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NOUAKCHOTT (Reuters) - Mauritania's military junta has promised to release the country's ousted president from house arrest as part of negotiations to avoid European Union sanctions, the African Union said.President Sidi Mohamed Ould Cheikh Abdallahi,(picture left) the former French colony's first democratically elected leader, has been detained since August 6 when senior military officers led by General Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz overthrew him in a coup.The European Union has been pressuring Abdel Aziz's administration to release Abdallahi in a series of contacts under the auspices of the Cotonou Agreement the EU has with nearly 80 of its members' former colonies around the world.Officials from the EU, African Union, Arab League and other international organizations met in Brussels Friday and heard from senior officials who visited Mauritania this week."The members of the high level mission to Mauritania particularly took note of the commitment of General Abdel Aziz to unconditionally release President Sidi Mohamed Ould Cheikh Abdallahi on 24 December 2008 at the latest," the African Union said in a statement late Friday.It said Abdallahi's release would meet the first of a series of demands laid out by the international community on November 21, when the EU threatened individually targeted sanctions against Abdel Aziz and members of his administration if they did not restore constitutional rule.The junta moved Abdallahi from the capital Nouakchott to house arrest in his hometown of Lemden in mid-November. His supporters dismissed the junta's promise to free him as a ruse."The international community is not fooled. This promise is a strategy by the junta to buy time and get another reprieve. For us, the struggle continues," Mohamed Ould Maouloud, of the National Front for the Defense of Democracy (FNDD), a coalition of political parties opposed to the coup, said Saturday."You can't release a president like a normal citizen. Releasing Sidi means restoring him to office," he told Reuters.The United States, which has long regarded Mauritania as an ally against militant groups in the Sahara, has scaled back military and development aid since the coup and banned junta members from traveling to the United States.Former colonial power France has also cut aid, although the European Union, which France chairs until the end of the year, is bound by the Cotonou Agreement to follow a series of negotiations before imposing sanctions.The EU says it will avoid sanctions that would hurt Mauritania's 3 million people, and continues to pay Nouakchott over $100 million a year for fishing rights, underpinning the state budget alongside iron ore mining and a small offshore oil project.By Vincent Fertey
(Additional reporting by Daniel Wallis in Nairobi; Writing by Alistair Thomson; Editing by Sami Aboudi)
(Additional reporting by Daniel Wallis in Nairobi; Writing by Alistair Thomson; Editing by Sami Aboudi)
As in the days of Noah...
