PANA: Mauritanan Exiles File Lawsuit against President Ely Ould Mohamed Vall of Mauritania

Paris , France (PANA) – The President of l’Association des veuves et orphelins de Mauritanie (AVOMM), Mr. Ousmane Sarr , said on Tuesday in Paris that his organization has sufficient evidence to file lawsuit for “crimes of tortures and crimes of assassinations” against Ely Mohamed Ould Vall, the president of Mauritania .

Ely Ould Mohamed Vall, the current head of the CMJD or military junta, came to power by military coup d'etat on August 3, 2005.

He is accused of human right violations for his direct involvement in the ethnic genocide against black Mauritanian citizens between 1989 and 1991. These populations have long resisted Mauritanians governments' policies of large- scale arabization of the country.

For 21 years, Ely Ould Mohamed Vall served as the Chief of “Mukaabaraat” (a military secret police) under the dictatorial regime of Maouya Ould Sidi Ahmed Taya, who has already been indicted by the International Court of Justice for killing more than 600 hundred Mauritanians citizens in the villages of Inal, Jreida, and Nema, and in many other places, particularly in the Southern part of Mauritania and the deportations of more than 120,000 others to Senegal and Mali.

“The lawsuit will take effect as soon as Ely Ould Mohamed Vall leaves office in March 2007 and will no longer have immunity as a head of State,” according to Mr. Ousmane Sarr.