---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Thu, 08 Jun 2000 12:42:58 -0700
From: Charlotte Utting <[log in to unmask]>
Reply-To: [log in to unmask]
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [wa-afr] FW: 6/08: Senegal evacuates citizens in Mauritania water
row
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From: "Scott J. Lewis" <[log in to unmask]>
To: "Scott J. Lewis" <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: 6/08: Senegal evacuates citizens in Mauritania water row
Date: Thu, Jun 8, 1972, 4:35 AM
06/08: Senegal evacuates citizens in Mauritania water row
By Diadie Ba
DAKAR, June 8 (Reuters) - Senegal has decided to evacuate its nationals from
Mauritania after the government there told them to leave in an escalating
row
over the use of water from the river that forms their border.
In a statement issued late on Wednesday, Senegal said it would ``without
delay take all the measures necessary to evacuate to Senegal all the people
of Senegalese origin living in Mauritania, in line with the stated desire of
the authorities in that country.''
The dispute, which began at the weekend, concerns a Senegalese scheme to use
more water from River Senegal for irrigation purposes.
Mauritanians and Senegalese alike have been hurrying home, fearing a
repetition of the ethnic violence that killed hundreds in the two countries
in 1989.
The Senegalese government denies any immediate plans to divert water and
appealed to the Mauritanians to stay, saying they had nothing to fear.
Mauritania told its people to leave Senegal and ordered Senegalese to return
home within 15 days from Sunday, June 4.
Senegal's new prime minister, Moustapha Niasse, flew to Nouakchott on Monday
to try to calm things down, apparently without success.
According to the Senegalese government statement, the Mauritanian
authorities
invoked a hostile press campaign in Dakar against Mauritania as a reason for
its actions this week.
``The Senegalese government explained that in Senegal there is a free
press...The government has no powers of control over the private media,''
the
statement said.
One private newspaper, Le Temoin (The Witness), had a recent headline on
Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade ``bawling out'' Mauritanian President
Maaouya Ould Sid'Ahmed Taya on the telephone.
The crisis appears to have been sparked by a report from Mauritania's
official news agency at the weekend accusing Senegal of flouting a
water-sharing agreement by pumping water from the River Senegal to irrigate
its land at the expense of Mauritanian farms.
Mauritania, a largely desert country to the north of Senegal, relies on the
river water for much of its agricultural output.
Irrigation projects in northern Senegal were frozen under President Abdou
Diouf because of Mauritanian concerns but have been revived by Wade, who
beat
Diouf in a presidential election in March.
Wade's election manifesto said that ``water management will be at the heart
of the government's rural development strategy.''
Wade's government denies that the irrigation schemes will draw an excessive
amount of water from the river. Its statement said that ``as of now, no
action has been envisaged that is likely to modify the status quo.''
06:14 06-08-00
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