NOUAKCHOTT (AFP) — Mauritania's military junta came under mounting international pressure for ousting democratically elected president Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi as former colonial ruler France froze development aid.
But in an apparent gesture to the international community the military junta on Monday released ousted prime minister Yahya Ould Ahmed Waghf and three other officials held with him.
"The prime minister was freed Monday afternoon along with three other government officials. I understand that only the president is still being held," Mohamed Ould Maayouf, a spokesman for the prime minister, told AFP.
Following his release, the prime minister spoke at a demonstration in southern Nouakchott attended by thousands of supporters of the overthrown president, who -- according to security sources -- is being held in a villa.
"The president thanks you for your tireless fight, your hard fight for the re-establishment of constitutional order," the prime minister said, adding that the "president is in good spirits and in good health."
The president, prime minister and interior minister Mohamed Ould R'Zeizi were arrested by the troops who overthrew the government last week.
Two other officials, considered to be close allies of the president, were also held: Moussa Fall, the director of the national agency for the reinsertion of Mauritanian refugees from Senegal and Mali, and Ahmed Ould Sidi Baba, the vice president of the ruling PNDD party.
At the same time on Monday, a march in support of General Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz's coup set out from the north of the capital towards the presidential palace in the city centre, where the junta leaders are headquartered.
Last Wednesday troops led by Ould Abdel Aziz, the former head of the presidential guard, overthrew Abdallahi after he tried to sack the army's top brass but promised to hold elections quickly.
This weekend the general was told by representatives from the European Union, the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the United States that they will oppose any "unilateral" elections.
Ambassadors from France, Germany, Spain and the United States together with representatives from the EU and UNDP met Ould Abdel Aziz and told him they rejected "the organising of unilateral elections which would be illegitimate", said a French diplomat who did not want to be named.
"The six (representatives) firmly condemned the coup and said it was unacceptable to overthrow a democratically elected president and demanded that the president and his prime minister are set free and constitutional order is restored," the source said.
Representatives from the United Nations, the Arab League and the African Union also came to Mauritania to talk with the new junta leader, but did not make any statements about what was said.
On Sunday the President of Mauritania's national assembly, Messoud Ould Boulkheir, pledged his full support to the deposed president.
In a statement he said he recognised no one except Abdallahi and said he would not agree to any presidential elections staged by the coup leaders.
But 67 out of 95 Mauritanian members of Parliament later rejected his statement in a joint declaration saying he was only speaking for himself.
The 2007 elections that Abdallahi won were hailed as a model of democracy for Africa, following a three-year transition after a bloodless coup in August 2005.
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