja. The Nouakchott
port, blocked for several years, must have an extension which will
have the effect of doubling its intake capacity.

In the area of food security, we confronted the unsurpassed world
wide increase in the prices of foodstuffs and oil products by
implementing a Special Program of Intervention which, of unanimous
opinion of the specialists in the domain, including the IMF, FAO,
and other United Nations agencies, is exemplary on several accounts.
Besides securing supplies, the stabilization of the prices of the
main foodstuffs, and the significant increase of wages, this program
initiated a new policy of the rural sector whose results will be
translated this year into an unprecedented level of production, in
comparison to the results of past agricultural campaigns, and in a

NOUAKCHOTT 00000715 003 OF 004


longer term by the self-sufficiency in cereals by 2012 thanks to the
realization of agrarian development projects whose discussions for
financing with our foreign partners were already in an advanced
stage.

In the area of fighting youth unemployment, an insertion program of
nearly 4000 unemployed youngsters was enacted, including their
professional training and implementing micro-credit lines.

As for the promotion of women, it found its illustration in the
appointment of more women in the Government and the designation, for
the first time in our country, of women in the positions of Chief of
Diplomatic Mission and Territorial Command. Moreover, important
financing of income-generating activities for the benefit of women
were put in place in all the provinces of the country.

Concerning housing, priority was given to solving the problem of
"precarious" neighborhoods (Gazra and Kebba) in the outskirts of
towns. In this area, the populations of the districts of El Mina,
Arafat, and Nouadhibou have already been able to benefit from areas
with basic services in 2007 and 2008. This policy is planned to
continue in the other neighborhoods of Nouakchott.

In the area of education, important reforms were started to improve
the living and working conditions of the teachers and students
(improving the remuneration of the teaching corps, distribution of
equipment and school supplies, and so on). The establishment of a
preparatory commission for education should have led to a profound
reform of the education system as an organization in total agreement
with economic, cultural, and social data of the country.

In the domain of health, the Government set to work improving health
coverage through the construction and rehabilitation of equipment in
health centers in six regions, revaluating and strengthening human
resources, and fighting against major diseases.

On the external level and thanks to the successful restructuring of
our country with democratic values, Mauritania enjoyed a certain
aura in the world, in particular in our Islamic, Arab, and African
environment. Because of that, our contribution in the construction
of the Arab Maghreb, our role within the African Union, the Arab
States League, and the Islamic Conference were reinforced, as was
our position as partner to the Euro-Mediterranean dialogue.

My dear compatriots,

Certainly, our country harbors important treasures but their
exploitation cannot be done efficiently without the support of our
partners in development and the intervention of the private sector,
national and foreign. By this support which we had acquired, the
country had started moving towards a vigorous economic and social
development.

The coup d'etat perpetrated on August 6, 2008 has put these
promising prospects in danger. On top of that, it risks, if it is
not defeated, to deprive the Mauritanian people of the political
tranquility they have experienced for more than a year, and to
plunge the country back into the abyss of an opaque military
dictatorship.

In taking our people hostage, the putsch perpetrators attempt,
through a policy of the carrot and stick, to project to the world an
image of universal consensus. The successive coups that occurred
since 1978 have extensively demonstrated the fallacious character of
this facade.

Our people, who had begun developing a taste for freedom and
recovering their dignity, are firmly committed in the struggle for
defending democracy. The restrictions of freedoms, the repression,
the harassments, persecutions as well as charges under the most
unreliable pretexts of the leaders of the National Front for the
Defense of Democracy -- notably the Prime Minister as well as high
personalities including a member of the Government and several
former Ministers -- will not be able to dissuade us.

My dear compatriots,

Through the political parties, trade unions, and civil society
organizations, you have decided to confront the arbitrary and blind

NOUAKCHOTT 00000715 004 OF 004


force of the putschists to preserve your gains in democracy and
freedom that you know constitute the basis for any sustainable
economic and social development.

The International Community, which demands the return to
constitutional order, provides important support to your fight.

We should therefore firmly continue this fight together, by all
peaceful means, in order to defeat this power grab by force, to
restore the constitutional order, and to establish a system of
peaceful transfer of power which allows us to devote ourselves in
all peace of mind to combating poverty and improving the living
conditions of our people. This will allow us to jump-start
development, already begun during the previous period, and correct
our possible mistakes.

As I already announced and as I intend to reaffirm in a few days to
the representatives of the international community, the defeat of
the coup of August 6, 2008, is the essential condition for any
definite solution to the crisis that the country is presently in.

Placing the interests of my country above any personal
considerations, I would like to reiterate here my availability, as
soon as this putsch is defeated, to working towards a solution in a
spirit of great tolerance, far removed from the settling of
accounts.

Long live a free, democratic, and prosperous Mauritania!

END TEXT

HANKINS