Leaders of the Mauritanian Opposition in Exile to Return Today

09/12/05-- Sources within the Mauritanian opposition said that an airplane is carrying scores of members of the Mauritanian opposition in exile, who will return en masse today.

Occupying a prominent place among them was Mohammed Ould Cheikhna, the field leader of the organization Cavaliers for Change, who built a military elite to overthrow the government of the former Mauritanian president, Maaouya Ould Sid'Ahmed Taya.

Likewise, they include the businessman Al Mostafa Ould Al Imam Chafi'i, formerly a resident of Burkino Faso, whom the previous authorities in Nouakchott accused of supporting and harboring Cavaliers for Change.

They also include Breika Ould Moubarek and Oudjoub Moustafa, two retired military men from the leadership of the organization National Alliance which was formed last year by 14 leftist members of the opposition in the Senegalese capital Dakkar.

They also include groups of returnees unaffiliated with the leaders of Cavaliers for Change, such as the leftist opposition association called Conscience and Resistance, the most prominent among its leaders being Jemal Abdel Nasser Ould Yessa.

Yet the official spokesperson for the Mauretanian opposition in exile, Badi Ould Ebno, excused himself from taking part in this flight, "due to preparations for an emergency conference of the opposition coalition in exile, aiming at a final solution for the coalition and its committees."

In a statement which he sent to aljazeera.net, Ould Ebno [said that] he considered "the return of the Cavaliers for Change to be the most important national event witnessed on the national arena following the release of Saleh Ould Hanana, who orchestrated three coup attempts against Ould Al Tayi in 2003 and 2004."

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-Translated by C.G. Häberl

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