Amnesty slams Mauritania for not enforcing law abolishing slavery

By Sayed Ahmed, IOL Mauritania correspondent

NOUAKCHOTT, Mauritania, November 19 (IslamOnline) – Reactions of former slaves in Mauritanian varied on the Amnesty International report that accused the Mauritanian government of slowing down implementation of a new legislation abolishing slavery.

Some had reservations on the content of the report while others welcomed it as a genuine reflection on their suffering.

Amrak Ould Mahmoud, an engineer and ex-slave, said the report is neither good nor bad.

It contains positive elements such as calling for a neutral study on the slavery phenomenon to count the number of people having difficulty coping with society because of being ex-slaves, he stressed.

But, the report, Ould Mahmoud added, was not fair when it held white Arabs  solely responsible for slavery.

He asserted that black groups exercise more brutal forms of slavery on each other, having a separate cemetery for masters and slaves.

“But in our case, we the black Arabs, our former Arab masters educated us about Islam, prayer and worship.

“This does not mean that slavery has positive aspects.

“It is an unjust and inhumane practice but we were better off compared to black slaves,” Ould Mahmoud averred.

This fact was overlooked by the Amnesty report which never for once spoke about slavery among the black, giving readers the impression that it (the report) only wanted to incriminate Mauritanian Arabs and harm Arabs and Islam.

“We suffer several psychological problems that prevent us from integrating with society as equal citizens,” complained Khadiga bint Masoud, a nurse and a former slave.

“Looks of contempt and inferiority are always chasing us wherever we go.

“Our white Arab brothers, although they did not enslave us any more, are not treating us as equals,” she lamented.

The state is to be blamed, Khadiga stressed, because it must work on liquidating the class that ex-slaves are suffering from.

The regime’s tendency to ignore the whole issue whenever it floats to the surface is what made it more complicated, she said.

“The regime banned the official media from addressing the issue of slavery, although it does recognize the existence of its repercussions in Mauritania,” Khadiga underlined.

For its part, the Mauritanian government rejected the Amnesty report.

Speaking at a press conference on Wednesday, November 13, government spokesman Sheikh Ould Ali dismissed the report as baseless.

The issue of slavery took news headlines once again after Amnesty issued a report entitled “Mauritania: Future Without Slavery”.

The report leveled harsh criticism at the Mauritanian government and accused it of doing absolutely nothing to enforce a law abolishing slavery in the country.

It also condemned white Arabs and held them responsible for failure to combat slavery.

According to the Amnesty report, scores of people who were enslaved or were the offspring of slaves are victims of stark social discrimination in Mauritania.

Amnesty did not conduct a field investigation but relied on reports issued by Mauritanian NGOs, which, for the large party, group ex-slaves and blacks who oppose the ruling regime in the country.

Although the report admits that slavery was officially abolished in Mauritania in 1981, it charges that no practical measures were taken to enforce this law on the ground.

In the past, the relation between the Mauritanian government and Amnesty International was always characterized by the lack of confidence.

The organization tried several times between 1998 and 2001 to send missions to Mauritania to verify human rights violations and slavery but the government remained adamant to allow any such mission in.

The ruling regime in Mauritania accuses Amnesty International of being biased in handling the issue of human rights in the country.

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