Unfortunately. it is only one element of that countrys tragic human rights situation. The government has yet to investigate or punish those responsible for the massacre in 1990 and 1991 of over 600 military and civilian Mauritanans. almost entirely from one ethnic group. Mauritanias refugee population continues to suffer. Only a small number of the 70.000 Mauritantans who were expelled or fled the country from 1989 to 1990 have been resettled. Most of this group continues to eke out a bleak existence in squalid refugee camps on Senegals border. stripped of their citizenship and their property in their homeland. Finally. although Mauritanias citizens are constitutionally guaranteed the right to elect their government. the multiparty elections held in 1992 that ended 14 years of military rule were considered fraudulent by the U.S. State Department and other international observers.