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Background to the Study Statelessness and the Democratic Transition in Mauritania The Situation of Mauritanian Expellees in Context April 2007 Institute for Human Rights and Development in Africa Open Society Justice Initiative 1 1. Executive Summary This is a key moment for Mauritania to break with its long-held policies of disrespect for human rights. In April 1989, approximately 75,000 black Mauritanians1 were stripped of their proof of citizenship and forcibly expelled to Senegal and Mali. These expulsions took place in the context of wider ethnic unrest and human rights violations in Mauritania, including extrajudicial executions, torture, and systematic ethnic discrimination. Over the last 18 years, some of these expellees have returned to Mauritania; some have been resettled, and some remain in ‘camps’2 in Senegal and Mali in a state of poverty and marginalization. In 2000, the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (hereinafter referred as ACHPR) found that the expellees had been arbitrarily deprived of their nationality and were entitled to return to Mauritania, receive valid proof of their citizenship and compensation for their lost land and goods. However, this decision has never been implemented: the government of Mohammed Ould Taya, which perpetrated the expulsions, remained in power until August of 2005, and maintained that the Commission’s decision had no validity. In August 2005, Ould Taya was overthrown in a coup d’etat. Since then, Mauritania has adopted a new constitution and held parliamentary, municipal and presidential elections. The final round of the presidential elections was held on 25 March 2007 and were accepted by the international community as free and fair. The new government is presently being formed. This report describes the expulsion of the black Mauritanians, the current legal status of the expellees in Senegal and those who have already returned to Mauritania; the efforts made by African Commission on Human and Peoples Rights’ and the African Union (hereinafter the AU) to facilitate the repatriation of expellees to their homes and the reinstatement of their citizenship and property; the recent democratic transition in Mauritania, and its potential consequences for the return of the expellees. 1 www.unhcr.org/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/home/opendoc.htm; http://lexicorient.com/e.o/mauritania_5.htm; Stone, UNHCR EPAU/2005/11 16 6. 2 After their expulsion, most Mauritanians settled along the southern bank of the Senegal river; these settlements are not closed and resemble the surrounding villages, although they usually lack the public services provided to Senegalese villages. 2 2. Mauritania: An Ethnically Diverse Country Mauritania is located south of Morocco and north of Senegal, where the Arab world meets black Africa. The Mauritanian population – estimated at 3,177, 388 (July 2006 est.)3 is made up by several distinct ethnic groups. The group dominating the political and economic sphere since independence in 1960 is that of ‘white Moors’ of Arab- Berber descent who speak Hassaniya, a dialect of Arabic. Another group consists of ‘black Moors’, or Haratines (freed slaves, many of whom still live in slavery-like conditions), descended from sub-Saharan Africans, who also speak Hassaniya and remain culturally and economically linked to their former masters4. The principal black African tribes5 are the Pulaar (who are directly related to the widely dispersed Fulani people), the Soninke and the Wolof. In the 1980s, the then-Mauritanian government inaugurated a policy of ‘Arabisation’. Under this policy, Arabic replaced French as the official language and other measures were taken to identify the State as Arab. Mauritanians whose mother tongue was not Arabic – predominantly black Mauritanians – protested these measures and political tensions rose. In April 1989, clashes took place in early April 1989 between Mauritanian herders and Senegalese farmers. Mauritania and Senegal agreed to repatriate the other's citizens as a precaution against further bloodshed. The Mauritanian government took advantage of the repatriation process to begin a systematic expulsion of thousands of black Mauritanian citizens to Senegal and Mali,6 while a few others fled to Chad7. The Mauritania government expelled approximately 75,000 black Mauritanians (60- 65,000 towards Senegal and 10-15,000 towards Mali), mostly residing in the Senegal River Valley. 371 villages (from the regions of Assaba, Barkna, Gorgol, Guidimake and Trazra) were entirely emptied of inhabitants before being renamed and given to the Moor population. A majority of expelled villagers were of the Hal-Pulaar or Peul ethnic group. The Hal-Pulaar traditionally live in the River Senegal Valley where the land is fertile. 3 www.cia.gv. [accessed on 8 March 2007] 4 Interview: Me Sid Brahim, SOS Esclaves, Nouakchott, November 2006. 5 The Black African tribes are distributed along the Senegal River with Wolof to the west, Pulaar in the middle valley, and the Soninke towards the east. 6 Interim mission report of the Special Rapporteur on Refugees, Asylum Seekers and Internally Displaced Persons in Africa to the Republic of Senegal. 7 Stone (n 2 above) 6. 3 While most of the expelled refugees were stock breeders and peasants, soldiers, civil servants and seniors executives were not spared8. Many expellees were black Mauritanian government employees suspected of opposing the Arabization policy. These events began what has been called Mauritania’s Campaign of Terror9 to eliminate black culture in Mauritania. Some people who were not expelled fled the country to escape massacres and political persecution which continued throughout 1989 and 1990. The Mauritanian government claimed at the time that those expelled were of Senegalese nationality. Many were summoned by the police, interrogated, forced to relinquish their identity cards and then transported in trucks, with or without their families10, with few or no possessions11. More than fifteen years after the expulsions, thousands of Mauritanians are still languishing in camps in Senegal and Mali12. There has been no large-scale formal repatriation scheme arranged either by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) or Senegalese government, but around 30,000 thousand refugees are believed to have repatriated themselves without the assistance or knowledge of the Senegalese government or the UNHCR.13. Today, an estimated 19,000 persons (claims range from 15,000 to 50,000) from the Pulaar (or Peul/Fulani), Soninke, and Wolof ethnic groups live dispersed in settlements across a 600-kilometre strip near the Mauritanian border14. The real figures are probably substantially higher, since these numbers reflect only those who have registered with the local authorities, and do not include many of the thousands who are simply living with relatives. International refugee assistance ended in 1997 and no census has been taken in many years15. 8 Statement made by Association des Réfugiés Mauritaniens au Sénégal, during the public session of the 30th Ordinary Session of the African Commission held in Banjul, The Gambia, October 2001. 9 Human Rights Watch Annual Report 1994. 10 Human Rights Watch (n 2 above). 11 Stone (n 2 above) 7. 12 D Stone ‘Enhancing livelihood security among Mauritanian refugees: Northern Senegal a case study’ (2005)1.See also Human Rights Watch ‘Mauritania’ < http://www.hrw.org/reports/1989/WR89/Mauritan.htm> (accessed 28 February 2008). (Accessed 28 February 2007). 13 Stone (n 2 above) 9. 14 Refugees International ‘Senegal: Voluntary repatriation critical for protecting stateless Mauritanians < http://www.refugeesinternational.org/content/article/detail/9840/?mission=9551> (accessed 28 February 2007). 15 Refugees International (n 8 above). See also Institute for Human Rights and Development in Africa ‘From decision to implementation: Intervention of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights Special Rapporteur on Refugees, Asylum-Seekers and Internally Displaced Persons in Africa Concerning Denationalized Mauritanians Living in Senegal and Mali’ (2006) 3. 4 Mauritania was historically a poor country whose population depended primarily on agriculture and animal husbandry for subsistence. In recent years, however, oil and natural gas have been discovered off the coast, and expectations are that resource extraction will soon be an important source of economic development. Multinational corporations have begun to make contracts with the Mauritanian government for extraction of these resources. A recent political development includes the growing assertiveness and independence of the Haratines, who formerly constituted a block with their former masters, the white Moors. 3. Legal Status of the Mauritanian Expellees in Senegal At the time of the expulsions, the Mauritanian government confiscated or destroyed the national identity documents of most of the expellees16, leaving them with no documentary proof of citizenship. There was no legal recourse for these confiscations, since the expulsions were perpetrated by the Mauritanian government itself and once outside the country expellees had no access to the Mauritanian courts. The government of Senegal and other West African governments accepted the Mauritanians as “refugees”. In Senegal, the expelled Mauritanians were given green identification cards on arrival that seem to have served as both ration cards and as confirmation that they had applied for “refugees” status. These cards were initially valid for 3 months only. Although the cards have long since expired,
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