Moktar Ould Daddah

Moktar Ould Daddah (Arabic مختار ولد داداه, DMG Muhtar walad Dadah; born December 25, 1924 in Boutilimit, † 14 October 2003 in Paris) was 1961-1978 President of Mauritania.

Early years

He came from a small town in the southwestern Boutilimit Administrative Region Trarza. His family belonged to the marabouts that form in the traditional hierarchy of Mauritanian society a class of Koran scholars and reading in all children and their families learn to write. After the Arab basic training, he attended school for two years, the chief sons and the translators' school in Saint Louis. He then studied law and Oriental languages ​​in Paris. The end of 1956 he settled as a lawyer in Dakar ( Senegal).

Politician

In 1957 he returned to Mauritania, and played a leading role in the Union progressiste Mauritanienne ( UPM ) party. These joined in a conference in May 1958 in Aleg with other parties such as the Bloc Démocratique du Gorgol ( BDG) and part of the Entete Mauritanienne the Parti du Regroupement Mauritania ( PRM) together. Since 1957 he was a member of the Territorial Assembly, in July 1958 he was General Secretary of the PRM. In the elections of 1959 his party won all the seats and he became Prime Minister. After the country gained independence from France on November 28, 1960, he initially remained head of government, in August 1961 he was president.

President

Domestic Policy

In the 1960s, he was also the president at times also foreign minister, defense minister and commander in chief of the army. He first tried to rivalries between the ethnic groups, ie Moors and black Africans compensate. The elite of the country, however, recruited largely from the former group. The various existing parties were ultimately merged into a single party, the Parti du Peuple Mauritania (PPM ), and a new party constitution, to which he was sworn in January 1964, the Conference of Kaédi in a keynote speech, he could henceforth govern -authoritarian. The presidential elections of 1966, 1971 and 1976, he decided correspondingly simple in his favor. In the 1970s, he ordered extensive nationalization.

Foreign Policy

Moktar Ould Daddahs biggest problem in the first years was that of neighboring Morocco claimed the entire territory of Mauritania for themselves. Morocco gained support for his demands in the Casablanca Group. Daddah continued, however, to continuing our close cooperation with France and joined the moderate " Brazzaville block " pro-Western countries, who in March 1964 and in February 1965 as President of the Joint Afro - Malagasy States Organization ( OCAM ) named him. However, in July 1965, he resigned in protest against the inclusion of the Congolese Tshombe regime as OCAM - President, Mauritania left the OCAM. In 1971 he was chairman of the Organization of African Unity for a year. In 1973, he moved away from France and put emphasis on the states of the Arab League.

With Morocco, he could come to terms over time. 1975/1976 he reached an agreement with Morocco's King Hassan II on the division of previously Spanish Western Sahara.

Fall

Together with the poor economic situation in the wake of the drought in the Sahel brought the Western Sahara conflict Daddahs government to totter. The military situation led him in 1977 after an attack by the Polisario Front to the capital Nouakchott to an officer to entrust the Ministry of Defence, which he had hitherto avoided. Mustafa Ould Salek chief of staff put him down on 10 July 1978. Daddah was until August 1979 in captivity before he was released on French request and the following October was allowed to go into exile. After a short stay in Tunisia, he went to France. In the absence he was sentenced in November 1980 to life imprisonment for "high treason, disregard of the Constitution and damage to the economic interests of the nation."

Last years

In exile he founded in 1980 rather meaningless opposition group Alliance pour une Mauritanie Démocratique. On 17 July 2001, he returned to his homeland. Moktar Ould Daddah died on 14 October 2003 in Paris at the military hospital Val -de- Grâce. The Mauritanian government ordered a three-day national mourning.

Works

• La Mauritanie contre vents et marées, éditions Khartala 2003. ISBN 2-84586-437- X ( French)