Slavery still goes on in Mauritania

As the president of the anti-slavery organisation SOS-Esclaves, I must respond to Pieter Tesch's assertion that "there is no slavery in Mauritania" (Comment, 7 September).

I have a great deal of experience of slavery in Mauritania. It is not, as suggested, a narrative of western NGOs, despite the attempts of the Mauritanian government to portray it as such. It is a real and common phenomenon, evidenced by the dozens of cases pending before the courts and the fact that a slave-owner was recently prosecuted for the crime. Slavery may have been abolished and is no longer officially legitimised, but it is still widespread.

It is certainly difficult to quantify slavery, especially given concerted efforts to deny that the practice exists. With an administration dominated by the slave-owning classes, there is strong opposition to pursuing cases of slavery before the courts; the police and judiciary tend to act in the interests of slave-owners. Indeed, anti-slavery activists are more likely to be imprisoned for their protests than slave-owners are. Furthermore, people in slavery are typically disadvantaged on a social, political, economic and educational level; these circumstances do not make it easy for them to bring cases forward.

Slavery practices exist to varying degrees in all ethnic groups in Mauritania, but it is most prevalent among the Moors. Still, there is no question of pitting one ethnic group against another; ours is a struggle against oppression that unites both direct and indirect victims of slavery with people of goodwill from any ethnic background.
Boubacar Messaoud
President, SOS-Esclaves, Nouakchott, Mauritania