VZCZCXRO7165
PP RUEHPA RUEHTRO
DE RUEHNK #0708/01 3071135
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
P 031135Z NOV 09
FM AMEMBASSY NOUAKCHOTT
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 8872
INFO RUEHZK/ECOWAS COLLECTIVE
RUCNMGH/MAGHREB COLLECTIVE
RUEHRL/AMEMBASSY BERLIN 0831
RUEHDO/AMEMBASSY DOHA 0780
RUEHLO/AMEMBASSY LONDON 0887
RUEHMD/AMEMBASSY MADRID 2381
RUEHFR/AMEMBASSY PARIS 1247
RUEHSM/AMEMBASSY STOCKHOLM 0233
RHMFISS/HQ USAFRICOM STUTTGART GE
RUEHDS/USMISSION USAU ADDIS ABABA
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK 1300
RUEHBS/USEU BRUSSELS

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 04 NOUAKCHOTT 000708 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/02/2014 
TAGS: PREL PGOV ECON PHUM MR
SUBJECT: MAURITANIA: AZIZ' 1ST QUARTER REPORT CARD -- A LOW 
B AVERAGE WITH SOME STRONG SUBJECTS 
 
Classified By: Ambassador Mark M. Boulware for reasons 1.4 (B and D) 
 
¶1.  (C) Summary -- Three months into the democratically 
elected Aziz government, the new President has begun to 
change opinions of some of his critics with very strong 
performance in addressing corruption and terrorism and a good 
effort in addressing humanitarian/social emergencies. 
Foreign policy has been active with good results from a 
Mauritanian perspective (albeit with some questionable 
initiatives from an American point of view).  Bilateral 
relations are progressing steadily though with a certain 
degree of hesitance drawn from the combative relationship of 
the past year.  The government has yet to define coherent 
economic development and social policies.  While there have 
been no significant advances in political and press freedoms 
nor in human rights, neither has the new government done 
anything particularly bad in those areas.  Overall 
performance is likely to improve as the government works 
through its settling-in period.  End Summary 
 
¶2.  (C) "The Asterisk Democracy" -- The Mauritanian 
Presidential Elections of July 18 ended the political crisis 
of the previous year by allowing for a constitutional 
transfer of power following the August 6, 2008, coup d'etat. 
With his inauguration August 5, President Mohamed Ould Abdel 
Aziz brought Mauritania back into the family of democracies; 
however, since Aziz had launched the 2008 coup and had 
benefited from his control of power through the campaign, the 
new democracy was subject to skepticism.  While the 
international community accepted the election results, actual 
performance in governing democratically will determine at 
long-term evaluation of the Aziz government.  Following is 
Post's purely subjective evaluation of the Aziz government 
after three months in the key areas of: 
 
Security Affairs        B           3.0 
Good Governance         B           3.3 
Political and Press Freedom   C-          1.7 
Human Rights            C           2.3 
Economic Management           B-          2.7 
Foreign Affairs         B           3.0 
Public Opinion.         B           3.0 
 
GPA         B-          2.7 
 
 
¶3.  (C) Security - B : 
 
Positives:  Drawing from his extensive experience in charge 
of Mauritanian security affairs, President Aziz has not given 
up his Security Czar role and is clearly the decision maker. 
The Mauritanians have continued to be very effective in 
breaking up tentative Al Qaeda plans and detaining AQIM 
elements.  While AQIM launched an unsuccessful suicide 
bombing attack against the French Embassy on August 8, the 
Mauritanians effectively thwarted other threats planned for 
Aziz' first month in power (which coincided with the month of 
Ramadan).  The Mauritanians, despite their continued 
suspicions of Malian commitment to the counter-terrorism 
fight, actively engaged in the Algerian-led efforts to 
coordinate anti-AQIM activities between Algeria, Mali, Niger, 
and Mauritania.  The Mauritanians have actively sought to 
expand security cooperation with France.  They are also 
re-engaging on military cooperation with the U.S. although 
with a certain hesitance drawn both from the U.S. suspension 
of cooperation following the coup and, probably, because of a 
degree of French anti-American influence.  Although there 
appears no national strategy as yet, the Mauritanians have 
also addressed internal extremism with Aziz speaking of the 
"embryonic" threat within Mauritanian society and key 
ministries starting activities to counter extremism -- 
especially among Mauritania's youth.  The Mauritanians have 
gone out of their way to cooperate in the investigation of 
the June 23 AQIM killing of a private American in Nouakchott. 
 
Negatives:  The clear efforts to ensure security have has 
some negative consequences.  Nightly roadblocks throughout 
the capital have invited petty corruption and have led to 
arbitrary harassment on grounds other than security. 
Afro-Mauritanians and Black Moor appear more likely to be 
 
NOUAKCHOTT 00000708  002 OF 004 
 
 
harassed although they do not meet the standard AQIM profile 
and women seem to be subject to a conservative Islamic 
prejudice if out on their own at night.  The emphasis of 
security forces on counter-terrorism is said to have left 
poorer neighborhoods with less anti-crime presence leading to 
increases in criminality according to our local staff.  There 
is, as yet, no indication of a counter-narcotics strategy. 
 
¶4.  (C) Good Governance - B : 
 
Positives:  Aziz' populist election campaign strategy focused 
heavily on breaking with the cycle of corruption by political 
elites of the past.  He has made anti-corruption the central 
priority of his first quarter with many early skeptics 
increasingly believing he is sincere.  When a Global Fund 
audit of Mauritania's AIDS program found substantial 
misappropriation of funds, Aziz took the extremely unusual 
step of arresting the head of the program and several senior 
staff even though the head of the program was a close 
relative of the Prime Minister and Minister of Health.  Aziz 
has been cracking down on abuse of official vehicles and he 
has also publicly fired two governors for illegal sale of 
public land, has fired several heads of public companies for 
malfeasance, and has demanded repayment of funds from scores 
of government officials.  While it was feared Aziz would use 
his anti-corruption campaign only to target political 
enemies, few see a political bias in most of his actions to 
date.  The government has published an Anti-Corruption 
Strategy that has been very well received by the 
international donor community. 
 
Negatives:  Governmental effectiveness is seen as poor to 
date since the new ministers seem either insufficiently 
experienced or insufficiently authorized to advance policy. 
President Aziz is reputed to be a micro-manager with all 
items of any significance needing his authority.  Aziz is 
said to stifle open debate in cabinet meetings and does not 
accept dissension.  While an overview of Council of Ministers 
meetings is published, the decision making process in the new 
government remains opaque. 
 
¶5.  (C) Political and Press Freedoms - C- : 
 
Positives:  Aziz gets credit for what he DIDN'T do.  He has 
not launched a campaign, as detractors had warned, to shut 
down opposition press and parties.  While seen with suspicion 
by the opposition, he did reach out to a former element of 
the FNDD opposition coalition -- the Tawassoul Islamic party 
-- which is, in fact, now running a joint Senate campaign 
with Aziz' majority UPR party.  Aziz did not dissolve the 
National Assembly as he could have as a newly elected 
president leaving his election rival -- Messaoud Ould 
Boulkheir -- in his position as President of the National 
Assembly.  It is understood the government is poised to 
implement the media liberalization law passed prior to the 
coup which would open the door for private radio and 
television programming. 
 
Negatives:  As noted in the recent MCC Scorecard for 2009, 
Mauritania has dropped significantly in scores on political 
and press freedoms.  The scores reflect the situation during 
the coup, but Mauritania's international image still suffers. 
 Aziz did not seriously undertake after his election victory 
the ongoing political dialogue with the opposition called for 
in the Dakar Accords (although, admittedly, the opposition 
also did little to encourage such dialogue).  Serious abuses 
during the coup including the conviction of an anti-regime 
website editor, Hanevy Ould Dehah, were not reversed. 
Indeed, a reporter from Hanevy's Taqadoumy website was also 
detained and questioned in relation to anti-government 
publications. 
 
¶6.  (C) Human Rights - C  : 
 
Positives:  Aziz has completed the process of Mauritanian 
refugee repatriation from Senegal started by President 
Abdallahi.  With a final repatriation in October, the UNHCR 
is now poised to declare the refugee problem in Senegal 
closed -- one of the rare occasions when such a declaration 
can be made.  In addition to completing the repatriation, 
 
NOUAKCHOTT 00000708  003 OF 004 
 
 
Aziz has reinstated hundreds of Afro-Mauritanian government 
workers who were forcibly expelled in the late 80's and 
reinstated pension rights for others who have already reached 
retirement age.  Aziz named Black Moors to the key portfolios 
of Justice and Interior -- a symbolic signal of interest in 
addressing lingering slavery issues in Mauritania.  Likewise, 
his appointment of a woman as Foreign Minister set a 
precedent for North Africa. 
 
Negatives:  An election ploy to resolve the "passif 
humanitaire" human rights legacy of the 1989 - 1991 abuses 
has been criticized.  Illiterate Afro-Mauritanians who had 
signed an agreement on the passif humanitaire now claim they 
were unaware they had given up rights for future legal 
recourse.  The government has done little to address the 
slavery issue.  The visiting UN Special Rapporteur for 
slavery found willingness on the part of the government to 
discuss the "sequels to slavery" but denial of ongoing 
slavery problems. 
 
¶7.  (C) Economic Management - B- : 
 
Positives:  The economic challenges would have been difficult 
no matter who had won the elections in July.  The government 
has very little in cash reserves and the value of their 
export products (iron ore, oil, and fish) is low.  Severe 
flooding and power shortages coupled with rising food prices 
posed early emergencies for the new government.  Aziz named a 
strong economic team in Finance and the Central Bank (both of 
whom had a good track record in the Abdallahi government) 
that was able to re-establish relations with the IMF, World 
Bank, and European Commission.  The strong government 
response to fraud in the national AIDS program engendered 
donor confidence in other non-AIDS related assistance 
programs.  The government was able to announce some new 
investments in the mining sector and build some economic 
confidence after TOTAL started exploratory drilling for an 
on-shore oil concession in the east of the country.  The 
government responded very well to the immediate life safety 
issues posed by heavy August - September floods although 
long-term rehabilitation is hampered by chronic lack of 
funds.  The government scraped together funds to finance 
short-term power generation following severe mid-summer power 
outages. 
 
Negatives:  There has been little to no effort to account for 
public spending during the period of the coup -- when 
substantial expenditures were used to gin up popular support. 
 A comprehensive development strategy has yet to be released. 
 Hard currency remains in extremely short supply allowing 
monopoly benefits to the handful of importers who can find 
hard currency for imports.  The cost of living is increasing 
as a result.  A parallel hard currency market has started to 
develop although the spread remains less than 25%. 
 
¶8.  (C) Foreign Affairs - B : 
 
Positives:  The newly elected government was quick to open a 
new chapter in bilateral relations with the U.S. following 
the year-long adversarial posturing following the coup.  From 
the President on down, the government indicates a strong 
desire to re-engage.  Aziz has moved faster to bolster ties 
with France and Spain -- both of whom provided diplomatic 
cover during the coup.  The naming of a female as Foreign 
Minister played well with the West allowing her to gain 
special attention at UNGA.  When asked, President Aziz 
indicated willingness to work with the U.S. in addressing the 
crisis in Guinea (noting his displeasure that Dadis keeps 
referring to him as his role model).  The government has been 
able to move forward with Japan and Turkey in establishing 
new embassies in Mauritania -- Brazil is expected to follow 
suit soon. 
 
Negatives:  Aziz has indicated no willingness to "unfreeze" 
relations with Israel although neither does he plan to fully 
cut ties.  Mauritania remains more closely aligned with 
hard-line Muslims in Syria, Iran and Libya although it is, as 
yet, unclear whether Aziz will allow Iran to establish an 
embassy in Nouakchott.  Aziz has met with Venezuelan 
President Chavez and attended Chavez' Latin America - Africa 
 
NOUAKCHOTT 00000708  004 OF 004 
 
 
Summit. 
 
¶9.  (C) Public Opinion - B : 
 
Positives:  Aziz's credible efforts to address corruption 
have paid off with the impoverished majority of Mauritanians 
reversing an immediate post-election let down that all his 
campaign promises did not immediately materialize.  Political 
pundits suggest his anti-corruption campaign is challenging 
elite interests and may lead to his downfall (for some 
opposition pundits, this is clearly wishful thinking). 
 
Negatives:  As with most Mauritanian governments, the Aziz 
government is poor in public communications.  Dire economic 
straits continue to pose the risk of public unrest.  Aziz 
will always have "coup leader" in his resume -- leaving the 
door open for some other disgruntled security force leader to 
make his own play. 
 
¶10.  (C) Comment:  We rely heavily on our local staff and key 
contacts in evaluating the Aziz government recognizing that 
most of these individuals were staunchly against Aziz during 
the coup.  There is obviously a tendency to discount anything 
Aziz does as being more "show than substance;" however, some 
of our previously strongly anti-coup contacts are grudgingly 
accepting that Aziz is doing some things (security and 
anti-corruption) quite well and hasn't done anything 
particularly bad in other areas.  The new government is 
markedly less energetic in its first three months than the 
first Abdallahi government was following the 2007 elections 
-- this may be in the interest of being methodical in putting 
together a strategy but strongly suggests that Aziz had 
little broad policy strategy in place once he finally gained 
legitimate power.  The strategy will come over time as will 
closer collaboration with the U.S. as the government gets 
over its initial wariness.  End Comment. 
BOULWARE