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The West African country Mauritania is emerging from decades of dictatorship.The newly-elected President Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi is facing the problem of how to bring home tens of thousands of Mauritanians who fled ethnic violence under the previous dictator. Refugees say they have long wanted to return, but question their safety in a country still divided by color and class.Phuong Tran brings us this report from Nouakchott, Mauritania.Hundreds of black Mauritanians were killed and tens of thousands lost everything in the 1989 ethnic purge by the Arab-dominated government of Maaouya Ould Sid'Ahmed Taya. Through the years, many of the more than 70,000 who fled have returned to Mauritania.They came on their own,with no government protection from attacks or help restarting their lives.President Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi campaigned on bringing together racially-divided Mauritania.He recently named a committee of elected officials and civil society groups to organize a U.N.-supervised return of the refugees,scheduled to begin later this year.The committee visited refugees in Senegal earlier this month to hear their views on returning.Amadou Samba Ba,the chief of Dodel,one of the largest Mauritanian refugee camps in Senegal,says for 18 years,his community has requested this formal visit and a supervised safe return.But he says there are also other demands.Ba says the government needs to restore jobs, land and cattle taken away in the late 1980's,as well as lost wages.Ba says there are not enough schools or health clinics to serve the thousands who will come home.The camp chief says the refugees also want officials who took part in the purges charged for murders and other human rights abuses. An estimated 500 died....To read more go to:
http://www.voanews.com/english/2007-07-31-voa26.cfm
As in the days of Noah...
