Mauritania coup leaders free prime minister from house arrest

NOUAKCHOTT, Mauritania -- Mauritania's military junta freed the prime minister from house arrest under international pressure after a coup that prompted the U.S. to cut off more than $20 million in aid.

Hours after his release, Prime Minister Yahya Ould Ahmed Waqef told a rally of several thousand people that the country would not accept last week's ouster of President Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi, who remained under arrest.

The rally was a significant show of support for the president, who rose to power last year as Mauritania's first freely elected president in more than two decades.

Soon after last Wednesday's coup, only around 100 Abdallahi supporters gathered and were quickly dispersed by police firing tear gas. That same day, several thousand coup supporters marched with the coup leader, Gen. Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz.

After holding them for five days, the army released the prime minister, the interior minister and two other officials Monday afternoon, indicating a willingness to bow some to international pressure.

But in a sign that power remained with the military, the junta refused to free the president and said it had no immediate plans to release him.

Freedom for the other officials followed behind-the-scenes lobbying by the ambassadors of the U.S., France, Germany and Spain who met with the coup leader late Sunday, according to a diplomat who asked not to be quoted by name because he was not authorized to speak to the press.

France has frozen aid to Mauritania and the European Union also has threatened to cut off aid. The African Union suspended Mauritania from the 53-nation body because of the military takeover.

The Arab League's assistant secretary-general, Ahmed bin Heli, who led a delegation to Mauritania, returned to Egypt on Monday and told reporters that he had not been able to meet with Abdallahi.

"I asked the Mauritanian officials for a meeting with the former president but they rejected my demand, but they assured me that he is in a good health and in a good living conditions," Heli said.

Aziz launched the coup one hour after the president fired the country's top four generals -- including Aziz -- last Wednesday. The firing came after an increasingly bitter standoff between the president and the army.

Mauritania, a country of just 3 million people, is on the southern edge of the Sahara desert that bridges the Arab world with sub-Saharan Africa.

The country held historic elections just last year, its first free and fair ballot in more than 20 years. Mauritania won international praise for that vote, which saw Abdallahi emerge as victor after a two-year transition to civilian rule begun with the army's 2005 ouster of a dictator.