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SPS Human Rights Watch: Saharawi human rights activists need fair trials 11.12.05
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Paris, le 10/12/2005) Human Rights Watch said, on Saturday, that the
Moroccan government must ensure fair trials for eight jailed human rights
defenders from the occupied territories of Western Sahara, who are currently
incarcerated. The trial of seven of them, who are facing dubious charges of
fomenting and participating in violence, is set to resume on Tuesday in the
territory's occupied capital, El Aaiun.
In letter it sent to the king Mohamed VI, the international human rights
organisation underlined that the "proceedings so far have shown that the
defendants' rights to a fair trial were at risk", knowing that under Morocco's
constitution, the king serves as the president of the country's judiciary, Human
Rights Watch emphasised.
In her statement, the Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights
Watch, Mrs. Sarah Leah Whitson said that "evidence in the case files of these
Western Saharan activists raises questions about whether they should have been
prosecuted in the first place". "The Moroccan government needs to ensure that
these trials are fair, prompt and transparent", she stressed.
Mrs. Whitson also recognised that "these arrests and trials demonstrate that
repression is still the rule in Western Sahara".
The Moroccan authorities are prosecuting the human rights activists, along with
seven young men, on charges of inciting and participating in attacks on the
police and public property during a wave of protests by Saharawi people in the
occupied city of El Aaiun and in other cities since last May 2005.
The demonstrations, in which protestors shouted slogans advocating independence
for Western Sahara, "were mostly peaceful", Human Rights Watch confirmed. But on
some occasions protestors threw rocks and Molotov cocktails at police, who
repeatedly used arbitrary and excessive force against both demonstrators and
innocent bystanders.
In June and July, Moroccan police arrested human rights activists, Mrs. Aminatou
Haidar, Mr. H'mad Hammad, Mr. Ali Salem Tamek, Mr. El-Houcine Lidri, Mr. Brahim
Noumria, Mr. Larbi Messaoud and Mr. Mohamed El-Moutaouakil, blaming them of
having been collecting and disseminating information about human rights abuses
committed by Moroccan authorities against Saharawis.
In October, they arrested Brahim Dahane, who is expected to be tried separately.
Dahane is president of the Saharawi Association of Victims of Grave Human Rights
Violations Committed by the Moroccan Authorities, an organisation Moroccan
authorities have thus far refused to recognise. El-Moutaouakil, Lidri, Messaoud,
and Noumria belonged to the Sahara section of the Forum for Truth and Justice
before a Moroccan court closed down that section in 2003.
The eight are also known for their peaceful advocacy of independence for Western
Sahara. Six of them have been either previously convicted for non violent
political activities or held for years in secret detention without trial for
their opposition to continued Moroccan rule over the territory. (SPS)
020/090/666/TRD 111120 Dec 05 SPS
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SPS At lease ten arrestees in Boujdour after peaceful demonstrations in Boujdour
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Boujdour
(occupied territories), 11/12/2005 (SPS) Ten persons at least were arrested
and many others wounded after Moroccan police brutal intervention against
Saharawi citizens and students, who were organising a peaceful demonstration,
last Thursday and Friday, advocating their right to self-determination and
independence, reported concordant sources.
A first group of 6 persons, including Mr. Dadou Khaya Ould Mohamed Abdallahi and
Mr. Hamaid El Bellal, are still in custody in Moroccan police station where they
are submitted to torture and interrogatories for the third consecutive day, the
same sources said.
The second group, composed of 4 persons, among whom Mr. Khaya Ould Dadou Ould
Abdallah, who was arrested by the Moroccan Group of Urban Security (GUS), is
still reported missing. On another hand, Mr. Brahim Salem Ahmed Miské, is still
under close surveillance since the arrest, last Friday, of his son Mrabih Brahim
Salem Miské, it was indicated.
On another hand, four students Hmednah Hamdi Belliha, Khaya Mohamed Fadel
Khreicha, Mahmoud Sidi Lekhlil and Saaidi Mohamed Lenhaihi were arrested by
Moroccan police in their class rooms and were transported to a military base in
the city. Their families are still without news of them, it was underlined.
Peaceful demonstrations were organised on Thursday and Friday in Boujdour by
Saharawi citizens, during which they renewed their total rejection of the
Moroccan colonial occupation of their country, claiming for self-determination
and independence and lifting SADR’s flags and pictures of Saharawi political
prisoners. (SPS)
010/090/110/TRD 111216 dec 05 SPS
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SPS New arrestees and wounded persons during demonstrations in the occupied city of El Aaiun
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El Aaiun (occupied territories), 11/12/2005 (SPS) Moroccan force of occupation arrested 11 persons and wounded 5 others during peaceful demonstrations organised on Friday and Saturday in schools of the occupied capital of Western Sahara, El Aaiun, and in popular neighbourhoods. Demonstrators declared their rejection of Moroccan proposed autonomy and claimed for Saharawi people’s right to self-determination, indicated the correspondent o SPS on the ground.
Lifting SADR’s flag and shouting slogan against the Moroccan occupation of Western Sahara, demonstrators claimed for the end of the colonisation of their territory and marched through the streets of the city before been brutally dispersed by the different corps of the Moroccan forces, the same source indicated.
During these peaceful demonstrations, organised on the occasion of the international day or Human Rights, 11 Saharawi citizen were arrested, mainly Saaid Amidan, Hassan Dah, Amar Abdallah, Cheikh Dkhil, Moussa, Dahay Tanji, Chtouki Moulaye Ahmed, Ahmed Babeit hayat, Saleh Aba Hamed, and Asri Abdel Vetah.
Among the wounded, 5 girls were identified, mainly Souad Aleilatt, who is suffering a fraction in the leg, Mariem Khatari Lehbib, seriously injured, while Aicha Fall Dadda, Kmach Fatimetou an Fatimetou Ajef, are gravely injured at the level of the head and have clear marks of torture on their bodies.
Moroccan forces of repression also proceeded to the ransacking o many Saharawi houses, in particular the house o Saharawi human rights activist and ex-political detainee, Mr. Ahmed Sbai as well as the house of citizen Mrs. Niha Yahyaoui, it was said.
On another hand, Moroccan services of security expelled a group of Saharawi students from school, banning them from studying in Moroccan establishments, within a framework of a policy of repression led by Moroccan authorities against Saharawis in the occupied territories and south Morocco, SPS’s correspondent said.
It is worth mentioned that the occupied city of El Aaiun is under a permanent state of alert and knows an important deployment of forces corps mainly in the streets with Saharawi majorities. Unities of Moroccan gendarmerie were reported to be permanently stationed near the house of Saharawi young Martyr, Lembarki Hamdi, who died under torture last October 2005.(SPS)
020/090/000/TRD 111430 Dec 05 SPS
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SPS Assassination of Lekhlifa: Abdelaziz asks Annan to protect the olonised Saharawi population
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Bir Lehlu (liberated territories), 11/12/2005 (SPS) The President of the Republic, Mohamed Abdelaziz, called on the UN’s Secretary General, Kofi Annan, to protect the Saharawi civil population in the occupied territories of Western Sahara, after "the coward and odious assassination by the Moroccan authorities of the Saharawi citizen Lekhlifa Abba Cheikh Ould Embarek Ould Ely, last Saturday the 02n December near his home in TanTan", (south Morocco).
"Considering the deterioration of the situation that prevails in the occupied Saharawi territories, especially after the coward and odious assassination by the Moroccan authorities of the Saharawi citizen Lekhlifa Abba Cheikh Ould Embarek Ould Ely, last Saturday the 02nd December near his home in TanTan, in the south of Morocco, I can but write you again about the situation", the Head of the State wrote in a letter he addressed to Mr. Annan.
Mr. Abdelaziz underlined that "this assassination, which has absolutely no justification, of this Saharawi citizen, pushing his family and all Saharawi people, anew, to grievance, explains the concern we expressed in previous letters". Therefore, "there is an urgent need to intervene so as to ensure and protect Saharawi population, ho are under real danger", he stressed.
He also indicated that "the measures of repression against the Saharawi population in the occupied territories, which as violating the most fundamental human rights’ and international laws’ norms, are pushing the situation to collective massacres that can be committed at any moment" by the Moroccan regime.
"Moroccan authorities continue to suppress and violently set against Saharawi citizens for having peacefully demonstrated to claim for the enforcement of the UN’s resolutions regarding Western Sahara, mainly the implementation of Saharawi people’s right to self-determination", Mr. President added.
On another hand, the Head of the State asked for the intervention of Mr. Annan vis-à-vis the Moroccan Government so as to compel it "respect human rights an international legality and put an end to such acts of provocation that push to the escalade and to the destabilisation of a region that longs for peace and stability ".
Mr. Abdelaziz regretted that the premeditated assassination of another Saharawi citizen intervenes one month after the death under torture of the young Martyr of the intifada, Lembarki Hamdi, at the end of October. A "crime, whose executors and commanders stay unpunished". (SPS)
020/090/100/TRD 111645 Dec 05 SPS
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SPS Big demonstration o solidarity with the Martyr of TanTan
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Tan Tan, 11/12/2005(SPS) The inhabitants of the city of Tan Tan (south Morocco) organised last Saturday in TanTan, a big demonstration of solidarity with the Saharawi Martyr of their city, Likhlipha Abba Cheikh, assassinated by a police officer last December the 03rd, indicated concordant sources to SPS.
On th occasion of the international day of human rights, which intervenes one week after the odious assassination of the young Saharawi Likhlifi in TanTan, Saharawi inhabitants of this south Moroccan city marched in a big peaceful demonstration to denounce "repression and discrimination", to which Saharawis are victims by the Moroccan local authorities, the same sources indicated.
Chanting slogan of freedom and claiming for Saharawi people’s right to self-determination, the demonstrators marched through the streets of the city, from the Bir N'zaran Avenue, Ibn Sina’s, El Aarbi Massoud Avenue (in the past called Hassan II’s), to rally near the Mayoralty where Moroccan forces sealed the demonstration an dispersed the participants, it was indicated. (SPS)
040/090/000/TRD 111451 dec 05 SPS
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SPS The Saharawi new Ambassador to Tanzania presents his credence’s letters
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Dar-Es-Salam, 11/12/2005 (SPS) The new Saharawi Ambassador to Tanzania, Habibullah Mohamed Abdallahi, presented, Thursday, his letters of credence’s as and extraordinary and plenipotentiary Ambassador of SADR, to the President of the Tanzanian Republic, William Benjamin Mkapa, according to a press release by the Saharawi Ministry for Foreign Affairs.
The ceremony was attended by the Tanzanian Secretary General of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Filmons Loshanjo, and Saharawi Asia and Oceanic Tanzania Department Director to Dar-Es-Salam, Mahjoub Sidina.
President Mkapa recalled "the historical support of Tanzania to the just cause of the Saharawi people an the relations that links him to President , Mohamed Abdelaziz", the same source indicated.
On his part, Saharawi Ambassador transmitted to the Tanzanian President "the war congratulations from his Saharawi counterpart", and gave him a briefing on the current situation in the occupied territories of Western Sahara, the same source concluded. (SPS)
040/090/TRD 111532 dec 05 SPS
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SAHARA
PRESS SERVICE