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Testimony on the bloody events of December the 10th in the occupied
territories of the Western Sahara
Name: Elghalia Djimi, human rights defender, Deputy-President of the
Saharawi Association of the Victims of the flagrant human rights
violations Committed by the Moroccan State (ASVDH), member of e
Committee of the Families of the Saharawi Disappeareds, and
ex-victim of forced disappearance from 1987 to 1991. Age: 45 years
civil, married and mother to 5 children.
On December the 10 December 2006, I was with my comrades near the
place chosen for a sit-in our Association was planning to organise
on the occasion of the commemoration of the International Day for
Human Rights.
The ASVDH sent a notice to the local authorities to inform them on
the time: 17.00GMT, and place: NEGJIR Place, of the sit-in
conforming to the laws in force. At 16.55, we were in fact close to
the place, but as soon as we reached it we noted that the Moroccan
repressive forces has blocked the Negjir Place and closed all the
entries that leads to or out of the aforementioned place of the
sit-in.
We advanced peacefully, and suddenly the torturer ICHI Abou Hassan,
who was sitting in a vehicle, a white Land Rover 110, followed by a
van of the Moroccan Groups of Urban security (GUS), he jumped out of
his still running car followed by the policemen in cars.
With other policemen wearing uniforms and others in civil clothing,
this Moroccan torturer rushed towards me, furious and trembling. The
other policemen targeted my other comrades who were beside me, such
as Brahim Dahane, President of the ASVDH, the famous Sidi Mohamed
DADACH, Rafto Price winner and President of the Committee of Support
to the Self-determination in the Western Sahara, the famous human
rights defender, Hamad HAMMAD, Member of the same Committee, Mohamed
Saleh DAILLAL, ex-disappeared and rescued of the notorious secret
detention camp “KALAAT M’GOUNA”, Mohamed HAMMIA, Saharawi human
rights militant, and other Saharawi citizens and human rights
defenders who were participating to the sit-in.
The torturer ICHI Abou Hassan, addressed me in a furious and violent
way. He grabbed me by my arm shaking me with force and
disrespectfully insulting me. I raise many hands answering him: "I
came here peacefully and we had already informed you". He answered
with a voice full of hatred and rage: "Shut-up bitch daughter of
bitch". And he kicked me with his foot violently dropping me down (Ichi
Abou Hassan was also a Taekwondoo teacher-Ed).
All this abruptly happened. After a moment I got up painfully I
raised my hands again and I repeated: “We are here to commemorate
this international day, as all the people around the world are
doing, and as you can see our hands are empty, we have no stones or
weapons, so I am calling on you to stop torture on me, you and your
men”. He took his truncheon ignoring my words and started beating me
with it on my buttocks screaming with rage: “run, you better run”. I
answered him that we are not criminals nor thieves to run, and that
we will instead leave very calmly registering your savage repression
against us. (I would like to stress here that I got photos that I
can not publish because of the sensitivity of the parts where I was
beaten).
My comrades, who were near me were submitted to the same torture and
same inhumane treatment. For example, Brahim DAHANE (he was tortured
in front of my eyes, they had beaten him savagely and whenever he
fell down he raises painfully until the third time when a policeman
wearing civil clothes came running and strongly kicked him on his
genitals, then Mr. DAHANE fell on the pavement (sidewalk).
Fortunately, his head did not hit the side of the pavement which was
few centimetres far from his head, otherwise he would have died.
When Mr. Mohamed HAMMIA tried to step towards Brahim DAHANE to help
him stand up, the policemen intervened against him beating him on
his back with their truncheons and by pulling him on the sidewalk by
his beard. I would like to stress here that Mr. Mohamed HAMMIA is 60
years old.
Concerning Mr. Hmad HAMMAD, who was also tortured before my eyes, he
was violently tortured with hatred and in a pitiless way, he was
beaten on all the parts of his body and he was abandoned unconscious
in the middle of the street in a lamentable state. Fortunately, some
Saharawi citizens took him to their house until the evening.
The cases I mentioned here only represent persons that I saw under
torture, because following information that we were able to collect
after, dozens other Saharawi citizens and human rights activists
were arrested, tortured and subjected to inhumane ill-treatment in
the Moroccan Judiciary police or outside the city (where the
Moroccan police drive some victims and abandon them in terrible
state far from the city).
At the meantime, houses of Saharawi human rights activists were
submitted to a close surveillance since the eve of December the
10th.
This scene of savage repression, which I witnessed, in addition to
many other interventions against the Saharawi demonstrators, who
only expressing themselves in peaceful ways and longs to enjoy their
fundamental rights, all this confirm again the reports on the
violations committed by the Moroccan forces of repression and the
gross human rights violations that persists in the Western Sahara,
under Moroccan dominion, in complete contradiction with the
pretensions of the Moroccan regime and in contradiction with the
illusionary claims spread by some “Saharawis” who pretend that
democracy is instituted and that freedoms and rights are respected
in this territories.
Yet, all what happened this time, and many times before, gives me
more strength to continue the struggle so as to establish the
respect of the rights and freedoms in the Western Sahara.
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