ROSSO'S TOWN HALL: AGREEING TO DISAGREE

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 NOUAKCHOTT 000356

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/27/2019
TAGS: PGOV PREL KDEM MR
SUBJECT: ROSSO'S TOWN HALL: AGREEING TO DISAGREE

REF: A. 08 NOUAKCHOTT 682

B. 09 NOUAKCHOTT 124

C. 09 NOUAKCHOTT 312

Classified By: Ambassador Mark M. Boulware for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d).


1. (C) Summary: During a meeting at the town hall in Rosso,
EmbOffs witnessed spirited but respectful political debates
between the Secretary General, who expressed support for
General Aziz, and a Deputy Mayor, who advocated
constitutional order. Such free debate indicates a
willingness to coexist at the local level despite political
differences. But there may be limits to such dissent,
particularly when a mayor has adopted a strong anti-coup
position and attracted the attention of the authorities in
the capital Nouakchott. End summary.


2. (C) PolOff and PolAsst met May 19 with the Secretary
General of Rosso El Hadj M'Bodj and Deputy Mayor Madame
Diakher. (Note: The mayor of Rosso was in Nouakchott. End
note.) This visit to the mayor's office was part of a larger
effort to get a readout of the situation outside of
Nouakchott ahead of June 6 elections (Septel).


3. (C) The coup supporter: Secretary General M'Bodj
expressed strong support for Aziz. (Comment: In a previous
meeting with PolAsst in November 2008 (Ref A),M'Bodj wanted
to avoid political discussions altogether. In a February
2009 meeting with PolOff (Ref B),M'Bodj was more willing to
express political opinions. In this meeting however, his
support for Aziz was overt -- perhaps because Aziz's victory
in upcoming "elections" is all but assured now. End
comment.) M'Bodj maintained that Aziz had raised the issue
of the "passif humanitaire," something he claimed no one had
ever done before. (Note: The "passif humanitaire" is the
euphemism used in Mauritania to refer to the arbitrary
arrests, deportations, and mass killings of Afro-Mauritanians
in the early 1990s. President Abdallahi had in fact launched
an initiative to address this problem while in office. End
note.) M'Bodj condemned the anti-coup opposition, saying
that they had little domestic support and had to use the
international community as their sole protector. M'Bodj also
gave strong support to the upcoming elections, saying the
electoral agenda had been determined during the "National
Dialogue on Democracy." He denied that the military had
unilaterally set the agenda, arguing that RFD President Ahmed
Ould Daddah at the time had participated in the "National
Dialogue" as well. (Comment: M'Bodj conveniently ignored
the fact that Daddah and the RFD withdrew from the "National
Dialogue" after determining it was being manipulated by the
junta and that its discussions were not being conducted in
good faith. End comment.) M'Bodj mentioned that a high
participation rate would validate the election. "What would
happen if 51% of the people decide to vote?" he said. He
did, however, state that the post-election situation in the
country would be a "great unknown," adding that Mauritania
could not survive prolonged international isolation.


4. (C) The coup opponent: Diakher remained silent for most
of the meeting, but spoke up towards the end, at one point
entering into a spirited debate (in Wolof) with M'Bodj about
the political situation. Whereas M'Bodj was an Aziz
supporter, Diakher expressed an anti-coup position. She said
the constitution should be used to fix Mauritania's problems,
not coups d'etat. Her preferred solution to the crisis was
gathering all the parliamentarian deputies around a table to
arrive at a consensual solution. She asserted that if the
June 6 elections imposed by Aziz went ahead, there would be
"no more democracy" in Mauritania. On economic matters,
Secretary General M'Bodj stated that although the economic
situation was "difficult," there was not a food security
crisis. Diakher, on the other hand, had a bleaker assessment
of the situation, which she labeled as "extremely difficult,"
especially for rural people. Listing problems such as
crop-eating birds and resource-intensive crops, she said
people were "very hungry."

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5. (C) Comment: Town councils frequently contain members
from a diverse range of political parties and ethnic groups.
Although sharp differences emerged among the political class
in the wake of Aziz's coup, town councils have had to learn
to coexist despite these divisions. Nevertheless, external
pressures (typically originating from Nouakchott) can upset
the balance. This was recently witnessed when two anti-coup
mayors in Nema and Sava were forced out of office by their
own municipal councils, allegedly after pro-coup partisans in
Nouakchott orchestrated their dismissal (Ref C, para 16). It
may be that political dissent within town councils is
tolerated, as long as the mayor is sufficiently pro-coup.
Anti-coup mayors, on the other hand, attract the attention of
the powers-that-be in Nouakchott and are in a decidedly more
precarious position. End comment.
BOULWARE