PANAPRESS
Panafrican News Agency
Mauritanian government urged to respect rights of victims of 1989 expulsions
Nouakchott, Mauritania (PANA) – The Forum of National Human Rights Organizations, an umbrella of 16 NGOs in Mauritania, on Saturday urged the authorities to honor their commitments to victims of the events of 1989 events marked by the expulsion of thousands of Mauritanians living in Senegal and Mali.
"Those commitments are the reintegration of all civil servants and workers from the public and para-statal sectors and career reconstruction for all personnel, particularly for all people who should benefit from retirement packages," says the declaration issued in the capital, Nouakchott.
The Forum also wants the conditions of the victims, who are peasant and livestock farmers, to be addressed to repair the serious human rights violations.
Between 2008 and 2011, about 25,000 Mauritanian deportees returned to their country within the framework of a tripartite agreement signed between the Mauritanian government, Senegal and UN High Commissioner for Refugees.
However, peasant and livestock farmers are still facing problems of land and loss of their livestock.
In early 1989, tensions arose between Mauritania and Senegal due to conflicts over water resources in the Senegal River valley.
As a result, white Mauritanian Moors in the Senegalese capital, Dakar, became the targets of communal violence, while in Mauritania itself, black Mauritanians came under suspicion as being Senegalese.
To prevent further violence, the governments of Mauritania and Senegal began to organise mutual repatriations of their citizens from each other's territories in April that year.
-0- PANA SAS/JSG/MSA/MA 18May2013
"Those commitments are the reintegration of all civil servants and workers from the public and para-statal sectors and career reconstruction for all personnel, particularly for all people who should benefit from retirement packages," says the declaration issued in the capital, Nouakchott.
The Forum also wants the conditions of the victims, who are peasant and livestock farmers, to be addressed to repair the serious human rights violations.
Between 2008 and 2011, about 25,000 Mauritanian deportees returned to their country within the framework of a tripartite agreement signed between the Mauritanian government, Senegal and UN High Commissioner for Refugees.
However, peasant and livestock farmers are still facing problems of land and loss of their livestock.
In early 1989, tensions arose between Mauritania and Senegal due to conflicts over water resources in the Senegal River valley.
As a result, white Mauritanian Moors in the Senegalese capital, Dakar, became the targets of communal violence, while in Mauritania itself, black Mauritanians came under suspicion as being Senegalese.
To prevent further violence, the governments of Mauritania and Senegal began to organise mutual repatriations of their citizens from each other's territories in April that year.
-0- PANA SAS/JSG/MSA/MA 18May2013
