Mauritania: Conditions regarding the situation of returnees who left the country after the 1989 exodus of black Mauritania

Ethnic conflict in Mauritania between 1989 and 1991 resulted in a mass exodus of black Mauritanians to Senegal and other neighbouring countries (AFP 3 Mar. 1998; Amnesty International 2000, 167; Country Reports 2000; Cultural Survival Quarterly 31 Jan. 1999; USCR 2000, 105).

According to United States Committee for Refugees, World Refuge Survey 2000,

Ethnic conflict in Mauritania during 1989-90 culminated in the government's expulsion of approximately 75,000 black Mauritanians from the country ... the Mauritanian government's treatment of the estimated 30,000 to 60,000 Mauritanian refugees who returned home in the late 1990s have varied significantly, according to the UNHCR and other sources. The government operated a land reform program, ostensibly to provide land to returnees and other landless families, but many labeled the program unfair ... some returnees managed to regain their previous land; some received new property roughly equivalently to the land they lost; other returnees failed to receive compensation of any kind from local authorities ... A Mauritanian human rights organization charged that some local police regularly beat and detained returnees who attempted to visit their former plots of land. An opposition political party stated in 1999 that many returneees remained "dispossessed of their goods, their papers, and marital status" (2001, 105).

Country Reports 2000 corroborates the above information and adds,

there continued to be occasional reports of arbitrary arrest and detention by security forces against those protesting the redistribution of land and against returned refugees in communities in the south along the Senegal River (Section 1.d) ... The Government began implementation of the 1983 land reform law in 1990. The reform aimed at providing land for rural landless persons, including victims of desertification in the northern and central regions (both White Moors and Black Moors) and also, in recent years, for returning southerners who had been expelled from 1989 to 1991 (Section 1.f) ... There also were some reports that some southerners who had been expelled or fled from the country from 1989 to 1991 were unable either to regain possession of the land they had farmed before 1989 or to gain possession of other land from the Government, although other reports indicate that all those previously on the land were granted some land rights ... (Section 1.f). ..In June the land of several Black Moor families, some of whom were former slaves, in the Dar El Barka and Boghe communes was confiscated by the Wali (Governor) for redistribution to his relatives and supporters. The Haratines held protest demonstrations during which several of them were beaten and detained by the police (Section 2.a) ... The Government sanctioned the Governor by removing him from his post. The new Governor was considering returning the land to the Haratine communes, but had not done so by year's end (Section 6.c).

Other black Mauritanians remain in Senegal and Mali claiming that the Mauritanian authorities have refused to recognize them as citizens or for fear of official "persecution" in Mauritania (AFP 14 Apr. 1998; ibid., 3 Mar. 1998; World Refugee Survey 2000, 105)

This Response was prepared after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the Research Directorate within time constraints. This Response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim to refugee status or asylum. Please find below the list of additional sources consulted in researching this Information Request.

References

Agence France Presse (AFP). 14 April 1998. "Seven Dead in East Senegal in Clash Between Residents, Refugees." (NEXIS)

_____. 3 March 1998. Serge Daniel. "Refugees." (NEXIS)

Amnesty International. 2000. Amnesty International Report 2000. New York: Amnesty International USA.

Country Reports on Human Rights Practices 2001. 2000. US Department of State. Washington, DC. [Accessed: 14 May 2000]

Cultural Survival Quarterly. 31 Jan. 1999. Vol. 22. No. 4. Aziz Salmone. "Conflict in the Senegal Valley." (NEXIS/Ethnic News Watch)

US Committee for Refugees (USCR). 2000. World Refugee Survey 2000. Washington,

DC: USCR.

Additional Sources Consulted

Africa News Bulletin: Political, Social and Cultural Series.

Amnesty International Report 2000.

Country Reports for 2000.

Human Rights Watch.

Keesing's Record of World Events.

IRB Databases. LEXIS/NEXIS

West Africa.

Search Engines including:

Google

Mamma

Metacrawler

Internet sites including:

All Africa News