Coup ousts West-leaning leader of Mauritania

updated 6:19 p.m. ET Aug. 3, 2005

NOUAKCHOTT, Mauritania - A military junta toppled Mauritania's autocratic president in an apparently bloodless coup Wednesday, naming the longtime chief of this oil-rich desert nation's national police force as the country's new leader.

The military's overthrow of President Maaoya Sid'Ahmed Ould Taya prompted celebrations in the Islamic nation that had looked increasingly to the West amid alleged threats from al-Qaida-linked militants.

The junta promised to yield to democratic rule within two years, but African leaders and the United States were quick to condemn the coup, declaring the days of authoritarianism and military rule must end across the continent.

A junta statement published by the state news agency said Col. Ely Ould Mohamed Vall was president of the military council that seized power.

New president close friend of former ruler
Vall, 55, has served as the national police chief since 1987. Known for being calm and tightlipped, he was considered a close confidant of Taya for more than two decades.

The junta statement identified 16 other army officers who were members of the military council, which announced earlier it would rule for up to two years. Except for one captain, all members of the council are colonels, the highest rank in the country's armed forces.

Taya, who himself seized power in a 1984 coup and dealt ruthlessly with those who opposed him, was out of the country when presidential guardsmen cut broadcasts from the national radio and television stations at dawn and seized a building housing the army chief of staff headquarters. He had allied his overwhelmingly Muslim nation with the United States in the war on terrorism and with Israel.

Taya refused comment after arriving Wednesday in nearby Niger from Saudi Arabia, where he attended King Fahd's funeral.

The junta identified itself in a statement on the state-run news agency as the Military Council for Justice and Democracy.

"The armed forces have unanimously decided to put an end to the totalitarian practices of the deposed regime under which our people have suffered much over the last several years," the statement said.

The junta said it would exercise power for up to two years to allow time to put in place "open and transparent" democratic institutions.

Criticism from Nigeria
Regional powerhouse Nigeria condemned the coup.

"As far as we are concerned, the days of tolerating military governance in our sub-region or anywhere are long gone," said Femi Fani-Kayode, a spokesman for Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo.

"We believe in democracy and we insist on democracy."

African Union chief Alpha Oumar Konare rejected "any unconstitutional change of government," as did U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

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